I am looking for an inexpensive ($250) GPS reviever for doing recon and hiking that will allow me to upload quad maps, create waypoints and inverse between said waypoints. What have you used and what would you recommend?
Haven't seen a basic handheld that will inverse between waypoints unless you are on one of those waypoints and goto another.
Have Garmin GPSmap 60CSx and am real happy with it. Loaded 24K SE topo. Takes up a little over 5gb on the SD card. The SD cards store the maps and you can have a large one or several smaller ones with different maps.
When you find the model you like search the web for the lowest price.
I was given my wife's old iPod Touch when she got her new iPad. At first, I thought it was kind of a toy, but I discovered that you can attach a GPS receiver to it, and there are a LOT of navigation/map apps for it. Very reasonablly priced, (the offline Topo Map app I like was $8.00) even some free apps. I bought a Magellan Tough Case for it that has a built in GPS chip. There are a few other GPS units that work with them as well. If you have an iPhone, the GPS is built in and also has a digital compass. I am going to get some marine chart apps to go on it for a backup chart plotter for the boat. It turns out that it's a pretty useful tool. You might be able to pick one up on Craigs List or Ebay pretty cheap. I don't know much about Droid units, but I'm sure they are similar.
Dale Yawn
Savannah, Ga.
GPS will kill the battery on your smart phone before you could reconn a large parcel such as 500 acres.
I'd go with the new Garmin eTrex20 or 30 series. It is the first handheld utilizing Glonass and Navstar for the price range you mentioned.
LeeGreen.com
I have a Garmin Rino 530hcx, and it is one of the best little GPS devices I've ever had.
As Mr Harris pointed out, there are plenty of free maps online, and with some extra time, you can piece together your own custom maps.
I have the Apple iPhone and downloaded the Esri ArcGIS for iOS App (free) from the App Store. I then registered for an ArcGIS Online account (free). I have been creating a map with NGS control (with attribute data such as published coordinates, etc.) and local county-wide (3 mile grid network) of control as well. I have also loaded imagery, roadways and municipal/county boundaries as a base map.
I can then access this data from the ArcGIS App on the iPhone. When I activate the GPS position it shows me the control that is nearby.
It has been working very well. And all it has cost me is the price of the phone, data plan and time spent importing data.
A nice thing about the ArcGIS Online account is I can create a "group" and share with others in or outside my organization.
Lee,
The Magellan Tough Case has an additional on-board battery that recharges the iPod's battery, and extends the time spent in the field.
Dale
