Posted by David A. Wright on August 27, 19101 at 21:23:30:
In Reply to: GPS: Garmin or DeLorme? posted by Steve O. on August 27, 19101 at 12:56:07:
I know your delimma. I'm in the same one. I was very serious about a GPS unit, but have so far not bitten. Too much stuff out there. Too many possibilities.
My only experience with GPS was with the early units. The hoard of numbers puzzled me because they had no real meaning to me that would translate on maps. I couldn't get the mathematical formula down that would translate a bunch of numbers to a point where I was on the map. New units offer so much more.
Most of my friends who swear by GPS buy Garmin. They seem to dislike Magellin.
One friend seems to have the ultimate setup, but bulky. He runs a dedicated 486MHz laptop computer he picked up for peanuts used and has nothing but Windows 98 and DeLorme on it. He has his Garmin GPS unit plugged into the laptop, the DeLorme map show him in real time where he is. Great stuff. I think that is the best way to go with a GPS - it shows you on a map where you're at right now, not just a bunch of numbers that you have to figure out and plot on a topo map, or leaves you cookie crumbs to show you where you've been after you get home and download it onto the computer.
Garmin (and I'm sure others do also) makes several units with built in maps, but unless you buy expansion modules and their mapping CD-ROM (at considerable cost), you have a very archaic map on the GPS unit.
Good luck. I know what you're going through.