GPS for Kayak Fishing

[roguerower]

I'm looking to pick up a handheld gps so I can mark spots and get back to them later on and also so I have a gps for my car for driving. My second criteria kinda narrows things a lot and was looking to get some input on a handheld unit that can do both. I looked up garmin and found the GPSMAP® 76CSx which runs about $225 but has electronic compass, tide chart, barometer, driving directions, POI (point of interest) input, and expandable memory capacity.

Anybody have or know of a unit that they'd recommend?

 

[DivideBYZero]

What phone do you have? These sort of applications can be better served by a GPS app for tracking, like Instamapper.com, and a proper car GPS nav unit like a Tom Tom. Probably work out cheaper than the garmin unit.

 

[roguerower]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
What phone do you have? These sort of applications can be better served by a GPS app for tracking, like Instamapper.com, and a proper car GPS nav unit like a Tom Tom. Probably work out cheaper than the garmin unit.

True, it would work better, but there's a lot of stuff you're missing out on. That unit is nice b/c it's waterproof, floats, and includes tidal information. Don't know how much the cost for the app and the Tom Tom would be but the garmin is $210.

Also I have a Razr phone so i'd have to upgrade to get the app.

Thanks for the input tho

 

[WelshBloke]

Normally I'd of suggested the smart phone route, but as you said kayaking then waterproof and floating sound essential.

Looks like you'd have to spend and additional ~£200 for maps on that Garmin unit.

Sounds good, though I've never used a satnav without a touchsceen.

 

[uli2000]

Maybe look at the Garmin Colorado or Oregon series. They have touchscreens, would be much easier to input stuff, and looks like at least the Oregons are water resistant. Will also run the city navigator maps, which are what the Nuvis run.

 

[IronWing]

I used the GPSMAP 76CSx at work for about a year and like it so much I bought one for home. The ability to load 24k maps is definitely a plus. I don't use the GPS much for car navigation except for dirt road driving in the back country. The screen is bright enough to see in the car. Do get the external magnetic mount antenna. That way you can keep the unit on the car seat instead of bouncing around on the dash if you don't have a mount. This unit will turn itself off if bumped too hard, like when bouncing around on the dash on 4WD roads. I have not used the unit much for urban navigation but it certainly wouldn't be as easy to use as a purpose built car GPS, the interface isn't well designed for that use.

If you go with the GPSMAP 76CSx, I recommend buying the 24k DVDs and a large capacity micro-SD card for maps instead of buying the preloaded micro SD cards. The preloaded cards don't provide space for saving daily tracklogs that you get with the DVD/micro-SD combo.