There's a decent little Buyers Guide to current Handheld GPS in the December '98 Yachting Magazine, on stands now. Not sure if it's also on www.yachtingnet.com. Not a test, just listings, but a good text oriented to commonsense needs. Low-price standout seems to be Garmin VHF 720. Submersible, 3 watts, switchable to 1-watt, all VHF channels plus weather, 3 year warrantee. "A sealed battery case protects the circuitry even when the batteries are being changed." Lists at $160. A 5-watt submersible is the Standard Communications Horizon HX350S. List $280. Re: Magellan Pioneer GPS. I get a reading in 2 to 3 minutes. In bad visibility, I leave it on, and swap batteries after a full day. On most days, I'm not using it for navigation, only as an odometer, and I switch it on at breaks, take a peek and switch it off. So far, so good, but I'm the patient type. Agreed that $50 may much be much more for quicker readings, and $120 may be worth it to go from 3-watts to 5, on the VHF. But, hey, I paddle in Maine and that's a lot of Geary's Pale Ale! For the impecunious paddler, the Magellan Pioneer plus the Garmin VHF 720 makes a nifty electronic navigation center for about $250 total street price. (It's great how electronics keep getting better and cheaper so quickly. Any takers for a pool on when the Iridium, or other handheld sat phone, will break $1,000?) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 10 1998 - 23:35:22 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:02 PDT