I am about to retire my Garmin GPS 38, and have decided that its replacement should have an electronic compass (which seems to mean that you get a barometric altimeter as well). >From what is available in New Zealand the alternatives seem to be: Garmin Geko 301 eTrex Summit eTrex Vista GPSMap 76S GPSMap 60CS Silva (Brunton in US) Multi-Navigator The Geko 301 and eTrex Summit are the same price here, so I lean towards the larger display and better battery life of the Summit. The Vista is still within my price range, but the GPSMap models are a bit too expensive. The Silva seems to have an advantage in that you can turn on the compass without the GPS and get extremely long battery life - up to 60 days claimed. Any comments welcomed, but in particular does anyone have experience with the Silva? Allan Singleton *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>Allan Singleton said: > The Silva seems to have an advantage in that you can turn on > the compass without the GPS and get extremely long battery > life - up to 60 days claimed. Allan, If it is in your budget, I would go for the GPSMap76 WITHOUT the compass. You will still need a deck compass (batteries do fail) and if you are taking an extended trip you can really save on battery usage by only turning on the gps when needed. The Map76 display is much larger and easier to read than the Etrex units, the unit floats and is submersable (but I still recommend using a dry bag for electronics). My unit has been working extremely well for almost a year now. Steve Holtzman *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>Allan Singleton said: > The Silva seems to have an advantage in that you can turn on > the compass without the GPS and get extremely long battery > life - up to 60 days claimed. Hi Allan, I have the GPSmap76S, with the compass. Our reason for getting the S was not so much the barometer or compass, but that it comes with 256meg of memory while the non-S has a lot less. The display is much better than the smaller ones because unlike when hiking, I often lay the GPS on the spray skirt and glance at it while paddling. The smaller screens are hard for my old eyes to see at that distance. The compass can be turned off when not in use, so battery wise it's a wash. I do find myself using the compass however when figuring out what I'm looking at. Putting the map in course-up mode allows the map to self-orient to the surroundings without needing to move the boat. I can point the unit at a feature and the map places it top center. Overall I like it. It is more costly of course. Carey *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] Hi Allan , I have a Silva and have been satisfied with it. The positives when I bought it three years ago were: 1/The ability of the compass to read even when you are stationary, 2/the relatively large display area with large alpha/numeric figures [ good for ageing eyes and poor reading conditions ], 3/ the relatively simple and logical operations 4/ the claim that it was built for rough conditions, floats. 5/ the claimed battery life. 6/ a barometer with a 36 hour history [ without a history to read, a barometer is basically not much use. It is good to know how the fronts and pressure systems are progressing. 7/ the ability to name waypoints with real names, ie, in alpha, which not all GPS units could do. I have not researched other units such as Garmin etc since I bought the Silva, but at the time these were significant advantages. It was the only GPS which had a 'stationary' compass when it was first released. I believe that at least one Garmin has this ability today. Since I bought mine, Magellan have released their Meridian series, and the Meridian Platinum would be a serious contendor against the Silva. If I was looking at the Magellan I would see if it has a barometer history ability and the size of the alpha/numeric readouts, and whether the waypoint facility gives you alpha ability. The negatives for the Silva were for me: the cost reported problems with Silva in the customer service side of things. [I have had OK service in Australia] the necessity to use their own limited mapping software. limited numbers of users, ie, Garmin absolutely dominates the market and nearly all the GPS message board chat is Garmin oriented. And I was suprised at battery usuage. In other words it seemed to go through batteries in spite of Silva claims. But in real life, the cost of replacing a couple of AAs is nothing and people make too much of battery consumption, now that the later units are more efficient. You are in Hamilton, are you not? Regards, Peter Rattenbury, Wollongong. -----Original Message----- From: Allan & Joyce Singleton Subject: [Paddlewise] Replacement GPS I am about to retire my Garmin GPS 38, and have decided that its replacement should have an electronic compass (which seems to mean that you get a barometric altimeter as well). >From what is available in New Zealand the alternatives seem to be: Garmin Geko 301 eTrex Summit eTrex Vista GPSMap 76S GPSMap 60CS Silva (Brunton in US) Multi-Navigator *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:37 PDT