Anyone used garmin etrex?

Soldato
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I am probably going on a 500km trekking through Turkey in the summer, and I am thinking a gps might come of some use! I'm looking at getting one on ebay, they seem to be going 50-60ish. Is it possible to upload from a pc the route I am going to take? Should I be looking as specific firmware or something?

Cheers.
 
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I use the all singing, all dancing Garmin Forerunner 305 for running/cycling, and I can upload routes to that, but as its the "flagship" item it might be the only one.
 
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pyro said:
I am probably going on a 500km trekking through Turkey in the summer, and I am thinking a gps might come of some use! I'm looking at getting one on ebay, they seem to be going 50-60ish. Is it possible to upload from a pc the route I am going to take? Should I be looking as specific firmware or something?

Cheers.
I would be VERY, VERY careful about taking any portable GPS to Turkey.

As to uploading - functionality depends on the model but you should be able to upload map reference points from a PC - check the Garmin web-site.
 
Soldato
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We use the e-trex in uni, it's not really that good tbh, but it's easy to use and all and I think you can upload routes to it... Check out other models though.. The more money you spend the better with GPS.
 
Soldato
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Well I am not the outdoor, walking around type of person, this is a one off experience, so I don't want to spend too much on it. As long as I can find where I am if I get lost, I am happy with it :) Their website mentiones that it can store 500 waypoints, but it doesn't say anything about routes.

Shackley said:
I would be VERY, VERY careful about taking any portable GPS to Turkey.

Specifically to Turkey? Why?
 
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pyro said:
Well I am not the outdoor, walking around type of person, this is a one off experience, so I don't want to spend too much on it. As long as I can find where I am if I get lost, I am happy with it :) Their website mentiones that it can store 500 waypoints, but it doesn't say anything about routes.
I'm not entirely convinced that this is going to be much use to you. A Portable GPS is capable of giving you a pretty accurate 'fix'. However, if you don't have a map to find the fix on, it doesn't really help to know that your are at X,Y. The idea behind waypoints is that you can feed in points on a planned route and the GPS will tell you which to go in order to reach the next waypoint. You can also use it to record where you have been in order to check against the map when you get home -or- to allow you to 'backtrack' if you get lost.

I don't think that you are likely to be able to download a Turkish road map onto a cheap eTrex.

pyro said:
Specifically to Turkey? Why?
It's not specifically Turkey, I am just vey cautious about travelling abroad with a portable GPS - even switched off. The Police in some countries don't really understand why you might want one and tend to get 'antsy'. I have a friend who took one to Cuba, it was attached to his Palm Pilot - he spent a long, long time persuading them not to confiscate the lot.
 
Soldato
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ppffffftt how about this:

image002zx0.jpg


:D
 
Soldato
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Shackley said:
The Police in some countries don't really understand why you might want one and tend to get 'antsy'. I have a friend who took one to Cuba, it was attached to his Palm Pilot - he spent a long, long time persuading them not to confiscate the lot.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about that - I and my classmates often take them on fieldtrips and have never had a problem - especially if it is in hold luggage!
 
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I have a GPSmap 60CSx and took it around New Zealand with me. It was perfect, loaded up with new Zealand road maps (so it acted like a TomTom) and points of interest meant it was invaluable!

It also recorded my entire route so when I got home I could see every last turn we took. It's very precise as well!!

Here's a small test I did, it includes a few random photos. These were automatically placed on the route using the time/date stamped on the digital photo to match it up with the route! So any digital camera will work.

Google Earth kmz.
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~henleyb/webstuff/NZ_2006_TEST.kmz

Quite interesting to me to see where I took pics.
 
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