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Reviews For: Garmin eTrex & eTrex Camo

Category: GPS receivers for APRS

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Review Summary For : Garmin eTrex & eTrex Camo
Reviews: 7MSRP: 106.24
Description:
Truly a small wonder, the eTrex takes the best features of a 12 parallel channel GPS receiver and put them into a six ounce package that is only four inches high and two inches wide. The result is a unit that will literally fit in the palm of your hand.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.garmin.com/products/etrex/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0074.4
KG4RUL Rating: 2008-06-14
Great Little GPS Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have never had problems getting a solid lock when outside, even in heavily wooded areas. A fantastic buy for the money!

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KG4RUL on 2004-10-09

Used with a TinyTrak III and an HT, the eTrex makes a very portable tracker unit. The unit acquires satellites quickly, virtually all the time. You could pay almost as much for a 'dumb' (no display) GPS module.

Dennis / KG4RUL
K2CG Rating: 2008-06-14
Save your money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought the eTrex several years ago for hiking. It was adequate but suffers from poor reception. You really need clear skies and absolutely no overhead obstructions. There are several excellent Garmin GPS's on the market that provide fast and excellent reception, this is not a good APRS or hikng GPS unit.
N3LJS Rating: 2007-03-13
GOOD for the $$ Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have several GPS's, this is a good one for the the money. The kids use this one for Geocaching, the always find the cache.

www.geocaching.com

N3LJS
VE3VWX Rating: 2007-03-13
Rugged, Versatile and Compact Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased my unit in early 2004 and have since used it for a multitude of applications.

A common practice of mine when traveling is to link it to the laptop using the standard serial cable available from Garmin. It works flawlessly when integrated with the computer and navigation or mapping applications such as Fugawi, MS Streets, Global Mapper, ARCview and others.

While the GPS itself does not have the ability to store true maps, using Fugawi as a way point manager I can import way points showing towns, track/path logs and other items of interest as well as having the ability to export the same data from the GPS.

As far as versatility goes, this GPS is one of the most rugged. I have dropped it in the lake while canoing and fishing to have it float up on its own. I have taken it diving to a depth of 20 meters and it has still received the satellite signal underwater just fine, not only that but all the buttons function normally as well, thus it is truly waterproof. A common but very bad practice of mine in the summer is to leave the unit on dash of my car. It has baked many times over and has never glitched or failed, the LCD crystals do darken in extreme heat but once the unit cools off normal function returns.

As far accuracy and signal reception go, the mesh antenna used works fine in outdoor situations. Obviously there is little or no reception in structures and some vehicles can block out signals greatly. If the unit had a vertical antenna like the Garmin Rhino units, in building and vehicle reception would be greatly improved but for what the eTrex unit is worth ($100 CAD or less) it is a true performer. With a good signal, accuracy is usually 7 meters in vehicles and 5 meters outdoors. The best reception will provide an accuracy of 1 - 3 meters.

**accuracy assumes the military error code remains set at 0**

On average with a good set of batteries (2xAA) the unit will work for 20 - 36 hours continuous in regular mode and closer to 48 - 54 hours in battery conservation mode. Colder temperatures will effect battery life and operation but using Ni-MH batteries the unit has worked without flaw, just a very slow LCD screen response at temperatures of -35C or colder (-31F).

All in a all a great deal for a good price, this is a very rugged basic GPS unit which would serve any outdoor enthusiast just fine as long as they are willing to use basic way point and trail map functions with a black and white LCD screen.
K4IDX Rating: 2006-11-27
Why would you need more? Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my basic yellow Etrex for a couple of years now and have very much enjoyed it for hunting, fishing, and geocaching. I don't use it for APRS, so I can't elaborate on that topic. What I can tell you is that this little unit is as tough as a rhino! I did manage to crack the display screen, but when I called up Garmin and explained that I'd dropped it and no longer had my receipt, they offered to repair it for free and have me only pay shipping TO them and they'd pick up the return costs!!!! Now that is customer service that you don't find often these days! Locks onto satellites quickly, no troubles on cloudy or rainy days, and easy to operate. I've been giving them as birthday gifts to family members for that last year or so.
KG6YGT Rating: 2006-04-13
Great for APRS Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've used this one for some time for APRS. This is a great unit, works very well with my TM-D700A, and you can use it as portable unit. Make sure you get the cable to connect it you your sigarete lighter and data port, ebay should have it. if you need the GPS on a budget, this is the one to get.
KC9AXZ Rating: 2004-10-09
Awesome "starter" unit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I owned the Garmin eTrex (Yellow), for about 2 and a half years. I sold it only to upgrade to the eTrex Legend. The unit was solid, and easy to use. The battey life was also pretty good. The only downside to this unit is you could only read from it with the data cable. You could not write to this unit from your PC. This unit would be nice for a person who wants to run APRS on economy. I've seen these units being sold from $40-$120 new.

Good Luck
Jon KC9AXZ
www.kc9axz.com