Garmin Rino 530

[JimPowell]

Has anyone used one of these Garmin GPS units?
http://www.garmin.com/products/rino530/

They have several great unique features. They work as 2 way radios--both FRS and GMRS bands. The GMRS bands are shortwave bands which will transmit upto 15 miles and will work with other 2 way radios.

When used with other Rino 530 GPS units they will pinpoint the location of the other person.

Weather channel broadcasts can be picked up by the 530.

I see these as great safety devices for those of us who do a lot of out door activities.

Jim

[Tom Learmont]

[size="4"]Jim --

This certainly sound like a great item to have, but I expect it will be too complicated for me. I have an old Magellan from about 10 years ago which has served me VERY well. Useing it in conjunction with topo maps and a compus I have created new hiking trails, maped existing one and always include my planned hikes. Having spent many years working in quality control/reliability I tend to try to go to the less complex items.

I would suggest however that each of our club members consider learning more about the GPS and consider purchaseing one as they can be a big safty item as you wander in the great world of unknown.

Tom

[Carolyn Jones]

I second Tom's suggestion that all members learn gps. It certainly helped Tom to lead us onto the right trails in the Winds, and it also gave us ideas of how far we still had to hike before we could rest!
cj

[thewaterman]

Why not have this as a meeting or outing sometime? Ralph Saunders might even help teach us as he is the man for gps knowledge. If we get enough people, he can even take us out and show us how to use them.

I do some geocaching, and have some experience using gps's. There is a geocaching group that would be more than happy to meet us soemtime and teach anyone interested how to use them an do geocaching.

If you are interested, just let me know!

Spencer

[JimPowell]

Hi, Spencer

Sounds like a great idea. I got a Garmin 60CSx this year and have been having a lot of fun with it. 4 or 5 people in the club have this same model. I’ve thought about having a training session showing people how to integrate the Garmin with the MapSource software and Google Earth. This would be a separate meeting than with Ralph Saunders. Do you know Ralph? Can you set this up? Sue and Carolyn have talked highly about having taken a class from Ralph before.