What system to recommend for wandering into the wilderness?

[Androo]

Hi,
Both a colleague at work and a friend of mine are considering buying a GPS system. my friend wants one for mountainbiking into the wilderness and my colleague wants one for walking, and both have asked me for advice on what system to get as I use satnav in my car and have a reputation for researching my kit before I buy it. But I don't know much about these! I use an IPAQ and a GPS mouse with TT5, which is smashing for driving but totally useless for what these guys want to do. I've had a quick scan around and it seems to be Magellan and Garmin that rule the roost, I think they'd be best off with an all-in-one unit that displays topographical maps to a reasonable standard - do you reckon this would be the best thing for them? And if so what kit do you think I should recommend they get?

[mikealder]

Why not have a look at the Memory Map Ordinance Survey maps - these can be exported to the PDA and combined with the GPS you get the same as a full OS paper map with your route/ track (if pre-planned) not cheap but you get what you pay for as in anything these days. I would be dubious about mounting it on the bike as a fall could easily ruin the PDA unless you put it in a ruggedised case - there were so detailed in a recent PDA magazine, at various prices - Mike

[deep]

My friends & I do a fair amount of hiking, I'm the only one with a gps (Garmin Venture).
What i find best is OS maps (UK) and compasses (we all have compasses & at least 2 maps between us).
The GPS only comes out to help sort out arguments as when we hike we only tend to know our locs to approx 500 yds between landmarks.

I would recommend a cheap GPS (Garmin or Magellan) without mapping, just make sure it's set for the correct grids.

Even with a perfect mapping GPS you risk loss of signal, flat battery, GPS breakdown etc. etc.

BTW I may be picking your brains soon as I am considering getting a GPS system for my car & motorbike.
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d

Garmin etrex venture
globalsat bt308

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