Many years ago I purchased a Delorme handheld GPS with aerial views.  At the time it was very nice.  with the advent of high tech phones and google maps the Delorme and my old Magellan GPS fell by the wayside.  Is there any use for these old units.  They still work but are slow and not as simple as a phone.  This summer we are planning a trip to the UP pulling our camper.  On the outside chance we found ourselves on foot I considered updating and tossing them in the camper.  They still rely on satellites like phones so I can't see any advantage but I may be missing something... Any ideas?

They're still a good backup to have around. Combine them with some hard copy maps, couple of compasses, overlay sheets, markers, flagging tape, TP, cyalumes,  make a backup navigation stash.

You might want to fire them up and take them out on a trial run.  I had some older GPS units where the company stopped posting the firmware / updates for it.

The damn clock was 90 minutes off (with no way to adjust it), roads missing on the turn by turn directions, the location was close but 100's of yards inaccurate, a few smaller features not working as expected.  It got so bad, I just had to throw it away, I was better off stopping and asking for directions then trying to depend on that thing.

YMMV

I have an older Magellan hand held gps from the mid 90's. It fires up but doesn't lock on any satellites. It searches but other than that, nothing. Reading online it appears that's common with older units.

I had a Delorme GPS, I would have bought it probably in 2008, possibly 2009. What made it so appealing to me was they had software available that let me georeference a map or aerial image and show it as the background on the GPS screen. I was in Korea at the time so that feature was really handy.

Loved the interface,  loved the features,  but unfortunately mine wasn't always reliable. It had some issues, don't remember what now but i sent it in for warranty work. Still had problems after that. It died on me while out in an unfamiliar area after dark. Fortunately i was just about back to the truck when it did.

All that said, I think dedicated outdoor GPS units still have their place. If I'm out on a serious hike in an unfamiliar area, I take my Garmin with me (Oregon model IIRC). It's more rugged than a phone,  and i think a little easier on batteries than my phone is with the GPS turned on.

It might be “common” with older units because when they have been powered down for long periods or moved a significant distance from their last location, they need to go thru a polling sequence, find out what satellites are available above and how far away they are, then look up/cross reference that to an almanac of where those satellites are supposed to be in relation to one another. From this information it determines time, date, and location.

That’s how these devices work-they triangulate their position relative to the satellites based off of (I’m being crude here, the radio signals are more sophisticated than a plain beacon) the beacon they put out. The device knows that on a certain date and a certain time based on orbited, satellites 02, 7, 19, 22, and 13 are all supposed to be above at the same time. Using Hall effect and the satellite’s transmissions, they can tell how far away they are. This is then applied to that almanac to give a precise lat/lon/UTM/whatever and it sets the clock and date because it can be no other time than that where those satellites can be where they are relative to the GPS receiver.

I have had several brands (multiple Garmins too) do this and leaving them in the yard with a good view of the sky usually fixes this problem in 45 minutes and they go back to normal operation. What CAN happen though is that some use long life internal batteries to maintain the data needed to operate and you can loses that. The manuals warn of it, but I haven’t seen it yet.

I had a house fire recently and lost all of my old units and miss some of the functionality in them. The older units had more raw navigational capability than they have today, like plotting a waypoint off of a distance and heading from your current location…. My GPS 2 did that in 1996..

A grid down for an extended period or shut down of the cell system for whatever reason (political upheaval, war, cyber attack) would instantly make native cell phone based GPS navigation obsolete and people would be tearing up the garage for their old handheld units… I’d really feel for people needing to roadtrip as even if people could read maps these days, very few are actually available.

I never thought about cell towers going down would affect a phones gps.  Does it not use satellites?  If thats the case I will fire it up and prep it for the journey.  Provided I can update the old maps. That old gps was complicated to use.  I may pull out the old Meridian and see if it still works also.

The aerial imagery is what sold me on this one at the time.  I no longer go on adventures so I just stashed it in the gun room.  I was going to EBAY it or dump it in the trash.  We'll see now.

I have three old Magellans from the 1990s that still work.  I also have a DeLorme from 2009ish that I use when offroading, er I mean overlanding.

Some cell phones actually have the capability to get position information from satellites.  You’d have to see if yours does.

Without data from cell towers, you have no mapping ability on the phone, and that’s how their navigating interface works. It is possible to find apps that offer basic navigation without maps, and apps that you can down load an area you will be in advance, but you will always be better off with a dedicated GPS unit.

Thanks for the replies.  I guess I will get it up and running and toss it into the camper for the trip Just in case!

You know, it never registered with me that is why google maps quit working periodically in the mountains when we were out in Colorado.

Using the paid version of ONX hunt you can download maps and sat img when still connected to data.  As long as you have a phone with satellite GPS capability it should work without service.  You can easily test this by using airplane mode, which should be used when you are in and out of service to preserve your battery.  You can also download maps with google maps but if you are trying to use your phone as a GPS the ONX app works much better.  

With that being said I am very much a supporter of a dedicated GPS unit when off grid.  My current go to when hunting is a Garmin Rino 650.  I also have an Etrex 20.  I have Garmin topo 100K area maps preloaded onto all my Garmin GPS units.

Thanks for that. I read that the almanac doesn't go past a specified year.  I tried leaving it out with a clear view of the sky. It showed a couple 2 or 3 sats but never captured the data. The last time I tried it was a few years ago putting the unit at 20-23 years old.
I too like the raw data of the older units and they're easier to tap into to input into a radio for APRS or an auto pilot on a boat.

BTW, the GPS unit in your cell phone can work perfectly fine without an internet connection (WiFi or cell). On a recent trip flying out of DFW, I had my cell phone in the required "airplane mode" and cranked up an app called "GPS Essentials". It gave me where the satellites were, a fix, heading, altitude (GPS altitude, baro pressure alt is wrong due to cabin pressurization), and speed. Kinda neat watching out the window, listening to engine throttle up/down, feel turns, and compare that to what is being shown in the GPS Essentials dashboard. Of course, it couldn't plot our position in real time on a map because it didn't have access to Google Maps in airplane mode. Still kinda cool, though.

Wow!  Thats a nice Ap!  Down the rabbit hole I go again with the learning curve.  Since the advent of google maps on phones I no longer had to retain the memory of these complex gadgets.

Shit, company went with that useless company. Totally unreliable, worked SOME of the time, someone must have gotten a kickback to go with them. Everyone just went to using their phones [I bought a Garmin on the companies dime myself] instead.

Well, I powered it up tonight and it is finally searching for satellites I guess.  Hasn't been used probably 7 years or more.  Bought new in 2009 I guess.  Found the original receipt from Cabelas.  It kept booting up and shutting off repeatedly.  May be dead.  Still have the original paperwork.  Is the Garmin gps 67I worthwhile? Lots of features, kinda pricey but I have a family member that works for Garmin so he can get a nice discount. I especially like the satellite messaging in case the cellular doesn't work.

No experience with that model but nobody does GPS better than Garmin. I can say that I would not buy any GPS that uses an internal proprietary battery-AA powered only for me.

Phone GPS is independent of cell service.

The handheld GPS is a nice backup system.

The directional-arrow/distance to a waypoint navigation function can be useful for things that your phone doesn’t as easily do.

That’s not correct at all. With popular outdoors apps, like Gaia or OnX, you can preload the maps before you leave cell service. And you can choose numerous different maps and layer them.

I carry both outside of cell service and the phones have the same location accuracy and much better map and image selections.

Gaia or OnX pummel a Garmin for most navigation utility.

With Gaia and your phone in airplane mode you can watch your progress on the map.

I have 25yr old Magellan that hasn't been touched in forever.  I assumed it was dead, useless, and worthless.  Thanks for the thread- I'm going to see if it fires up and locks.

I have a 20 year old Magellan that still works. Sometimes it will only get a “2d” fix, but in practice it hasn’t mattered much Im still able to get where I need to go.

I take it you didn’t read the last half of that post…

OP,

I've used a lot of handheld GPS since my first. It was a huge GPS2000. I've used Magellan, Delorme and Garmin. The Delorme was a PN20. A freind had the PN60. I dearly loved Delorme's mapping softawre, but my 20 and my friend's 60 were both buggy, slow and battery life was never what was listed. They can take geolocated aerials, but the screens are tiny.

Go Garmin. Even older units with computer connectivity still work well and often can have maps loaded for free if you do some investigation and work. My main use one now is an Etrex 20, but my ancient 60csx still locks and navigates like when i got it. It's been through hell.

My first handheld was a clunky GPS200. Magellan came out with the awesome Explorist models after that. That old 2000 might get a 3D lock if you stood on a hill for 10 minutes. My little Explorist 210 would get a lock right after power up. They were top of the line until Garmin smoked everybody.