I'm look at getting a GPS, but I have never used one and I don't know much about them. I don't need one that is real High tech. I will use in while hunting and fish. I would like to plot corses and mark the good spots so I will be able to find them again. I have read a little about the magellan 315 and the garmin 12, and that is about what I'm looking for. I would like to keep my price range in the $150.00 area. I would like to know any personal experiences. Thanks for the help.

I have a Garmin E Map and love it. It comes with a pretty good base selection of map info and you can buy CDs to load into it that are more detailed to waterways, topo, aviation, streets etc. Good little unit and youshould be able to find one somewhere for around $150

[url]http://onetek.com/emap.html[/url]


Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

I bought a Garmin eTrex Venture and returned it and upgraded to the Legend.  I realized that having updateable/downloadable maps is very helpful when using it to drive around.  Save your money and buy something you will be pleased with.

[url]http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/products.html[/url]

BTW, I didn't like the Magellan units.  The Garmins have better display resolution and tune into the WAAS satellites for more accuracy.

Garmin is also going to start selling a FRS 2-mile radio with an integrated GPS.  It allows you to transmit your position to a partner.
[url]http://www.garmin.com/products/rino/[/url]

 I bought my garmin etrex for around 99 dollars on line. It does not take maps , or allow some of the really fancy stuff... but it is very simple to operate without the book after about a day or two of playing with it. It runs for many hours on aa batteries . I highly recommend one. My daughter and I go geo-cacheing and we find most folks getting into the sport select a simple basic etrex and love them. It is light weight and easy to carry around your neck on a lanyard. One feature I like is that by simply turning the unit on.... it will create a track for you to follow back to the start if you save the information. Walking in the woods could be a problem as the antenna is internal and small. But in the open or even in my truck it works fine. Here are some of the info it gives you.
sunrise/sunset time
current speed & average & highest
trip time
distance
compass function when moving
altitude above sea level
up to 500 waypoints
ability to create tracks and label them with a name like cabin , car , fishing, start point,

 The etrex is different from most gps units in that it is designed with no buttons on the front. It is meant to be carried in one hand and the buttons ( 5 ) are meant to be used with your fingers on the edges. Once you use it a bit you realize that the operation is like a mouse with a scroll and a back button. If you go thru the menus just like a computer screen you will get the idea in a hour or two. It does not have confusing modes to get yourself into trouble.

IMHO Garmin GPSIII+ is best handheld unit on the market.

Hmmm...Until the GPS's get WAY under $100.00, I'll stick with my tritium Ranger compass. Read Don Paul's "Green Beret's Compass Course" and it really works. Takes a little presence of mind and a pencil & paper, but otherwise I do just fine. Besides, If I'm not mistaken, with the GPS you have to run a reciprocal course to get back to point A-with the Paul method, you cut across country.

Thanks guy for all the help. I'm leaning toward the garmin 12.

For GPS information the following website is the most informative:
http://joe.mehaffey.com/
Lots of information on Garmin GPS. A great training book is "GPS MADE EASY, using GPS in the outdoors" by Lawrence Letham.
After reading quite a bit of information, two  years ago I purchased a GPS12.
On my Garmin I have been able to update the original software. Go to garmin.com and download the software. You will need a serial port-Garmin connector. The connector may be purchased from Garmin ($$) or you could make your own (see joe.mehaffy.com). I also made my own cig. lighter power adapter.
The serial port cable allows me to connect the GPS to my laptop for downloading-uploading waypoints, routes. I use this freeware  http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/Waypoint/OverviewInfo.htm
When running Street Atlas 8 on your laptop you could use your GPS for navigation.
Garmin 12 is pretty decent. All said, my coworker recently purchased a GPS 76. The display has much better resolution than my Garmin. I played with it for a bit and it is  very accurate.

Regard

ACK

I can't really beat the Garmin E-Trex. Of course all I do with it is hike and geocache. But I also purchased the interface cable and mapping software from EMS and everything i mark on the topo i can up/download to the GPS.

It's also good if u don't need all those fancy maps to work with. Simplicity is the major factor here.

You can also download software updates from Garmin's website.