GPS Notes

I've used five different GPS's for this list.  The basic Garmin eTrex, the Cobra GPS100, the Magellan SporTrak, the Magellan SporTrak Color,  and the Magellan eXplorist 400, which is the one I have now.

The Garmin eTrex gave me readings that varied wildly from day to day, and seemed to have an error rate of normally about 100 feet according to its own calculations.  I only used this a few times.

The Cobra GPS100 seemed to be somewhat more reliable, and I kept it for about a month.  I got rid of it when I was at sea level and the altitude reading was 300+ feet in an unobstructed environment.  My reasoning was that if the altitude was off so much, what about the latitude and longitude? I used this for about a month.

The Magellan SporTrak seems to be the best for the money, although it is definitely an inexpensive unit.  You may find the GPS reading to be slightly off, but at least it should get you in the general area.  I have spent more time at each site to give the unit more time to do its satellite averaging.  That should make the end result more reliable. The vast majority of the readings were done with this unit.

 I got a good deal on the Magellan SporTrak Color, and other than the color, it seems to be pretty much the same, although a little more expensive and slightly more accurate than the plain SporTrak.  It's newer, so maybe they tweaked it slightly. Anyway, I started using it with the August 2005 readings.

Presently I am using the Magellan eXplorist 400.  I really like its size, speed of acquisition, and the SD card capability.