MnGCA

[dmnrec]

Has anybody tried the GPS units from Lorenz that cost about $80? A guy at Gander Mountain told me about them and that they would be better than the yellow etrex since they have built in maps.

[miles58]

You mean Lowrance.

I have owned three different Garmins, used a Megellan Platinum, and own three Lowrance units currently.

The Lowrance iFinder PRO and above models IMO are the best available on the market. I am still not thrilled with the fixed and non-upgradeable mapping in the iFinder GO models, but having used the basic iFinder GO for caching I can tell you that it's fully the equal of any other GPS for that purpose. m The GO has 16 sat capability and has well more than double the nearest competitor's battery life.

I like the generous screen size on the bigger Lowrance units, the external antenna connection:

(http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73348&item=5775633716&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

makes for much faster locks and helps a lot under marginal conditions.

Tha mapping software Lowrance sells is very good, and can allow you to type in waypoints save the map to a SD chip and then use it in the unit.

[dmnrec]

I went up there today to check them out. I liked the buttons on the front clearly labeled compared to the side buttons on the yellow etrex. However, they guy was having a hard time trying to demo it and it did not seem to have the capability of showing current coords on the same page as the compass..which is what I was basically looking for, as that is the page I have the youth in my rec programs look at. So I went and just bought a couple of etrexs instead.

[miles58]

That';s not a normal screen for a Lowrance. You can however put more or less whatever you want on any of the standard screens by selecting customize.

I normally leave the map scren up and have the EPE and ground speed and altimiter down in the corner.That way I know where I am, and how good the signal is at the time.