How good are GPS watches?
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I'm looking for a GPS device for mountaineering, and I stumbled over these neat watches from Suunto and Garmin that has both GPS and altimeters. |
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Could you post a link to the watches you had in mind? |
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My only experience using them is from deployments in Afghanistan. Honestly I would not recommend them for anything requiring serious land navigation. I wasn't a fan of mine and ended up resorting back to a simple garmin 401 wrist gps, map/compass. Since they didn't take batteries I had to wear a small solar panel attached to my plate carrier that charged it. Grids weren't exactly accurate either. |
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Check out the garmin wrist gps's. I used one on every deployment and never had an issue with them. Durable and reliable pieces of gear. I've never been a fan of relying on electronic compasses so I simply used it for the grid and used paper map/compass for azimuths and navigating. |
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Daniel Evans wrote:My only experience using them is from deployments in Afghanistan. Honestly I would not recommend them for anything requiring serious land navigation. I wasn't a fan of mine and ended up resorting back to a simple garmin 401 wrist gps, map/compass. Since they didn't take batteries I had to wear a small solar panel attached to my plate carrier that charged it. Grids weren't exactly accurate either.That's one of the more legit reviews I've ever seen on this site. Daniel - what would be your opinion on just using one of the GPS watches to lay down a track so you can find your way back to the FOB (i.e. the car at the parking lot)? Not for any true navigation, just a backup to get home. |
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Hi Mark, I have mostly been looking at this one |
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Jon: I'm a big fan of the old traditional paper map/protractor/compass method accompanied by a solid GPS that has exchangeable batteries. I would say it couldn't hurt to have a watch that showed your footpath back to the parking lot, then if you have any doubts about the accuracy of it, you can stop and double check your position on your map with your GPS. If they coincide then great, otherwise you can switch back to the traditional method. |
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I have a Suunto Ambit 2S and I really like it. That said, it definitely has some major drawbacks on certain features. |