> The Garmin 38 mentioned above sells for US$150 in the US. It has a
> good
> reputation as a cheap GPS which can connect to a computer. I'd been
> thinking about buying the Garmin 38 previously but have decided to buy
> a
> new 12-channel model, the Garmin 12XL (US$240), this is more to do
> with
> being a technophile than a birder.
>
I've had a Garmin GPS 38 for about a year now, and I'm more than happy
with it. Now that Susan Myers has run her fandangled Garmin GPS 12
alongside it, I'm less impressed with its speed than I used to be, but
in all other respects it's a ripper.
I've used the 38 in most places from grassland to wet mountain forest,
and provided there's some sky visible it gets a reading. Out on the
flat, for eg. in the car to pinpoint grid boundaries, it's just fine.
The 12 channel ones are much faster in just about all situations, but
the old steam-powered single channel job is still a viable (and
cheapish) option. I can easily down/up load info between PC and GPS
with my Garmin.
Can't say much about Magellan, except that some earlier models had a bad
reputation. I guess they're likely to be comparable to Garmin now in
features, reliability, robustness, etc. (???). I can't see much point
(even advanced technophilia) for the average birder/bushwalker to buy
one of the really expensive Silva, Trimble, etc. models. The
Garmin/Magellan small hand-helds are more than most people will ever
need.
Cheers, Lawrie
Lawrie Conole
58 Holden Street, Fitzroy North 3068 Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Phone AH (03) 9486 4575
Ph Mob (0419) 588 993
Email <>
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