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Garmin GPS III Receiver

Can you say "Cool Toy"? When a friend first showed us the Garmin GPS III portable GPS receiver with a built-in moving map display, we had to have one! We weren't sure what we needed it for (and we're still not), but we knew we'd figure something out.

Portable GPS receivers have been on the market for several years, however for a number of reasons, they haven't been very practical for automotive use. For one thing, the price was sky high. Another problem was the slow acquisition time of single channel receivers. Finally, what good is a series of dots and a couple of numbers representing your coordinates unless you have a map handy. So folks would buy a receiver, connect it to their portable PC with some mapping software, and stick the whole bulky mess on the passenger's seat of the car. It worked, but it was unwieldy. And once you left the car, the satellites were about as useful to you as space junk.

Garmin International recently released their GPS III which solves a number of these little problems. First, its a 12 parallel channel receiver, which means it can figure out where it is much faster than the old units. Its handheld and battery powered, so you can stick it in your shirt pocket and take it with you. The shape is perfect to Velcro onto the dashboard of your car. Now for the fun part: this little puppy contains maps of all of North America! OK, so it doesn't go down to local streets, but it contains all the major highways and county roads, land borders, railroad tracks, and political boundaries for the entire continent! It even contains land boundaries and major cities in the rest of the world as well, although it doesn't have the road data. (There is an alternative International version, not available in the United States, which has detailed data for all except North America. This would be the unit you would want if you live in Europe or Asia.) And you can have all this for about $375!

You're probably thinking "So what?" right about now. OK, so it won't make your car go any faster, and you'll probably have an accident since you'll be too busy watching this thing work, but hey, its a fun toy! Just like the Miata!

The GPS III gives you so much data, you might go into information overload. Some examples:

And that's only a start. By pre-programming a route of up to 30 points, you can navigate your way just about anywhere. We've tried it by programming in the locations where we have to change roads, such as exits, intersections, etc. By using a PC based mapping program like Delorme's Street Atlas 5.0, you can create a route on your PC, then download it to the GPS receiver. By watching the distance to your next waypoint, you can see how close you are to your next turn. In addition, you can put it into "Highway Mode" which presents a simulated road so you can see if you're on course. This can get a little weird on a twisty road and is really meant for air and sea navigation, but it has its uses and can be fun as well.

Another fun use is the data collection logging capability of the GPS III. You can take a trip and it will leave "bread crumbs" digitally for you to see where you've been. You can download the data to your PC and display it. Then you can save the route and use it to plan your next road rally! You can even have it automatically calculate a "Traceback" route - great for those evenings when you manage to get someplace, but have no idea how to get back.

Yes, it has a few down sides. For one thing, the map display is pretty miniscule. Its only a 2½ " diagonal screen, so you don't want it to be too far away from you. Also, the batteries (4 AA) only last about 8 hours, so you'll want a power adapter. And it doesn't have all the roads, so you can't really use it to find your driveway in the dark.

But it is portable and will be equally useful if you do any backcountry hiking or if you need a GPS for marine use.

Something to consider before you buy: Garmin has recently announced their next new product, the StreetPilot, scheduled for release in April, 1998. The StreetPilot is a GPS receiver designed specifically for automotive use. It contains the same map database as the GPS III (major roads in North America), and will also feature support for optional cartridges which will provide full street level detail for major metropolitan areas. The StreetPilot is about double the size of the GPS III making it substantially less portable, but the map area is larger and more useful. The cost is about $575. Something to consider before making a commitment.

We had a blast taking on a recent plane trip. Did you know the ground speed of a half-full 757 at takeoff is about 150 miles per hour? Holding the receiver up to the window on the plane gives easy view to enough satellites to get a reading. The person sitting by the window was a bit annoyed by this, so maybe next time we'll get the remote, suction -cup mounted antenna and stick it right on the window. But think how popular you'll be when the person in the seat next to you says "Hey, do you know when we're supposed to land in Chicago?" and you deftly pull out your GPS receiver and proudly inform her that "Well, at our present ground speed of 600 miles per hour at a bearing of 072º and an altitude of 40,000 feet, our ETA in Chicago is 3:28PM. Oh, by the way, we're currently flying over the Rio Grande river and sunset is at 5:48PM. Glad you asked?"

Availability

Garmin International
www.garmin.com