I have a nifty Lowrance Airmap 300 on which I've been finding myself increasingly dependent. Yes, I know Dead Reckoning is still important, but the Northeast can be pretty featureless, and I don't even have a DG or a VOR. I use the GPS for both those functions.
So I got to thinking that I could be in a bind if the Airmap packed up. So I determined to pick up an El Cheapo GPS receiver. I think I found a real winner. There are two 12-channel GPSs that are pretty nice (and have no speed restrictions) in the $100 class. The Magellan Blazer 12 for $99 after rebate and the Garmin GPS 12 for 119 after rebate. I decided on the latter because of Garmin's reputation and because it allows upload of data from a PC. By the way, they're backordered a lot of places but www.boatus.com has them in stock. The rebate is only good until Dec 25, so it would be best to find one. Anyway, I have to say I'm mightily impressed with it. It acquires satellites and a fix much quicker than my Lowrance. I had it sitting on the center console of the Audi driving home, and it STILL tracked! It weighs nothing and is tiny as all get-out. No mapping, no database, but who cares? I'll use Waypoint+, a freeware program (from http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/Waypoint) to manage them. So, I'll keep it in the case with the Lowrance (it fits) and have it standing by should the fancy one say 'so long' some time. You know, for most purposes, this thing, along with a data cable, power cable, and Waypoint+ is entirely adequate. Considering that such a set-up will run you just about $200, it sure is an attractive alternative to the mappers. A piece of velcro to position it just right on the panel and Bob's your uncle. Greg
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