A GPS Handheld Devices in Your Pocket

A GPS handheld unit can give people the freedom to explore the wilderness areas that they have not attempted before. These GPS Handheld units have a small screen which shows an icon representing your current location and pre-plotted locations. Consumer grade handheld GPS units need to receive signals from at least three of these satellites to calculate your “XY” or map coordinated position.

Waypoints, routes, and tracks are the three principal categories of locations that are fixed by a hiker in a handheld GPS unit. An understanding of these three basic categories gives the hiker insight into how a handheld GPS unit can help one navigate and explore safely while hiking in the wilderness.

garmin handheld gps

Popular GPS Handheld Models

The Garmin eTrex GPS is the either one of most popular GPS handheld devices. Garmin’s claims of one handed usage are for real; it is easy to navigate the interface with the solid buttons on the unit. The Garmin GPS is rubberized and is water resistant. If you aim to wade or swim on your journey, you could rely on this to come through. Like most modern hand-held units, the eTrex generates its own map of your movements as a visual tracklog or ‘breadcrumb trail’.

The other well known GPS handheld is the Magellan eXplorist XL. This GPS handheld is features a 3.5 inch color screen which can still be viewable when subjected to sunlight.

Magellan also releases the other product of GPS handheld that called Magellan SporTrak Map. Magellan SporTrak Map as a GPS handheld mapping device has an accuracy of about 3 meters and highlights a 2 MB European mapping database. Besides of being a GPS handheld mapping device, the Magellan SporTrak Map contains seven huge graphical navigation displays for the adventure junkie to fully and clearly view all the details stored in such GPS handheld mapping device.

Getting New GPS Maps for Your GPS Handheld Units

A lightweight and handheld General Positioning Satellite (GPS) device with the highest number of GPS maps installed is always helpful. GPS maps for portable GPS devices are available at many repositories. You first stop should be the Internet where you can download a lot of free GPS maps ready to be installed in your handheld GPS device.

Portable GPS and handheld GPS equipments make use of the same maps although their size is different because of the actual size of their respective monitors. GPS maps mobile units are used for several purposes especially in aviation.

Modern handheld GPS units have full databases with easy updating using a plug-in chip or PC. Other handheld devices provide outstanding features such as the location awareness, electronic mapping, address lookup, automatic route generation, turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance, trip computer, tracklog, route avoidance, and Contact Locator^TM.

GPS maps portable units have drastically changed the aviation industry. The GPS handheld is a top avionics product.

See also the other guide on Car GPS

What’s Important of a Car GPS?

One of the best benefits of car GPS comes when you are able to find your way out of lost on the road. All of this is made possible with a technology that enables you to pinpoint your exact location and then use a tracking system to create a course to follow that gets you where you need to go.

car gps receiver

Why a car GPS units showing up everywhere?

A Car GPS unit has the primary function of calculating its own location on land or water by using satellite signals. Once the Car GPS unit knows its own location, it can help the user determine direction and distance to other known locations. Since a car GPS devices rely on air signals you must have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky for them to work.

Following the directions of a GPS system for the car is rather easy, as you input your desired location and wait for further instructions that deliver turn-by-turn commands given by a voice in real time. Now days, it is quite common to see rental agencies installing GPS in their vehicles to entice their customers. Also, if a rental car is stolen, GPS easily finds it without losing any time.

Beside of giving you a current position, a number of car GPS navigation devices can give you another feature, such as:

- A track of where you have been – the number of tracks and waypoints stored varies from unit to unit.
- A path from your current position to your destination
- Points of Interest – user sets the types of points of interest, such as tourist, bank ATM, petrol stations, historical, accommodation, restaurants etc.
- Real time traffic reporting to avoid traffic delays.
- Voice recognition to receive destination instructions, and voice guidance to give driving instructions
- Weather updates
- Integrated Multimedia players – MP3 players, image viewers, and audio books.
- Onboard or Portable GPS Navigation

Research the various models and manufacturers and compare for yourself to find which model is going to best meet your needs. Many choices are available; you will find one designed specifically to match your requirements.

One review lists the following among the Top GPS systems for car GPS navigation:

- Garmin Nuvi 250, 350, 650, 660, and 670
- Magellan Maestro 3100 and 4000
- TomTom One
- Mio Digiwalker C220 and C520

Check out the other guide on Bluetooth GPS