Competing GPS

10 November 2008

Posted by admin under: Equipment .

Because I’m just so ultra-influential (*snicker*) I know you’ve all gone over to the Camping Blogger web site to enroll in his GPS give-away. However, the blog Brett on Stuff has a review of a different GPS unit. It’s not so much with the flashy, but he’s very happy with the amount of data and battery life.

In the end, I decided a basic GPS logger is all I needed. A GPS logger will record waypoints – show basic lat|long information on a screen and they usually run on easily field-replaceable batteries. It doesn’t come with a fancy color screen and map data like the traditional GPS units.

The “Easy Showily”, as awkward as the name might be – came up trumps. This is a deceptively excellent device.
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First and foremost – the device is incredibly small and light – weighing in at 1.3 oz without batteries.

Secondly – it has amazing battery life. I used AAA Energizer Lithium Batteries and got over 20 hours of logging-time per pair. A pair weighs in at 0.3 oz.

He also talks about how you can get the mapping functionality with a simple computer hook-up (after you get back home, of course). If you’re using a GPS as a record, not as a turn-by-turn assistant on your hike, then check out what Brett has to say on the Easy Showily (also called the WPL-1000 on the company web site).