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Garmin Rino 530HCx Reviews |
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Actual Usage Notes (5/5) | Sep 3, 2007 | A Espinoza | San Jose CA US |
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FRS - Impressive. 2 miles loud & clear, 2.5 miles usable w/ crackles even with trees and some buildings. 2 miles or less loud and clear even with some trees and buildings. Tall thick buildings will cut off signals. Able to cut through thick brush, trees and even some ground blockage, not completely dependent on clear line of sight. Excellent FRS capability. GPS - maintains full satelite signal lock even in ground floor of stucco-wood building. Signal dies off in underground garages and inside heavy cement/steel buildings. Maintains excellent signal lock under thick canopies and in some steep ravines. Signal weakens only in areas with shear walls cutting off one to three sides. Have *not* lost signal once in mountains and forests. Expect signal to cut off in caves or under rock overhang. User Interface - easy to learn, relatively easy to use in the field. Loc Tracking - Excellent for tracking other 530HCx units in rough terrains. FRS range makes this extremely effective in gathering everyone together at checkpoints. Battery Life - Excellent. Easily lasts 16+ hours constant-ON with sporadic FRS transmission to report location and guide to regroup. Heavy usage cuts to 12-14 hours. Charge-Time - from 33% to 100% takes only about 4 hours. Compass - Somewhat weak, not better than high quality mil-spec compass. I will still carry a high grade compass and maintain orientation skills. Altitude - Usable but estimates only and flluctuates too much at times as to be unreliable. Same units placed side by side can read a difference of 10+ ft. I will still carry a topographic map and learn how to use it. In general, GPS and FRS in combination serve as excellent team coordination tools. Compass and altitude are convenient but cannot yet fully replace plain old compass and topo. Unit is rugged and continue to function as normal even after accidental drop. An excellent product over all. Very satisfied with its field performance. |
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