What GPS handheld locator

I recently bought a AIM Xtra GPS set-up with the base,it hasn't been flown yet but for the first couple flights it'll be tested and used for backup charges and get used to the unit.Basically I was wondering what handheld units folks use to enter their lat./long. coordinates to find your rocket.I don't have a fancy phone with tons of apps so that's not an option like I've seen mentioned in other threads.

I ibought a GPS set from Tragic Little Aerospace some time ago. I searched for a handheld unit to let me do this. I finally broke down and bought a smart phone and bought a GPS app. Inever found a handheld unit that was reasonably priced.

For fun, I do geocaching and have never used my GPS for finding a rocket - so take this with a grain of salt...

Anyways, I have a Garmin eTrex10 (they go for about $110) and it is far more accurate than any smart phone app. I have been really happy with it and in open areas it can get down to 9' in accuracy. Which for rocketry is plenty accurate. The only disadvantage is the clumsiness of entering GPS coordinates. There is no keyboard so a little joystick on the unit is the substitute. Regardless, no matter which GPS you buy take it out in the field, enter coordinates, make way points (heck, find a geocache or two) just to get used to the unit and understand it's limitations and get familiar with operating it prior to using it out in the field looking for a rocket.

Hope that helps.

-Dave

Honestly for the accuracy that you need for this kind of stuff the answer IMHO is the cheapest one that you can find. I work with high-end Trimble GPS devices at work that cost >$5000 but when it comes to personal use I have an old Garmin eTrax and old Garmin 72 that work just fine. All you need is something that you can plug the coordinates into and get a bearing and distance as you walk to it. I would recommend looking for an older Garmin used on eBay or Craigslist.

Well I wouldn't mind buying a new unit, found the Garmin Dave mentioned on amazon for $98 and change but as mentioned the clumsiness of the joystick would be less than desirable but if the price went way up for a type in method I would just deal with it.
THX for the advice fellas.

Still open for options at this point.....but a smart phone isn't gonna happen,thats a monthly bill I'd rather spend on reloads.

I use my Garmin. It works.

I have a few garmins I use. The old yellow eTrex is one I carried around in Iraq and works rather well. I also have the Foretrex 101 which is nice and compact and cheap. I have never used it for locating rockets as it stays attached to the buttstock of one of my rifles all the time. I also have the Astro 220 and love it. I download topo maps to it for where I'll be launching at and can mainly TA my way to the location. I don't think you can go wrong with any as long as you have it configured to the same nav coordinate type you are looking for.

If you are going to be in high weeds, crops, or grass then a location beeper would be wise to use as well.

I found this interesting. It is showing the Foretrex hooked up to a Kenwood radio. I am not yet a HAM guy but I think that this feature may be worth looking into? You tracking experts, please chime in. I would like to know what you all think.

https://wa8lmf.net/ForeTrex/index.htm

You can do the same with virtually any GPS (even my 12 year old eTrax). The advantage would be IF your GPS tracker is using APRS you could automatically download the waypoint.

Disaster_Guy said:

You can do the same with virtually any GPS (even my 12 year old eTrax). The advantage would be IF your GPS tracker is using APRS you could automatically download the waypoint.

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Yeah, I'm technically challenged. All I know is the Garmin is 1,000,000 times easier to use than a PLGR is. I can navigate, call for fire with a polar plot, and call in an extraction using a Garmin. That's all I know. all that other hocus pocus is foreign to me. Give me something that is plug n play and I'm happy.

It isn't that I am not capable of larning the stuff, it is just that you never really know what you don't know till someone tells you. I am getting my ham license soon and I will be learning this stuff though.

DM1975 said:

Yeah, I'm technically challenged. All I know is the Garmin is 1,000,000 times easier to use than a PLGR is. I can navigate, call for fire with a polar plot, and call in an extraction using a Garmin. That's all I know. all that other hocus pocus is foreign to me. Give me something that is plug n play and I'm happy.

It isn't that I am not capable of larning the stuff, it is just that you never really know what you don't know till someone tells you. I am getting my ham license soon and I will be learning this stuff though.

Click to expand...

I hate the old PLGR. I do not think they use them any more. The great thing about to day is the screens they have in vehicles. The US Military is so sophisticated today that it is scary. The trackers in vehicles are unbelievably advanced.

At times it is scary to old guy in the Army because what would the young guys do without the electronics. They still teach a compass, but how many of them can still use it 6 years our of training?

I was in for all the blue force tracker stuff, plus the DAGR replacing the PLGR, but the DAGR didn't trickle down to us till I was about to retire. In the infantry you have to be able to land nav with a compass and have to do it for EIB plus annual training. Still, the blue force tracker had to either be attached to the PLGR or DAGR to work, but that may have changed.

Only thing I ever used the PLGR for was to set up my PLGR time on my ANCD. Anything else was my Garmin. Lots of folks using the Foretrex now from what I heard and seen. You can even do all of your info for free fall operations on the new ones I have heard.