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Find Yourself
New to GPS? Here's how the technology can keep you from getting lost ever again.

It's the same old story: you're running through the woods, hot on Bigfoot's trail, when suddenly you realize you haven't got a clue how to get back to the campsite. A few days later the rescuers airlift you out of the forest, only there's a blinding snowstorm and the pilot can't find his way back to base. Finally you make it home, just in time to use the Mamma Mia! tickets you bought two months ago, only you miss the show because you get lost on the way to the theater.

Top 5 Little-Known Facts About GPS ð Reception isn't affected by weather. You can get a signal even in a blinding snowstorm. ð The GPS constellation consists of 24 satellites, but only 21 are in active use. The other three are spares. ð The government cannot spy on you if you're using a GPS receiver, as the signals travel in only one direction: from the satellites to the receiver. ð For many years, GPS was hampered by Selective Availability, which severely reduced its accuracy for civilian applications. In 2000, President Bill Clinton ordered that SA be deactivated permanently. ð GPS costs nothing to use, other than the price of the receiver. There's no service to subscribe to, no fees for accessing the satellites.

These are a few of the countless situations in which the Global Positioning System can save the day. GPS consists of two dozen satellites originally developed for military use and now accessible by anyone with a GPS receiver-a device that captures the timing signals broadcast by the satellites and uses them to determine latitude and longitude (as well as speed, heading, altitude above sea level, and other positional information).

GPS receivers come in many different shapes, sizes, and price ranges, and they're usually designed for specific applications. The most popular by far is in-car navigation: you see your vehicle's exact position on an electronic map that moves in real time as you drive. This by itself is immensely helpful, as you can easily determine where you are in relation to nearby streets, main roads, and highways. But the real value lies in navigating from point A to point B: you input a desired destination-a street address, an intersection, the nearest gas station or hospital-and the GPS guides you there, step by step, turn by turn.

While many minivans and luxury vehicles are now available with optional in-dash GPS systems (usually ranging from $2,000-4,000), it's often less expensive and more practical to invest in an aftermarket system that can move easily from one vehicle to another. (See "In-Car Systems" for a list of popular models and their prices.)

You may also want to consider a PDA. You can outfit nearly any Palm OS or Pocket PC handheld with a GPS receiver, car-mount kit, and mapping software. Better still, go for one that's already equipped: the Garmin iQue 3600, which features a built-in GPS antenna and maps of the entire U.S. It can do everything a standalone GPS receiver can do-and then some. Indeed, in some cases PDA setups are superior to the aforementioned aftermarket systems: they may cost less overall; they have touchscreens for fast data entry (newer aftermarket systems do as well); and they integrate with your address book for quick and easy destination selection.

PDAs aren't particularly well-suited to the outdoors, however, so if you're planning any hikes, hunting trips, fishing expeditions, or Bigfoot pursuits, a handheld GPS might be in order. Models ranging from the tiny, inexpensive Garmin Geko 101 to the considerably more sophisticated Magellan SporTrak Color fare better in outdoor environments, as they can survive being dropped, rained on, or even dunked in water. And whether you spend $100 or $500, you'll be able to record waypoints (such as the location of your campground or that perfect fishing spot), track your route (so you can backtrack if you get lost), and navigate to any set of coordinates (like Bigfoot's last known position).

And don't forget the fun side of GPS. Armed with even the most basic receiver, you can engage in the increasingly popular game of Geocaching. Think of it as a high-tech treasure hunt, in which you set out to find a bit of hidden booty-a cache-using nothing more than your GPS receiver and a set of coordinates. Don't expect a chest packed with doubloons at the end-most caches are filled with knick-knacks and a logbook. (You're invited to take a trinket and leave one of your own.) The fun lies in the search, not the reward.

Navman iCN 630
Although many car manufacturers now offer optional built-in GPS systems, there's a strong case to be made for a portable model like the Navman iCN 630. The most obvious advantage: it's portable, so you can easily move it from one vehicle to another. What's more, its $999 price tag, while undeniably steep, is far below most in-dash systems.

The iCN 630 is a little behind the times compared with the latest offerings from Garmin and Magellan. It doesn't offer a touchscreen interface, instead relying on buttons and a four-way pad for navigating menus and entering destinations. Fortunately, the unit's controls are logically designed and easy to master, and its processor is fast enough that there's little to no lag as you enter street and city names.

This surprisingly compact GPS, which uses a mechanical suction cup to attach securely to your windshield, features a 3.8-inch TFT screen, 64MB of RAM for map storage, an SD/MMC expansion slot, and a USB interface. Navman's excellent desktop software makes it simple to download maps, which are grouped into regions.

Unfortunately, the iCN 630 isn't the world's best navigator. Its map screen doesn't show your vehicle's speed. It won't auto-update the map if you change the zoom level. Its voice-prompted driving directions, while loud and clear, don't specify compass directions or freeway names. And it occasionally served up wacky, roundabout routes.

Make no mistake: most of the time the iCN 630 delivered us to our destination quickly and efficiently. We liked the maps' large street-name labels and route-direction arrows. But although this is one of the easiest aftermarket automotive GPS systems we've used, it's definitely not the best in its class.

Garmin Rino 120
Hikers, hunters, and other outdoors enthusiasts have long enjoyed the benefits of FRS and GMRS radios, which enable two-way voice communication at a range of up two and five miles, respectively. In short, they're fancy walkie-talkies. The Garmin Rino 120 gets fancier still, adding a robust GPS receiver to a combination FRS/GMRS radio. Not only can you pinpoint your own position and talk to your fellow travelers, you can track their whereabouts as well.

A traditional GPS receiver can't broadcast its own position. The Rino makes clever use of the Family Radio Service spectrum, transmitting your location along the same frequency used for voice communication. Thus, other Rino users can see your location relative to their own, and you can see theirs. The applications here are both practical and potentially life-saving, from finding a fellow hiker who's lost or injured to tracking down the kids at an amusement park.

The Rino 120 is also a wonderfully versatile GPS. It can store up to 500 waypoints and 20 routes, and it comes with Garmin's Americas Highway basemap and Marine Point Database, so you can use it for highway and nautical navigation. It has 8MB of memory for storing more detailed maps (such as street and topo), available separately. And it's packed with extra features, like a calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, and hunting/ fishing tables.

We particularly liked the Rino's icon-based interface and five-way joystick control. However, even basic operations can seem confusing at first, so plan on spending some time with the manual. Once you do, you'll find the Rino an indispensable part of your outdoor activities.

Garmin Geko 101
Garmin's Gekos are among the smallest and lightest GPS units on the market today. Take the Geko 101. We're talking about 2 x 4 inches and a weight just over three ounces. PDAS should be that small. The littlest Gelko looks cute with its bright yellow case with the funky gekko logo, it costs next to nothing, and it's waterproof.

For that low price and with that tiny size you can't expect too much, and yet the Geko has offers some pleasant surprises. Though the monochrome display has just 64 x 100 pixels, that turns out to be enough for many beginners' projects. Two small AAA batteries power the Geko for 12 hours and you can store a respectable 250 waypoints. The little screen is backlit and the controls are simple: Up, Down, OK, Page and Enter.

Most of the standard GPS features are there. A Satellite Page shows satellites, signal strength and estimated accuracy. A Map Page shows your location and where you are going. Yes, you walk and leave a trail. Cute. You see your waypoints and their names. You can zoom in and out, from 80 feet to 800 miles. You can set the display so that North is always up, or where you're moving is up. A Navigation Page shows how fast you are moving and in what direction. If you're headed for a waypoint it shows how far away you are. Waypoints are entered on the Mark Page. In addition, there are some system settings.

So far so good. Problem is that the little Geko is totally self-contained. No PC connection, no downloadable maps, no upgrading. A nice starter unit, but you may wish you spent a few more bucks for the Geko 201

Magellan RoadMate 700
The Magellan RoadMate 700 is for those who really want a car navigation system but either didn't want to pay the very hefty price for an in-dash nav system option or already have a vehicle that didn't have such an option. So for roughly half the price of an in-dash factory installed navigation system, you can have a system like the very competent RoadMate 700 from Magellan. At first sight the RoadMate 700 looks more like a PDA than an In-Car system, down to the small 4-inch diagonal screen (most factory-installed systems are in the 7"+ range). It is, however, a touch screen, something that most in-dash systems are not, and you can the color scheme for best viewing. The small size and weight (0.8 pounds) also make the RoadMate very portable. Since it is small it can be mounted in various ways via different mounting adapters from Magellan.

The RoadMate uses technology found in the Hertz NeverLost system road-tested by millions, and the mapping data comes from NAVTECH. The RoadMate has its own 10GB disk drive to store data for the entire US and Canada. Data is upgradeable, but how exactly that is done isn't explained very well. As is, the data set is very comprehensive, with around two million points of interests, and you can search for just about anything in any way. There is 3D viewing, voice prompting, and you can pick shortest time, shortest distance, freeways or no freeways. You can also store up to 300 addresses. Some users complain about a bit of lag time or having to fight with the unit when it wants to go one way and you want to go another.

The Magellan RoadMate 700 packs plenty of power. Despite its small display, this is a top-notch unit at a fair price.

Garmin StreetPilot 2610
Together with its 2650 sibling, the Garmin StreetPilot 2610 represents the latest in automotive navigation from one of the leading companies in the GPS field. Though small and with a small 3.3 x 1.7" touchscreen display (are you getting the feeling that we like large displays? You're right!), the 2610 packs a punch. Designed to sit on top of the dash, the system can either be operated via touch or via an infrared remote control. Like the Magellan RoadMate 500/700-the primary competitor of this Garmin unit-the 2610 comes with a built-in base map, plus CityNavigator maps covering all of the US and Canada, but those can't all be loaded at once. That's because unlike the Magellan, the Garmin uses a Compact Flash card to store information (a 128MB card is included). This means that you can use the base map for "the big picture" but also load great detail via downloadable City Navigator maps. Unlike the Magellan, the Garmin unit also lets you download certain maps from other sources (though it definitely works best with the City Navigator maps). I should mention that the 2610 can accommodate CF Cards up to 2GB, so you can load just about everything all at once.

Although the Magellan's user interface seems hard to top, some may find the 2610's even better. Figuring out all the StreetPilot's many features and capabilities takes a bit of time, but using the basic functions is simple and intuitive. In addition, the 2610 is a speed demon, taking almost no time at all to recompute routes.

I mentioned the 2650 at the beginning of this brief review. The only difference is that for about US$230 more the 2650 has "dead reckoning capabilities." This adds a number of sensors that continue navigation even if you temporarily lose the satellite signal. Very handy, but it must be installed by a dealer.

Garmin iQue 3600
The iQue 3600 is for people who want their cake and eat it, too. I never quite understood that old saying (I mean, what else would they do with the cake?), but here I use it to describe folks who want a PDA that also works as a GPS system. Yes, that's what the Garmin iQue 3600 is, a Palm OS PDA that is also a GPS receiver. As such you can use it like any other Palm and it looks like any other Palm. Almost, that is. At 5.0 x 2.8 x 0.8 inches it's a bit bigger than what we're become accustomed to with PDAs, and that's primarily because of the extra GPS functionality. Running Palm OS 5.2, having 32MB of RAM, a SD slot, MP3 playback and equipped with all the standard Palm OS software (some of it souped up to work with the mapping functions), the iQue 3600 does all the common Palm stuff, and it does it well. It also has a terrific transflective 3.8-inch 320 x 480 pixel color display that's just perfect for maps.

On the mapping side of things, there is a recessed antenna that can be folded out for best reception. The integrated GPS receiver is not NMEA compliant and you can't use commonly available Palm OS mapping software such as Street Finder or Mapopolis. Instead, you use Garmin's own GPS and mapping software. You can load a number of basemaps from the supplied CD and you also get MapSource North America City Select.

Magellan SporTrak Color
The SporTrak Color is for those who like to go on their outdoor adventures with a rugged and very accurate device with a color screen. Unlike beginner devices like the Garmin Geko 101, the car-mounted street map products from Garmin and Magellan, and cross-over PDA/GPS devices, the SporTrak is built for outdoor sporting use, and that is obvious throughout the design of the SporTrak.

It's light-less than seven ounces-and won't weigh you down. Its two AA batteries should last a full day of continuous use (we recommend NiMH rechargeables). No need to recharge or change batteries. It's tough and waterproof (heck, it floats!), all rubber and impact-resistant plastic. It has a screen that's large enough (160 x 240 pixels) and with just enough color (16 colors). In bright sunlight it can be difficult to see. It comes with not just maps, but also other stuff you need in the great outdoors. There's a barometer to see where the weather's headed. There's a compass so you always know exactly where you're headed, and it is a 3-axis design so that it remains accurate even if you don't hold the SporTrak level. Annoyingly, you have to recalibrate it every time the batteries are changed, but so be it.

Built-in is a 10MB database of North America and there is an additional 22MB of space for other maps). While that seems small compared to the much larger maps on street navigation units, it is enough to contain highways, major roads, parks, waterways, airports, city and marine navigation aids. Plus, you can download more detailed maps via the optional Magellan MapSend software. This adds much greater detail.

The SporTrac can store up to 20 routes, 500 waypoints, and 2,000 track points so that you can find your way back.

ALK CoPilot Complete
ALK Technologies' offering in this roundup is a bit different. It consists of a standard HP iPAQ 1945 Pocket PC, a Bluetooth GPS module, in-vehicle power and mounting, and CoPilot Live software on a 128MB SD Card. Each of the components is first rate, and ALK as a company has considerable experience in this space. They offered some of the first GPS software for Windows CE. This approach means that you get absolutely superior hardware that you can use either for GPS or conventional Pocket PC functions. The Bluetooth-based GPS receiver doesn't add any bulk because you can leave it behind if you don't need it. And the CoPilot software is very strong, especially in the trip planning area. It gives very good directions (in a somewhat robotic voice) and has a very simple, intuitive user interface. CoPilot also offers an incredibly useful real-time traffic information feature in some parts of the country. Since this is a routing/directions-based system, the maps themselves are not hyper-detailed and occupy only a small part of the display. If you're looking for a flexible hybrid solution, you can't do any better than this.

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