Cutler Marsh

Magellan Meridian Platinum GPS

Image of Magellan GPS Unit For a day I played with one of these beauties.  It is larger than a hiker's GPS, smaller than a marine GPS.  It is too big for a shirt pocket, but fits in a coat or vest pocket. 

Obviously, the large screen is useful for us folks that need a bit more viewing distance, and it is great for including in photographs.

It uses two AA batteries and gives adequate life from them.

Great Camping features:  This particular model is the first one that I have played with that uses both a magnetic (flux-gate style) compass, necessary for direction finding when stationary, and a barometer.  I was a bit surprised at the barometer, but it has a slick weather predicting feature that shows you the temperature and a 24-hour pressure variance chart.  It ignores your own risings and lowerings by using the GPS altitute to compute for sea-level equivalent pressure.  If you are on a multi-day camp, this feature can give you a warning of bad weather. 

I did not have it long enough to really exercise it a lot.  I took it out to Cutler Marsh (photo, above), a place where GPS is a fine thing to have on a limited-visibility excursion through the wetlands. 

Click on the photo, left, or the START link, to see a few photos.  When I get some time I'll write some words but I don't think more words are necessary right now. 

The unit is pretty easy to use; I haven't even looked at the manual (which is rather thick, by the way).  One thing I never did figure out by just pushing buttons, was how to mark a waypoint. 

It has the bests Location screen of any of them; when included in a photo it gives you Latitude and Longitude, but also UTM coordinates, all on the same screen!  It is a very good "You Are Here" display. 



EXIT

Start the slide show by clicking on START below this paragraph. Each page includes in its title bar the file name of the photo itself for easier selection.

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