Wirelessly posted

Has anyone used their GPS while hiking in the woods! I also have Navigator and was wondering if it would help if lost in the woods!

My experience is that the GPS chip in the Curve 83xx is very accurate but also very weak. It loses the satellite far more quickly and easily than my regular GPS receivers do.

The slightest amount of cover will cause the satellites to be lost. It also takes a much longer time to acquire the satellite lock compared to a dedicated, recreational grade GPS receiver.

Having said that, while I wouldn't count on it routinely in the woods, I would certainly be glad to have it if I was lost in the woods. It would be better than nothing.

Moving to the GPS and Mapping section.

The real problem with using a cell phone for hiking out in the midle of nowhere is that if you have no cell signal, you have no map. GPS lat/long isn't of much value unless you have a map to translate that data into useful information.

IMHO, if you are going to be out hiking a lot, get a dedicated GPS designed for that.

I use the curve gps to track my bike ride in the wood (0 gsm reception over there) which i like to put on google map or something after.

Very accurate for me so far except weird hiccup, like its told me i took a 100m dive out of nowhere!

I do a lot of hiking, and I wouldn't go out into an unfamiliar area without a compass and a topo map. GPS is great, but I want something that can't be broken and doesn't rely on batteries.

Check out gpslogger. It will create a track and can mark points. You can use it to get back to marked locations. BUT it does not contain any maps. You can save the tracks and they can be uploaded to googleearth and/or garmin and other formats for use on computer.

I tend to agree, however carrying and extra set or two of batteries is always a good thing to do.

The battery is why it shouldn't be used for anything other than a backup. Well that plus the relatively weak reception if not in a clear area. I'm not even sure if the maps would be helpful except for direction since they're civilization biased versus those available for dedicated GPS units.

I also wouldn't want to be carrying a phone out in such a dust prone environment. Zip-lock bags are the way to go.