Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Product And Product Reviews
October 8th, 2010Handheld GPS Reviews Comments Off
Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Product And Product Reviews
Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Product Features
Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Technical Details
Technical Details:
- 12-channel GPS receiver; WAAS enabled for up to 3 meter accuracy
- 2 MB North American basemap of roads, waterways, parks, and more
- 6 MB memory for additional map downloads
- Large, easy-to-read display; 9-key keypad for quick access to software features
- Rugged, waterproof design; Quadifiler Helix antenna for superior tracking in harsh environments
Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Product Description
Product Description:
Magellan’s Sportrak Map–with its gray monochrome screen and limited data upload–is a little bit old school. But that’s not bad. Think of the Sportrak Map as a jeep–rugged exterior, spartan controls (that are easy to access), and all the power you need to get you to any destination, whether it be the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest or the urban jungle.
This Map model resides at the low end of Magellan’s Sportrak series, which is geared more toward the outdoorsy type than the business person navigating appointments from the car. The Sportrak Map offers a 2 MB built-in map database of North America, a relatively small 6 MB flash memory for downloading maps and points of interest from your PC, storage for 500 waypoints and 20 routes, and WAAS reception (more on that in a moment).
Our first of the Sportrak Map was that it was much smaller than we imagined from the online images we’d seen. At 2.2 inches wide and 5.6 inches, it’s about the same size as our old Nokia 5190, and its 6.1-ounce weight is slightly lighter than that old behemoth. The controls at the bottom of the device are well laid out and easily accessible, whether you’re right- or left-handed (though the smaller Enter and Nav buttons could prove challenging if wearing bulky gloves). The 2.2 by 1.4-inch grayscale display was adequate, and definitely geared toward handheld viewing.
The Sportrak Map has 9 information screens, including compass, track details, and satellite status. It also has such useful features as track back (which helps you to retrace your steps to previous waypoints) and a track-to-route saving function. (A track represents your current direction of travel, but it won’t be saved to your GPS until it’s created as a route.)
As mentioned, the Sportrak Map is a fairly base-level GPS unit, which can be a bit disconcerting for GPS newbies. Though it does have a North American land-mass and waterway database, it does not show much mapping detail (save for major highway systems and points of interest like airports and lakes). Again, the Sportrak Map is best used for hikes, mountain biking treks, and the like. You can easily set it to capture the path you follow (i.e., create a track) with specific markers (waypoints), and then upload this set longitude/latitude data to a PC to record your route. Our first attempt at naming a waypoint, which requires using the thumbpad to navigate to onscreen letters and numbers, took longer than it should, but we devised a system that kept our names short but recognizeable.
In our testing, we had access to a Magellan Mapsend CD-ROM, and were able to download maps to the Sportrak Map. We grabbed a large swath of the Seattle metropolitan area (including detailed city streets) and transferred it easily to the device (the file was a little over 3 MB, or half the available memory). Smaller map selections for multiple hikes and such will definitely fit on the device, though highly detailed topographical maps may not.
As with most new handheld GPS receivers released since the middle of 2003, the Sportrak Map adds WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Service) reception for a reading of your location that’s accurate to about 3 meters. Is it handy? Definitely, for some–but it will be mostly transparent to you under typical use. For others, such as a friend who is plotting specific hikes in the Pacific Northwest for a book, the accuracy WAAS provides will improve the precision of tracks and offer better detail for map illustrations.
The Sportrak Map isn’t the most powerful GPS receiver out there. But if you’re looking for a navigation device that offers accuracy, transfer of routes and waypoints to a PC, and a modicum of extended features (such as detailed map download), the Sportrak Map might just be your ticket to adventure. –Agen G.N. Schmitz
Pros:
- Easy to use, accurate GPS receiver for outdoor activities
- Ruggedized, waterproof exterior (that even floats)
- Internal memory enough for medium-sized map downloads
- Ability transfer of routes and waypoints to PC via included serial cable
Cons:
- 6 MB memory won’t be enough for detailed topographical maps
- No external memory card capability (for that see Magellan’s Meridian series)
- Isn’t recommended as primary in-city navigation device
Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS Product Reviews
Lets go “GeoCaching!”,
This is my first handheld GPS. I’m using it for my new hobby – Geocaching. This unit works great. Use free software to download waypoints into the GPS, and then just follow where it points. The unit is small (fits in my pants pocket), and light, and has all the features you might need, including back-tracking if you make a wrong turn. It holds plenty of waypoints (locations) and 20 routes, which seems about standard for handheld units. It has several different ways of displaying navigation information, so you’re bound to find one that works for you. If you’re looking for something with lots of built in maps, then this may not be the right unit for you, as it only has a 2Mb base map and 6Mb for downloadable maps. For in-car navigation, I plug this little guy into my portable computer and run Microsoft Streets And Trips and get a whole computer full of maps. When going off-trail, I take just this unit, where maps aren’t much help anyway. I’ve used it to locate 3 “geocaches” so far, and it has put me within a couple of feet every time. The WAAS support is great for getting good accuracy.
By the way – don’t purchase the add-on memory SD card accessory – this GPS doesn’t take add-on memory cards.
A Great Value,
I’ve had this GPS for five months and am extremely satisfied with it. I’ve never before owned a product that gets better as time goes by as this one does. Magellan continues to update and improve the software. Their latest software revision added two of my favorite functions, average speed and maximum speed. It also can show you the terrain ahead, only Magellan offers that feature.
There is no question that it takes some study to learn all the possible functions this unit is capable of, and the users manual is marginal at best. But there are many other resources available. There’s a Yahoo group devoted specifically to the SproTrac series. Folks there are willing to help with any question. If you are into newsgroups, check out sci.geo.satellite-nav. And a great place to begin your research into GPS’s is at gpsinformation.net
Good Features, Nice Unit,
I have a poor sense of direction and wanted a portable GPS unit to (1) use when traveling in unfamiliar places, and (2) to be able to map out some places by plotting points. I haven’t plotted points yet, but have taken it on the road a fair bit.
I looked seriously at units from Magellan and Garmin, but decided on the SporTrak Map primarily because of its features and a … rebate.
I have owned this unit for a little more than a month now, and really have enjoyed it. It has a nice “breadcrumb” tracking feature which will let you save a route previously traveled. It has plenty of memory for my uses, though I have not purchased map additions yet. The basic map included has major interstates, US highways, airports, cities and some other details.
I also purchased a cigarette-lighter power adapter for use on the road. The backlight feature has two levels of brightness, and I had been traveling for a little over two hours with the power adapter and the unit on “bright” when the backlight went off. It wouldn’t come back on again despite pulling power, removing the batteries and reinitializing the unit (wiping out all memory). I got a return authorization from Magellan, sent the unit back via ground freight and got it back within a week, also via ground freight. The service was exceptional. Magellan even threw in a couple of goodies with my returned unit for my trouble.
I certainly recommend this unit, and the only reason that I didn’t give it five stars was because of the light failure. Other than that, I have been very satisfied.
Excellent GPS,
This is truly an awesome product for the price. In addition to the unit, the package includes the user manual, computer link cable, wrist strap, and batteries. The main manual is easy to follow and is very descriptive. I had the unit up and running in just minutes. After I had initialized the unit, I had had a 3D satellite signal with WAAS within 10 seconds. The unit’s reception was very good. The satellite tracking map allows you to see all of the satellites and WAAS stations in your area and the signal strengh. The unit worked well under all of the outdoor situations I tested it, even under large oak trees. I was even able to maintain reception inside my two-story brick and stone house. The unit is easy to use and quick to learn. It is very easy to switch between the screens you want and the included basemap shows major roads and various points of interests across the country such as parks, airports, lakes, rivers, etc. It is very simple to zoom in and out of the map and the unit contains a handy panning feature which lets you view areas around you. Creating waypoints and tracks is also very simple. You can even designate the icon you want to represent each waypoint as well as type in notes about a specific waypoint. The unit can tell you exactly where you are to within three meters and will also tell information about your altitude, speed, heading, eta, distance, sun/moon orientation, backtrack, waypoints, etc. Every time I use it, I discover more features. You can even check the phases of the moon for your area and see when the fish will most likely be biting for anywhere on the planet. The unit is even useful for nightime operation. It has two different backlight intensities, depending on your preference. I spent a long time researching various GPS units and this is by far the best value, especially with the rebate offered by Magellan. I would definetly suggest this product to anyone who needs (or wants) a GPS unit. I can’t wait to try out Geocaching!
The Sportrak Map,
I bought this unit about a week ago. It only took USPS three business days to get here after I ordered it. It came with batteries, a pc cable with a serial port connection(Serial port connection meaning one of those doohickies with 9 little holes and two bigscrews on the side, as opposed to a USB cable or printer port), quick setup instructions, and two manuals, one in English and the other in French. It was up and running quickly, and had a fix on my position within minutes, which maybe says something about the poor construction of my apartment building, because a friend with a similar model, the Sportrak Pro, had to go outside his brick house to get his first satellite fix.
The Sportrak Map comes with a 2MB base map, and more space for loading maps that you have to buy separately from Magellan. The base map seems to have all the interstates, all the old US routes, and a good number of state roads in the vicinity of the larger cities. The map’s default detail setting is medium. At the highest level of detail, you get all sorts of icons for airports, national park land, and the names of places and rivers. The sun/moon feature is nifty, giving the times for sunrise/set and the same for the moon, as well as the moon’s phase. Useful for figuring out how much time you have on a trail before it’s going to get dark. It also calculates the best times to hunt or fish, although I don’t hunt or fish, so I couldn’t tell you how accurate that feature is.
What this unit is useful for: Camping, boating, Geocaching, and figuring out what direction you are heading (Don’t laugh. I’m from New Mexico, where we may not have a lot, but we have terrain such as mountains and we give our streets different names. In Central Florida the land is flat, the highways are lined with identical trees from Pensacola to Tampa, the sun is often behind clouds, and, as in many places in the South, you can find yourself at the corner of 8th Ave and 8th St, when you really want to be at 8th Place.)
What you won’t be able to use it for: Driving directions. This is not a unit where you can plug in "Kansas City" and it will tell you to take i-75 for so many miles, then turn left by the dead cow. Maybe the mapping software, available separately, does this, but all the device itself is going to do is draw a straight line across the map and tell you how far and which direction it is.
I had a hard time coming up with anything negative to say about this cool gadget. It seems very well built and I found the screens easy to figure out. I think the only way a person could be disappointed in this unit is if they expected it to be something other than it is. If you want something that is going to lay out step by step maps for you, I think you are looking for something else. (the sportrak pro has a much bigger memory and a bigger basemap, although again I think you need to buy extra map software) We’re more of an "off trail" family, so all the extra mapping wasn’t for us.
Very Disappointed to say the least.,
I have had a Sportrak Map for almost 3 years now. At first I was very pleased with the unit. That changed about a year ago.
The unit started to “lose” the satellite almanac. The satellite status screen would show a blank. I went to the Magellan website, and the site recommended a total memory clear. I did that and it did nothing but remove everything I had programmed into the unit.
Next I did a software update, as recommended by the Magellan website. This made the problem worse. The unit wouldn’t “remember” where any satellite was. After sending an e-mail to Magellan, I sent the unit to them for repair. Magellan said the satellite almanac had to be re-installed.
Upon receipt of the “repaired” unit, I now found that the GPS receiver took at least 10-15 minutes to establish its position, this under clear skies with no obstructions. In addition, I found that the EPE, estimated probability of error, or how far off the unit thinks it might be, had increased from 10-20 feet to upwards of 300-600 feet. To be sure, the unit would at first, after “finding” itself, give an EPE of 10 feet or so. After about 20-30 minutes of use the EPE would climb to astronomical numbers, rendering the GPSr useless.
There are also reports on the Geocaching.com website forums of sportraks having stress cracks on the rear where the screws hold the front and back together. These cracks compromise the watertight integrity of the unit.
After checking the Geocaching.com website and the geocaching forums, I found this situation to be more commonplace than I had imagined. In addition, I found out about a trait specific to Magellan units called “boomerang”. What this means is that after you enter a waypoint, when you navigate to that waypoint you will have to walk at least 100 feet past the waypoint and then wait for the GPS unit to decide to locate itself and track back to the entered point. Whether this is due to position “averaging” or just a bug, the result is aggravation.
In addition, this boomerang effect means that when you try to use the backtrack feature, the unit will lead you all over the place as it has no real idea where it was, and is just making a best guess. I don’t need a GPS to make a guess for me, I can do that on my own!
I wouldn’t recommend this unit, and in fact I have edited my “So you want to..” guide to reflect my disappointment with the unit.
Don’t buy it, don’t even consider it. You will waste your money.
ACCURATE HANDHELD GPS!!,
This is a very accurate handheld GPS. I work in Geographic Information Systems and work with different GPS units. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fun and inexpensive unit.
careful, it’s already obsolete,
Nice working unit but I wouldn’t buy one now. The new topo software for the sportrak units (topo 3d USA) doesn’t work with the sportrak map. The older mapsend topo USA is no longer in production. Kinda stinks that the software is obsolete while they are still selling the hardware.
Great Handheld very durable,
I took this product to Iraq with me it got me out of a jam a time or two. It took a beating and still works perfectly. It even floats you just can’t beat it.
Good midrange GPS,
I have been thinking of buing a GPS for over 3 years, after I heard about Geocaching a couple weeks ago it was enough to make be jump to get one. Did not know much about them in the beginning and I guess I am still learning. I paid … for mine last week and this week it is less,… it really is quite a deal.
I like that it is small, light and compact…it seems smaller than some of the other magellans that I have seen others with. The screen is good size and the menus have been pretty simple to get around with. My 9 year old picked it up in about 15 minutes and my 5 year old used it to create a breadtrail.
Yesterday I used it for the first time geocaching and it took me within 8 feet of the cache box each time. Features it does not have is average speed and more memory would be nice.
Nice unit for the money
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