I do some hiking and invested in a GPS about a year ago. Here’s my $0.02 (£0.01?) worth.
There are really two main options. Most GPS units have a display suitable for showing maps with your current location. These tend to be large and heavy and have a few hours of battery life. I don’t feel these are appropriate for hiking.
What you need is a unit with low weight and long battery life. This really limits the GSP functionality. After careful consideration, I settled on the Garmin Forerunner 101. This unit is very small and light weight. I also uses two standard AA bateries – I’ve used it the NiMH rechargable and long-life, light weight Lithium. Because the batteries are easily replaceable, you can bring spares and don’t need a special charger or access to power.
Do note that you’ll still need a good map showing latitude and longitude to a fraction of a degree. Knowing your location is only helpful if you have a good map. In the US, I use the USGS 7.5’ Topographic maps.
I have this little blue tooth gps thingie that I bought for a song, with the laptop, its pretty cool but its made for pda’s mainly. One thing that I noticed when I picked up Microsofts streets and trips was that its mainly North America with a bit of the Caribean. For European places you need to make sure that either the software that comes with what ever you buy has European maps or they can be downloaded.
I agree, you won’t need a GPS, but having one can be fun. You will want to use 1:50000 or 1:25000 scale Ordnance Survey maps and most hand held GPS devices can be configured to display your position in OS grid coordinates. I have happily used the Garmin eTrex for several years and the smaller Geko range would probably suit just as well. Before you go make sure you understand the OS grid system (not hard) and how to set your chosen device to that grid system and the appropriate map datum. You can get similar devices with built in maps, but the detail is poor for walking purposes so you will still want paper maps - paper needs no batteries either! When you return you can get software to overlay the route you walked onto a map or Google Earth and for me, this record of my journey is the main advantage to GPS. Have fun.
I’ve used GPS for quite a bit of field work (geology, ecology, etc.), and I’ve never heard of the OS system. Is it a solely European or UK thing? I know that’s where the OP will be, but I’m curious myself. Here in the states, we primarily use UTM.
P.S. I like the eTrex mentioned previously too, but I can’t offer much else in the way of advice since I’m used to using the engineering grade systems. Personally, though, Garmin is the only brand I would buy. I’ve just had really good experiences with them.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone - this is very helpful.
Well, we’ve been reading the blogs that other people have put up of their experience, and it appears that there are a few idiots out there. We don’t want to join their club.
We’ll be doing it late August - mid-September.
We’ll be using the OS maps, but that’s the sort of thing I’ve wondered about, having no experience with these things. How do you program that kind of data into them? Do you need to download information with a computer? We were going to get the maps when we go over there, and won’t have a computer with us.
A friend was saying we should get the kind with the map displays, but I was thinking that would be a bit cumbersome on the trail.
It’s a UK thing, though the Irish have their own system. It’s similar to UTM in which there are X number of grids that cover the UK, each grid has a letter, it does on the Irish at least. Then each grid is divided into 10x10 boxes. So you could have something that says G333 456 and you would know where to look and I believe that it comes down to something like 100 meter square area.
The GPS just has a simple formula that can convert between all the different coordinate systems. You should be able to find a good Garmin for under 200 pounds that’s handheld. You might be carring a lot of batteries though as I don’t know how long you’ll be using it.
My MIL is about as smart as a sack of hammers when it comes to available technology and it’s use (her phone absolutely baffles her), so imagine our surprise when she told us she had chosen the Garmin GPS option in her last rental car, and loved it. It was easy to use, even for a rank amatuer. She loved it so much that we bought her one for her 64th birthday (can’t remember which model, but it is vehicle-based).
Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, our Garmin stock has climbed dramatically of late, so of course I tell everyone to buy one!
To set up a GPS unit for use with a particular map series you need to adjust 2 parameters. Most units will have a wealth of these built in for almost any map you are likely to find around the world. The Grid System specifies how latitude/Longitude are transfered to the map’s grid (see below for more on the OS grid). On my Garmin unit you set the Position Format to British Grid. The second parameter, Map Datum, specifies the exact size and shape of the globe assumed by the map makers. GPS uses WGS84 but any datum is just an approximation as the true globe is rather lumpy and wobbles a bit. Different maps often use a different datum based on the best available data at the time the system was defined, and also based on the shape of the Earth over the area to be mapped. On my Garmin unit the best datum for British maps is called ord srvy GB. Getting this wrong can lead to quite big errors.
The OS grid system is very easy. On your map will be printed a grid of squares, each 1 kilometer square, with numbers printed along the edge of the map and sometimes repeated within the map also. On the GPS display you will see the position displayed something like TQ 12345 67890. You can ignore the initial two letters as this refers to an area 100 kilometers square - I hope you are not that lost! The first set of digits is the Eastings and shows your position East-West and the second set are Northings. The first two digits of each set refer to the numbers printed on the map and identify the square, further digits define your position within the square. Boy Scouts are taught to give 6-figure-grid-references (3 digits from each set) which define your position to within 100m.
Virtually any map you will find in Britain will be based on the Ordnance Survey and any grid shown will be the OS grid, though may not be labeled in the standard way.