Garmin Rino 120

I listed the pros and cons of the Garmin Rino 120 and came up with one con: the buttons are a little small for my oversized hands to operate quickly with gloves on. The Pros? How much time do you have? Let's start with the fact that at around $220 full retail, the price is right--no small consideration in today's economy. Never the type to save the best for last, I'll tell you the really cool features up front. First, the Garmin Rino 120 is a not just a GPS, it's also a two-way radio with a 5-mile range, 22 channels and 38 squelch (privacy) codes, and the capability to communicate with any standard FRS/GMRS radio. What's cooler still is the unique Rino Position Reporting Feature. Each user has his or her own personal icon and user ID, enabling a group of Rino users to easily see one another's precise location on a map. It's convenient and easy to do, it's a great safety feature, and it's fun.

Here's a small thing I really like: The Garmin Rino 120 operates on AA alkaline batteries, or an optional rechargeable battery pack. I like to explore the outback and navigate the highways; Three AAs will operate the Garmin Rino 120 continuously (GPS and radio) for approximately 14 hours. Take a few spares and turn the unit off when you don't need it, or use only one function, and you're good to go for at least several days.

There are some other bells and whistles you might expect to find only on a more expensive unit. The GPS receiver is WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) for maximum accuracy, and the Rino 120 comes standard with an alarm clock, a sun/moon calculator, a stopwatch, and a hunt/fish calculator. If you get bored, there's a page with four team-oriented games. Also standard are Americas Highways and Marine Point Database maps, 8 MB of memory for storing an optional MapSource CD with BlueChart marine maps, MetroGuide, Topo Maps, and Fishing Hot Spots. For highway or urban travel the Rino offers (with MapSource) a Find N' Go feature which locates service exits, nearest towns, addresses, intersections, and points of interest. It can store up to 500 waypoints and 20 tracks. Another nice feature: if you want to stay in touch silently, the Garmin Rino 120 has a vibrate mode. (Did I mention that it's waterproof for up to 30 minutes in one meter of water? ) As with other Garmin products, the

Rino 120 acquires a 3D satellite lock quickly (usually in less than a minute), and stays locked up solidly even in vehicles. Undeniably there are better, longer-range radios on the market, as well as more powerful GPS units with even more bells and whistles. Bottom line for me, though, is that the Garmin Rino 120 already has more features than I'll ever use, and for the money it's hard to beat.

The gps.com/index.php?cPath=4&osCsid=7aff9f91de30fb8482b12bc73e62da39">Garmin Rino Gps 120 is state-of-the-art GPS navigation and two-way communications combined, with enough memory to download detailed mapping for driving, hiking, hunting, fishing or just about anything else you can dream up

It's waterproof and can "beam" your exact location to another Rino user on FRS or GMRS channels using "Position Reporting". The radio functionality of the Rino 120 provides two-way communications for up to two miles using FRS channels, 5 miles using GMRS channels, and you can talk to friends or family who own conventional FRSGMRS radios. There's also a voice scrambler and a vibration mode for silent calls

The Rino 120 has a built-in basemap consisting of American road and highway detail, along with 8 MB of internal memory for downloading additional road, street, and points-of-interest data from MapSource® MetroGuide™, Fishing Hot Spots™, Topo, or BlueChart® CD-ROMs. The PC-interface cable also comes with the Rino 120. gps.com/index.php?cPath=4&osCsid=7aff9f91de30fb8482b12bc73e62da39">Garmin Rino Gps 120

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