Blaze Trails With Gps

Product: Magellan Systems GPS Trailblazer

Description: A 14-ounce, 6-inch by 3.5-inch by 1-inch, hand-held Global Positioning System designed to locate longitude and latitude position within 100 meters or 328 feet of the unit by tapping into the Pentagon’s 24 NAVSTAR satellites

Pro: Weatherproof, but not waterproof housing. Stayed dry during a one-week Alaska adventure in the rain. The Trailblazer GPS will tell you the altitude (very useful), distance to your destination (quite useful), how far you have traveled (interesting) and how to retrace your steps (extremely useful if you forget where you’ve parked) - assuming the batteries don’t die. Battery life is approximately four to five hours of continuous use.

Con: Not waterproof so forget about taking this baby on a paddling trip. The screen is difficult to read in very bright sun unless you take pains to shade it. The steering or navigation screen is challenging to read since it is patterned after a compass housing. This requires a bit of concentration and thoughtful analysis to use - not much different than using a compass alone. Memory capacity is limited, which minimizes the usefulness of being able to enter numerous waypoints for the purposes of finding your way back to points already visited.

Comments: Expected out this year will be a new model that improves on the faults of this one - so they say. Look for the Trailblazer XL (expected retail of $500) which will have increased memory capability and a better visual steering display that doesn’t require a degree in engineering to read. GPS won’t save your butt if you can’t use a compass either. You still need to understand the basics of compass navigation to really understand and utilize a GPS.

Suggested Retail: $399.

Company: Magellan Systems Corp., 960 Overland Court, San Dimas, CA 91773, telephone (909) 394-5000.