I've got 5 letters for that: s-w-e-e-t

I hesitate to buy any electrical gadget these days unless it can handle all three energy sources. I really like to feed my stuff rechargeables.

Sorry chaosmagnet about the slow reply but you are right about the cost, if the Delorme can do it better for cheaper that would be nice but the delorme has to work with a GPS with it doesn't it and the others has a GPS built in, I need to do more research but if it will work with a garmin. I would like it to be built in one unit and not have to rely on 2 units. I'm still waiting to see how the new Garmin Montana will be.

Im certainly not a modern-day Luddite; I have a GPS nav unit in my car, but I also have maps (including two Delorme topos) and a dash-mount magnetic compass which I know how to use. I worry about the proliferation of electronic navigational aids and beacons. Dead batteries aside, in a marshall law situation, elements within the gov't will flip a switch and disable the satellites and transmitters that support these devices (and probably cell phones too). If the basic traditional nav skills and equipment are marginalized, they will be lost to the majority.

It would be interesting to stop and check everyone with a beacon, GPS, or nav unit and see if they have a traditional magnetic compass and map, and really know how to use them.

I believe that the inReach has its own GPS onboard if you're using it standalone. You won't be able to see where you are, but GEOS will if you press the SOS button.

I am 100% in favor of carrying a compass and a map, knowing how to use them, and confirming your location periodically as you navigate.

In the early days of GPS, around 1991 or so, I got a notice from Magellan that, oh, by the way, the GPS system was going to be out of commission for about three days just before Christmas (probably so that Santa could navigate traditionally). I am not sure just why this occurred, but there it was.

I think of that whenever I search out my trusty topo map, a piece of equipment I was familiar with long before GPS showed on the scene. GPS is very, very nice and it has simplified my life remarkably, especially in regard to locating archaeological sites, but i won't trust everything to a system that can be disabled or degraded (remember Selective Availability?) by The Powers That Be. You are absolutely right.

I've never had any issues with GPS. The units I have work well for me.

That said, I alway carry a map and compass with me in the backcountry and I know how to use them.

I teach backcountry navigation classes in the Pacific Northwest.

I try to impress on my students that land navigation skills are on a par with and just as important as marksmanship, tracking and physical condidtioning.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.biz
www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Me too, I'm definitely not abandoning Garmin for Delorme for my GPS needs, so getting an Android phone would seem to be the only option if you want to use this device (although I believe they are looking at supporting other platforms, but who knows when that may come).

Speaking of Android phones, I wonder if the new Casio G'Zone Commando might be good mate for this device given its supposed "rugged" design.

They now have an IOS application.

-john