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Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Suunto Advizor > Coy Starnes > Initial ReportSuunto Advizor
Initial Report April 14, 2006 Tester: Coy Starnes  Gender: Male Age: 44 Weight: 246 lb (112 kg) Height: 6 ft (1.8 m) E-Mail: starnescr@yahoo.com Location: Grant, Alabama, USA Tester Bio I live in North East Alabama. I enjoy hunting, fishing, canoeing, and most other outdoor activities but backpacking is my favorite pastime. I enjoy hiking with friends and family or solo. I hike throughout the year and actually hike the least in the hot humid months of summer. My style is slow and steady and my gear is light. However I will sacrifice weight for comfort and durability. A typical 3-season load for me is around 20 lb (9 kg) not counting food or water. I usually sleep in a hammock and cook with an alcohol stove. My backpacking trips are usually 2, 3 or 4 days in length. Product Information Manufacturer: Suunto Manufacturer URL: http://www.suunto.com/ Year of Manufacture: 2006 Color: black with gray trim Listed Weight: 1.9 oz (54 g) Measured Weight of Advisor: 1.9 oz (54 g) Weight of Heart Rate Monitor Belt: Not Listed Measured Weight of Heart Rate Monitor Belt: 2 oz (57 g) MSRP: $299.99 US (including HRM belt) Warranty: two years excluding the battery Product Features from Website
Initial Impressions I received the Advizor on April 10, 2006. As can be seen in the above chart, the list of features on this watch is longer than my arm and I must say, I was and still am intimidated by all this watch is capable of performing. I can scarcely remember what I had for breakfast but this watch can remember the high and low altitude, the high and low temperature and even keep track of the barometric trends over the past several days. I was also a bit surprised to find a little black doohickey (heart rate monitor and belt) in the box along side the Advizor. For some reason, I was thinking the heart rate monitor function would work by reading the pulse on my wrist. I mean that's one place I check mine manually. But enough of that, here is my test plan for this wonder of science and technology. Test Plan for the Advizor I will cover the HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) test plan in a separate section. My first order of business it to learn how to use all the features on this watch. In case you are wondering, I am not all that gizmo inclined. For some reason, the term Hi-Tech redneck comes to mind. I have been reading the instruction manual and so far everything is not overly complicated but there are a lot of steps to remember when setting everything up. So far I have managed to get the date and clock set and set the maximum and minimum heart rate values I have chosen for the HRM. I also changed the all the settings to read Imperial units instead of the Metric units it was set on at the factory. I also changed the millibar setting to inHg which is what I am used to hearing on the news when they do the weather report. I will use most of the features on this watch and try to keep track of how easily I find getting useful data from it. I still have not figured out how to use the log function to retrieve data. Here are a few of the basics I will be testing and reporting back on. I have them listed in the order I anticipate using the most. Time: I set my watch to an atomic clock. I will see if it maintains a fairly accurate time. I will also use the stopwatch feature to measure any improvement I make in hiking a short but steep section of trail during my exercise hikes. I can't really jog because of my knees but I can train hard on steep uphills without bothering my knees as bad. I will also set one of the 3 daily alarms to wake me up. I doubt I use some of the features such as lap time or the finish time of up to 30 runners but I will try to learn how for fun.  Advizor and Atomic Clock: Note how indoor temperatures match Temperature: I will mainly be interested in finding the overnight lows. I will also report on how much difference I get when wearing the watch as apposed to reading the temperature it gives when off my arm. So far I have noticed that it reads about 10 F (6 C) warmer on my arm and about 15 F (8 C) when shooting hoops. To be fair, the manual does indicate that the watch needs to be off the wrist anywhere form 15 to 30 minutes to give the correct temperature. Barometric Pressure Reading: A barometer is an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure, or air pressure. Very basically, a low or descending barometric pressure reading means the weather is bad or rain is headed in. A high reading generally means clear sunny weather. The Advizor can keep up with the changes so that I don't have to keep a close eye on the barometer. I will report on how I use this function to predict the weather and also what I notice on how it affects the Altimeter. Altimeter: According to the website, the altimeters used  in Suunto watches base their measurements on air
pressure. I'm thinking it may be the same one used to measure the
barometric pressure, just using a different calculation for the readout
because the instructions mention that you can correct the altimeter by
entering the current barometric pressure or setting it to a know
altitude. However, I will observe how easy it is to calibrate the
watch to a known altitude and also how easy it is to keep track of
altitude gained or lost while out hiking. Here is the watch on my
back deck. As far as I can tell the altitude is fairly
accurate. I found my house location using Google Earth and it
shows the altitude at 1133 ft (345 m) while my watch is reading 1220 ft
(372 m).Compass: I will report on what declination I end up using (need to find a local map) and then report on whether I need to change this setting as I venture a few hundred miles east or west of my home location. I'm guessing that moving north or south will not mess up my declination settings as much. Hopefully I won't need the compass to get myself unlost because most of the trails I hike are well blazed or ones I know by heart. That pretty much covers the basics but mainly, I plan to just have a lot of fun with this watch. It will be cool to have a better way to keep track of conditions as I am out on the trail. I know that technology is just a tool and that I will still need to rely on my common sense to make my travels safe and fun. For instance, if I am cold I will put on a sweater or jacket. I won’t need a watch with a temperature reading to tell me that. But it will be nice to know the temperature in the middle of the night when I am (hopefully!) toasty warm and asleep. I will also keep track of such things a durability and waterproofness. Test Plan for the Heart Rate Monitor Before getting started I have to let it be known that I am not a doctor and I am not recommending any prescribed exercise routine or method. Also, I need to define a few acronyms. These would be:
Before I knew that Suunto made a watch with a HRM I ran across an interesting article in the August 2005 edition of Outside magazine. The gist of the article was that even a relatively fit individual can have a heart attack from exercise due to genetics and/or diet. Seems that both can lead to arterial plaque which is basically build up on the artery walls which causes a restriction of blood flow. For some reason this article stayed in my mind. In January while climbing a long steep slope I know my heart beat was up there. I remembered the article and slowed down. I don't know what my heat beat was then and I realized that a way to keep track of my heart rate while hiking or exercising might be more than just a handy tool for keeping myself in a good shape, it could in fact, save my life. As I researched further I found several tips on determining a safe heart rate for exercising. The simplest is to take your MHR and multiply it by anywhere from 50% to 75% depending on your goals. I used the slightly more complicated Karvonen Formula which takes into account my RHR which is a fairly good indicator of my fitness level. First I determined my MHR. This was easy using the standard formula: 220 - Age = MHR. Using this formula my MHR is 176 (220 - 44). Using the Karvonen Formula I take my MHR and subtract my RHR, multiply this by my Intensity (determined by the fitness level chart below) and then add back my RHR. Intensity chart for determining THR
Using this and deciding (an honest but also arbitrary guess) that I am at the low end of average fitness I have assigned my ideal THR at 133 (176 - 68 x .60 + 68 = 133). This number should change as I become more fit. My RHR should lower but I should be able to safely increase my intensity level. Without much more study on the matter I have decided that for now I will set the Advizor to let me know when I fall below 120 BPM and above 150 BPM. I feel that 150 BPM is far enough below my MHR to lessen my chances of a heart attack. It also lets me use what I will call HIT (hiking interval training). I will hike fast enough to maintain my THR most of the time but also go above and below it. I will also stop and do a few exercises (sissy pushups at a convenient log across the trail etc). Here is a sneak peak at what I have learned so far. The first time I used the HRM it worked fine but I had not entered my maximum and minimum HR limits. Actually the limits are set to default at 20 BPM and 220 BPM but my HR never went that high or low...thank goodness! So, after setting them I went for another hike. I wore the HRM over a t-shirt (this is allowed) and wet my shirt in the spot where the HRM picks up the signal. If wearing the HRM over a shirt this is recommended to give better conductivity. For some reason my watch went to beeping constantly (every few seconds). It is not a loud piercing beeb but loud enough to notice. Just as I reached the bluff to head off the mountain it hushed up. I looked and my HR was 121. OK, so when the watch sees I have reached my THR (lower limit in this case) it hushes. Cool! As soon as I started hiking downhill my HR went back below 120 BPM so the watch started chirping again. I reached the creek and rested a few minutes before heading back up. I had not gone far when I was back within the range I had set so it quit beeping again. I stayed at between 130 and 140 BPM the entire hike back up. I sped up right near the top and made my heart work a little harder and sure enough at 150 BPM the watch started beeping again. I think it was saying, "slow down old man, before you have a heart attack". Wow, this is not just cool, it is Amazing!!!
What do I expect to gain from all this?  Actually, lose may be a better term. I saved this
photo till last to avoid scaring readers off but it shows exactly what
I want to lose. The picture shows me in a pair of 38 jeans.
These jeans fit me well last summer. Now I have to unsnap them to
tie my shoes. I have set out a few goals which I will keep track
of during the testing period. I will update it when I
submit my Field and Long Term Reports. Needless to say, I hope to
see a decline in these numbers. RHR = 68 Weight = 246 lbs (112 kg) One last note: I am not publishing any set numerical goals. However, my goals are to reduce my weight and increase my overall fitness level. I also have to be careful with my bad knees. If I go out and overdo it I sabotage myself with sore knees and it can take weeks to get back to normal. Swimming would probably be the ideal exercise for my situation but I will use HIT up and down the mountainous trails around my home. I have also signed up on Suuntosports.com I have looked over the site and to be honest, I am a little under whelmed. It has a forum for discussing various watches. However, I did a search on Advisor and found only a few comments which really did not add to my knowledge. There is also a training section where members have posted their training results. The training logs seem like mostly runners and the layout of the information is not all that intuitive for me. I could see where they were making some progress but it was difficult to decipher. The links section leads to several interesting looking sites but many were not in English. Yes, I know English is not the only language so I am not fussing, just stating the fact that I could not read them. I still plan to use the site some to see if I can benefit from it and maybe even enter some information myself. And finally, I realize that the HRM on the Advizor is just a tool. I will still need to improve my diet (the dollar menu at McDonalds is one of my problems) and also become more consistent with my exercise program. Expected Testing Locations and Conditions I will be testing in the southeaster US with trips into the local mountains of Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. However, most testing will be done in northeast Alabama where it is handy to camp and day-hike. Elevations will generally be less than 4000 ft (1200 m) and temperatures will be possibly warm but not hot early on but getting hotter as summer makes its presence felt. Trail conditions vary from wild to mild and weather conditions can change pretty rapidly at time as well, all which should make for excellent testing conditions for the Advizor Stay tuned for further reports and results! Read more reviews of Suunto gear Read more gear reviews by Coy Ray Starnes Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Suunto Advizor > Coy Starnes > Initial Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
