Owners Review Magellan Meridian GPS

March 28, 2004

 

Tester Bio

 

Name: Dan Reed

Age: 40

Gender: Male

Height: 5’8” (1.7M)

Weight:  195 (88kg)

Email address: dannreed “at” adelphia (dot) net

City, State, Country: Southwest Harbor, Maine USA

 

Backpacking Background:  I have hiked and backpacked for about 30 years now. I am surrounded by Acadia National Park, and travel all over Maine and eastern Canada to explore the outdoors. I am a former Registered Maine Guide, did Advance Life Support for several Ambulance services, and was on a search and rescue team for several years. I hike year round, Kayak, and hunt. The weather conditions here in Maine are greatly varied. Winter temperatures and wind chill are extreme and unpredictable. My backpacking style varies from ultralite to traditional.

 

Product Information

Manufacturer: Thales Navigation

Year of Manufacture: 2002

Manufacturer Website:  http://www.magellangps.com

Weight: 8 oz  (227g)

Weight delivered: 8oz  (227g)

The dimensions are 6.5 X 2.9 X 1.2 inches (16.5 X 7.4 X 3cm)

The unit runs on 2 AA batteries

MSRP: $329.99 USD

Description: A GPS unit, with a mapping display, that shows the user’s actual position on the map. It has upgradeable software, and accessory map software (not included) available separately. Map types available: Road, TOPO, and Marine

Quoted information: A GPS receiver for the serious navigator, Magellan^® Meridian^® Gold offers superior tracking and 3-meter accuracy, with an extensive, 16 MB, built-in mapping database that provides an easy way to view your location, heading and route. Rugged enough to go with you on any adventure, or just across town, Meridian Gold is designed to make getting where you’re going a fun, easy and safe trip.

 

Field Information:  I tested this unit all around Mount Desert Island, Maine, and Acadia National Park, using all the different types of maps. In the car with the road map, hiking in the park with the TOPO software, and out on the ocean with the marine software, over the span of several months.

 

Initial Impression: Out of the package it appeared to be a very solid and rugged piece of equipment, armored with thick rubber bumpers around the edges. The screen is fairly large, and easy to see, and the whole GPS is fairly large.

 

Field Experience: Before actually using this unit, it is necessary to go through the instruction manual and go through loading the software (maps) step by step. This involved first loading the included software into my computer, and then loading the option maps into the computer also. IMPORTANT NOTE-I would definitely not tackle this process if I was not an experienced computer user. This unit has a pre-loaded base maps, but is not nearly as useful without being able to load the optional maps that have a great deal more detail. Installing the maps on the computer and uploading the maps to the GPS, is not something to be tackled by the novice computer user in my opinion. I also upgraded the GPS software, as a new version was available with bug fixes. The software upgrades are available on the manufacturer’s website to download to your computer.

  After loading all the software I used the GPS with the TOPO maps in the woods hiking, the road maps driving around, and out on the ocean with the marine base map loaded. I was very impressed with the accuracy on the road, the GPS always showing what road I was on, within a few feet.  I used it to navigate around several fairly large cities that I had never been to, and found it was much easier than using paper maps, as I always knew exactly where I was located on the map. On the ocean, and the navigational buoy’s were dead on, which made ocean navigation a breeze during foggy days. .

   Using the unit for topographical maps, my two only complaints I would have is the elevation lines in the TOPO program are not very accurate, and that is not the company’s fault, as they are using government maps. The other fault is that the topo maps are lacking much of the detail a good 7.5 minute (scale 1-24,000) topo map has. It made navigation in unfamiliar areas much easier, with the built in back track function (a “breadcrumb trail”). It has seven different navigation displays, and each display can be customized by the user. For example, the screen which shows the map has 2 fields on the bottom below the map, and they are Heading and Speed. These 2 could be changed to Bearing and ETA to a certain point. The next screen shows a compass, and it shows  speed and distance to a user defined point. One feature I do really like is that I can save my track as a route, if I am going to be repeating the route in the future. Also on the compass screen, I can see where the sun and moon are in relation to my current heading. The unit saves what they call track points (i.e. breadcrumb trail) all the time the unit is turned on. The unit comes with WAAS enabled. WAAS is Wide Area Augmentation System. I have tried it many times with the WAAS turned on and off, and found no significant difference in accuracy. I have turned the WAAS off in my unit, as WAAS uses much more computing power, and therefore decreases battery life.

   I have used this GPS for several years for hiking and hunting, in areas both familiar, and unfamiliar to me. Though I always carry a compass and TOPO map as a back up, I can go into any area I’ve never been in before, without worrying exactly where I am all the time, as I know exactly where I am on the map, and have the trackback feature I can use to follow my exact route back to my starting point. I also mark a way point at the area I’m starting from, so I can go straight back to my starting point without having to follow the  path I used to get where ever I am presently at. Another screen is the satellite status screen, which shows how many satellites the unit is currently tracking, and the signal strength received by each individual satellite. I found in my use that frequently I had seven or eight satellites tracking at one time, with full reception strength. During all my times out (I estimate 30 to 35 hours in the field), I only lost the satellite signal twice to my knowledge, and that was because I was too close to the base a cliff that was blocking all reception. In even the very thickest brush and overhead cover, the signal strength was good, and I never lost the signal. One thing I did particularly like is the ability to download all the trackpoints onto a map on my computer at home. That way I can see and save trails that are not marked on my maps, and use it for future reference. I could also save the trackpoints to a route at home, and save the route to the removable memory card in the GPS. I have a 64 MB SD memory card in my unit, and I can load detailed maps of all of New England, with room left over to store several more states. I also have all of Maine stored as a TOPO map at the same time.

  My overall opinion of the GPS is that is makes life very much easier in areas that I have never been in. I don’t have to worry about keeping track of my current position on a paper map, or figure out the route to where I want to go. I just input my destination on the GPS map, and watch where I am, and where I want to get to on the map. One good thing is that if I encounter an area I don’t want to go through to get to my destination (like a swamp for example) and have to detour, I still know where I am, and how to get to my destination without needing to refigure my detour and route on a paper map.

  Magellan claims that the unit is waterproof, and I’ll include their quote “Meridian Gold is sealed to IEC-529 IPX7 specifications – and it floats!”. I did test this unit by throwing in my sink, and letting it float around for ½ hour. After drying it off, and removing the battery cover, it was perfectly dry inside.

 

Summary:  Overall I am extremely impressed with this unit, having had other different makes and models previously. Battery life is reasonable, accuracy was great, and the whole unit was well thought out and constructed. There are many different screens with the same information displayed differently, for the different types of navigation. There are a ton of options for advanced users, but it is still very usable for the novice user. My only reservation about this unit would be the map uploading to the GPS from the computer, and the software uploads. If you were not computer literate, you would need to find someone to do this for you. This is one GPS I’ll never do without again.

 

Things I liked:

 

1. Waterproof
2. Rubber armored
3. Accuracy
4. Very detailed maps

 

Things I didn’t like:

 

1.      Not as functional without loading maps from the computer