Best Handheld GPS for Amtrak Travel

[Mike S.]

What is all of your experience with handheld GPS units on trains. I’ve got an older Garmin Etrex and I was shocked to see that they still sell it on their website. Seriously, this thing is like 5 years old. I did notice that it’s now called the Etrex-H and they mention that it has a high sensitivity receiver (while other more expensive garmin models list “no” for high sensitive receiver).

The reason I ask is that my 5 year old only seems to work about 40-50% of the time..even in the viewliners with large windows and it pressed right up to the glass. I'm not sure if my old version has this higher sensitive receiver.

Any recommendations? Non-Garmin units?

My garmin worked about halfway up the Hudson yesterday, but between Hudson, NY and ALB it would not pull more than 2 sats (out of 4) on it's little connection screen. Long story short, I could connect and get a speed reading during that stretch and that is where I wanted it most. I want to see if my LSL train was cracking 100mph on the 110mph track. I know we were over 90mph durning some parts south of Hudson, NY (as per the gps when it was working).

Help me buy a new gps..LOL.

 

[Madbuster]

My Etrex Vista HCX works great except in Acela cars. It has a high sensitivity receiver and as long as it's near a window at all it will bring in signal. It takes a bit long to get the initial fix but once it does it reacquires much quicker if dropped.

 

[Mike S.]

Thanks for the imput madbuster.

Good to hear it works well. Ok...next level...what units also have sucess on the Acela?...since I somtimes (but rarely) ride that too.

Mike S.

 

[the_traveler]

I have a Garmin i5, and have used it on my past trips and also on Acela. My only problem with it is that there is not (or at least I didn't find) an off road setting. It did follow the tracks, but if you were near a street, it automatically reverted to that!

So at times, you find yourself going down 27th Avenue or Main Street or a dirt road (next to the tracks) at 79 MPH or driving down the center of Philadelphia on a side street at 95 MPH! :lol: But it did show my Acela passed through KIN at 142 MPH! B)

Now I have a GPS installed on my netbook. I hope that works better! I'll find out next week!

 

[PetalumaLoco]

I have a Garmin i5, and have used it on my past trips and also on Acela. My only problem with it is that there is not (or at least I didn't find) an off road setting. It did follow the tracks, but if you were near a street, it automatically reverted to that!
So at times, you find yourself going down 27th Avenue or Main Street or a dirt road (next to the tracks) at 79 MPH or driving down the center of Philadelphia on a side street at 95 MPH! :lol: But it did show my Acela passed through KIN at 142 MPH! B)

Now I have a GPS installed on my netbook. I hope that works better! I'll find out next week!

Which GPS on the netbook?

 

[the_traveler]

Now I have a GPS installed on my netbook.

Which GPS on the netbook?

I have a DeLorme Earthmate GPS BT-20.

 

[PetalumaLoco]

Now I have a GPS installed on my netbook.

Which GPS on the netbook?

I have a DeLorme Earthmate GPS BT-20.

I use MS, so I don't know how the DeLorme will handle rails.

Have you checked out these guys?

Laptop GPS World

Good people over there. Forgive me if I've posted that link before.

 

[user 683]

I have a Garmin e-Trex Vista and a really old, but pretty reliable, GPS III+. As for use on the train, I've found the GPS III+ works much better since it has a larger antenna and since one could use an external amplified antenna to improve signal reception. The GPS III+ has a 5000 tack point limit, which can be a problem if you care to store track histories for long trips (say more than 10 hours). The other problem with the GPS III+ is it has a 30 second power down timer if external power is lost. This feature is intended to allow the user to acknowledge the unit would switch to battery power in the event of external power loss. I can understand the logic of this feature - that is to let the user make a conscious decision to use the batteries. The "feature" creates problems if your trying to track your trip overnight. Consider that electrical power may be interrupted during certain overnight station stops, such as in Pittsburgh or Cleveland on the Capital Limited. I solved the track history problem by hooking up the GPS III+ to my laptop where I use the DeLorme Street Atlas application to monitor trip progress. Street Atlas can also be used with DeLorme's EarthMate GPS receiver.

The e-Trex works best when placed as close as possible to the window, and preferably away from the sides of the window. To facilitate this, I made a window mount - a plastic strip connected to two suction cups. I place the e-Trex belt clip on the plastic strip and voila - instant light weight window mount.

I've been thinking about purchasing a new Garmin receiver since, among other capabilities, the newer units have a more sensitive receiver. This would certainly help with signal reception issues and make initial synchronization much less troublesome when first leaving stations that have a canopy that inhibits signal reception.