Mat71 Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Hi can anyone provide any advice on GPS units. I was looking at either the Garmin 62s or the Etrex 20 or 30 unless someone has a better suggestion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samburstalker Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Can of worms here, just get a rino 650 and them buy topo maps off eBay, people who use them rave about them, I'm one two. The minions who don't have the rino complain about them. The rino uses the same interface as the 62s but way better. I do own both units and rino wins And wait till the rino goes on special at 2for1 deal of $600 and get other mate to go halves 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipch Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 And wait till the rino goes on special at 2for1 deal of $600 and get other mate to go halves I would be interested in a deal like this. Do you have any idea when they might be on special Samb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samburstalker Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 I think the deal happens about twice a year. Altona hunter might know more when these go on sale, I just did a Google search but nothing popped up Tigers win 2015 AFL Grand Final 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gafloss Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 The rhinos might be handy if you hunt with others that also have rhinos. Otherwise, I'd much prefer to have two separate units. Run your batteries down in a rhino & you have lost both UHF and GPS. 62s is a good unit - a few of the guys on here have them, myself included. Some run them with the purchases AusTopo maps & others with ShonkeyMaps - both work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samburstalker Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Run your batteries down in both seperate units their gone as well, invalid point my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman_DJ Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 A transmitter uses vastly more power then a receiver!Separate units with spare batteries for the GPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbo 30.06 Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 The rino 650 is an awesome unit I wouldn't swap for any other combo. If your worried about batteries which you dont need to, I've used mine for week long trips an the battery has never even gone close to being low without charging while away. But if your still worried buy the optional car charger which you most probably wont use or buy a spare battery an leave in your pack an you'll probably never use that either. Simple really read up about them yourself cos if you talk to people who own the rino 650 they love them an if you talk to people that dont have them they think they are no good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncs Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 I don't have one and I hate the bloody things. Reason being - their main strength is that they "talk" to other Rhinos in the area so that you can see where your mates are. Great idea!! Problem is that they do this over UHF and do it on the channel you use to talk on. So they shoot out a squalk every few minutes and anyone on that channel has that squalk come over the radio. Not exactly great when you're trying to be quiet!! Massive pain in the arse. I'm thinking for the gatta we should have three frequencies this year. One for traveling, one for hunting, and one for the rhinos when not talking. But then if you do talk, the rhino users won't hear you... See - pain in the arse. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jindydiver Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 A couple of guys I regularly hunt Cape York with have these units and I was less than impressed with what they could do. There were many times where tree cover cut the signal from them so badly that my mate and I could talk to the rino guys, but they could not talk to us (my mate and I use Uniden units). We were waiting at one pick up point for ages calling them on the radios and getting no reply, we got impatient and took a drive down the track and found them walking out about 2km away. They told us they could hear us fine but were wondering why we couldn't seem to hear them. They liked the polling function on their units. If they got separated (happens a lot when you bowhunt creek lines ) the units would show where the other guy was. We have enough trouble with our unidens up in the hills, I can't imagine I would ever buy a rino. Get a decent garmin though, they have great features that are very handy for hunters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samburstalker Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 I'm wondering if they had their uhf power on .5w. Duncs you've been complaining about this noise now for three years, this year at the gatta your going to let me hear this noise. beep The rinos update when you talk not at random minute intervals. beep I'm with gibbo as well, the rechargeable rino batterie will last a weekend of hunting and longer. My 62s would get one day from two double A batteries if I was lucky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbo 30.06 Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Yer wondering the same if the UHF power was at 5W or down on 2W. I've hunted many times with them in victorian high country, plenty of tree cover an mountains there an we have never had a problem communicatng with them. One thing though to remember is if you change the battery pack from the lithium-ion battery which uses 5W for the UHF to a battery pack that uses AA batteries the UHF power will automaically be put down to 2W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kikka Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 No probs with my 62s. Wouldn't leave home without it now. Ryda do them pretty cheap. After the hunt with Henno I can see the point of the Rhino. We got separated and I'm a flat out UHF noob. That meant I had to be significantly more on my toes as far as taking a shot was concerned. The Rhino would have made life a bucket load easier. I hunt by myself mostly so the whole concept is pretty new to me anyway. There are other sources for maps besides ebay too. Shonky maps is one example and kickass is another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jindydiver Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hey that's the go, I tell you my experience with the rino, which happens to be different to your own and the next thing you know it must be user error rather than just an honest relation of their worth on that trip. The guys were on a rise easily 10km away and we had reasonable line of sight and could talk to them fine (bit scratchy but usable), but down in the timber and creek lines and they were just not as good as our unidens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncs Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Duncs you've been complaining about this noise now for three years, this year at the gatta your going to let me hear this noise. beepYou know me Mat - love to have a whinge! If we can narrow it down to something else and we can turn that feature off then I'll be a happy boy. Until I find something else to whinge about, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltonaHunter Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Here's a link to johnny Appleseed the place that has done the 2 for one in the past; https://jg-px.rtrk.com.au/Garmin/rino-650-gps-uhf-radio/ Its a great lil unit, wouldnt swap it for anything..unless they brought out a new version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbo 30.06 Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hey that's the go, I tell you my experience with the rino, which happens to be different to your own and the next thing you know it must be user error rather than just an honest relation of their worth on that trip. The guys were on a rise easily 10km away and we had reasonable line of sight and could talk to them fine (bit scratchy but usable), but down in the timber and creek lines and they were just not as good as our unidens. Calm down no body said anything about user error!!! just wondering why others would have this problem an giving some info on what could have caused it. As for the AA battery pack putting the UHF to run only at 2W I thought that was a fairly valid peice of info that you wouldn't be aware of, since I know people who own the rino an didn't know it either. Might have been worth asking your mate you were hunting with if they were using the AA battery packs. Anyway enough on this, the post is for someone wanting a GPS an best advice, do a bit of research yourself, even go have a play with a few in the store before you buy because everyone thinks what they have is the best.... same as me I think my rino 650 is the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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