The Garmin Rino 530HCx is a really powerful collaborative GPS device that allows you to communicate with and view other people’s positions in real time.

Since I’m in the mining industry I see the potential in a device such as this. When I’m out in the wild looking for rocks or taking samples it’s sure be nice to have a team of people out there with me that I could communicate with without having to bring a separate radio.

But the Garmin Rino 530HCx goes way farther than voice communication with its position reporting function that allows you to report your position to other Rino users in the group. The position reporting feature allows Rino users to report and receive Rino user positions and display them on the handheld GPS device.

Obviously I see the potential for use in the exploration part of the mining industry but I also see how it would be useful in search and rescue operations, group hiking, hunting and many other group based activities.

If you’re used to carrying a radio to communicate with other users while you’re doing activities that require both a GPS and a radio the Rino will allow you to shed a bit of weight by combining these devices.

See larger image Garmin Rino 520HCx 14-Mile 22-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio and GPS Receiver (Electronics) List Price: $449.99 USD New From: $417.82 In Stock Used from: $320.00 In Stock

I recently purchased some GPS software for my Windows Mobile OS based device and believe that this is some of the most advanced GPS software you can get for just $24!

Actually there’s 3 different versions of the software Basic (without upgrades), Standard (1 year of upgrades) and Geo (allows you to do area calculations and comes with 1 year of upgrades).

Since I use my GPS in mother nature’s great span of wilderness – I really prefer this type of software to navigational software.

One of the best things for me with this software is the ability to use Google Earth’s satellite photography as my maps. So when I’m hiking around in the Mexican sierra I won’t get lost! The compass view with the sun’s direction is also really helpful for me when trying to find out which direction I should be going. Of course, the software has all the functions of regular GPS software like the ability to add waypoints and tracks.

When I’m on the road or traveling in a city I’ve never been in and more so if it’s a popular tourist destination, the ability to use maps from Terraserver, OpenStreetMaps or Google Maps is perfect because I don’t have to shell out $50 to $100 just to get a CD with all the maps on it for where I intend to go.

Another neat feature if you’re traveling with a bunch of friends in a real connected city is the ability to share your GPS location with your friends in real time. Yes – I believe this software had the GPS Share functionality long before the iPhone even existed.

Download a free trial of GPS Tuner – Offroad Navigation Sofware today!

For clarity we’re going to break the electronics down into two parts.

We have the BEACON which is the part of the system that moves around and relays its’ position to the RECEIVER which shows the user the positional data or whereabouts of the beacon.

There are two basic approaches to relaying the beacon positional data back to the receiver and each of them have their own unique drawbacks.

The first method is to use the cellular network to send messages to the receiver device. Using the cellular network allows the system to be used pretty much anywhere that you have a cellular network but it might not work in the back-country where people would normally go hiking, boating, fishing or camping. If you intend to use the tracking system outdoors in those back-country places to track your dog if he gets lost then you’d better hope your dog has some good survival instincts and tracking ability of his own.

The Zoombak “Advanced GPS Car and Family Locator” is one product that uses a cellular network to relay the data back to the receiver. The receiver in this case is a web site on the Internet so you’ll need internet access to be able to use it.

Although Zoombak doesn’t charge a setup fee for the device; you’re going to have to pay a minimum $9.99 a month for the service and about $175.00 for the electronic beacon that you attach to the object you’d like to track.

The real drawbacks to the Zoombak is that you need internet access because it doesn’t come with a handheld receiver and that you’ll have a monthly service fee for as long as you’re going to use the device.

The second method is to use publicly accessible, free radio signals to send messages to the receiver device. Since the device is using public radio signals you can expect that there will be no monthly service fees which is a real bonus since paying a service fee for every electronic device that you own starts to add up to some real coin very quickly.

RoamEO is one manufacturer that makes these types of GPS tracking system devices that is made specifically for dogs. They give you a handheld receiver that tracks the position of the beacon in real-time so you can even use it in the back-country where there’s no cellular systems.

Since this device works on radio waves there’s some pretty strict regulations that they have to adhere to and one of them is the power level that they’re allowed to transmit. The handheld receiver will handle up to 3 beacons and the beacon device transmits at 2 watts on 154.6Mhz so the beacon isn’t going to be in Juneau, Alaska and transmit to you California.

The biggest drawback is that the device is only going to transmit about 1 mile and you’re going to foot about $400.00 for 1 beacon and the handheld receiver.

I really like the Zoombak device and if I didn’t have so many projects on the go I’d like to get ahold of a Zoombak to see if it could be hacked to be used off of their system and used independently of their service fees.

I’ve picked the Garmin iQue 3600 PDA with built in GPS, the HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion and the Garmin eTrex Venture HC Handheld GPS to compare.

Here the Line-up which is linked to Amazon.com so you can check them out:

See larger image Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS Handheld System with Americas Detailed Street Mapping (Office Product) List Price: $589.99 USD Used from: $65.00 In Stock

What I like about the Garmin iQue 3600 is that it has a nice compact design and it includes the excellent Garmin software to go with it. It has a really decent price too – I mean c’mon this is a full fledged portable computer capable of playing movies, music, storing your contacts and transporting documents. What I don’t like about it is that it has the Palm OS. Even though I use OS X and Ubuntu Linux the Palm Operating System just doesn’t cut it for me. I’m already on a limited device (for power) and now and locked into a proprietary OS – I just can’t do that.

See larger image HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion (Office Product) List Price: $599.00 USD New From: $229.00 In Stock Used from: $56.99 In Stock

The HP iPAQ rx5915 – Now this baby is sweet and it is my favorite of them all. I’m already partial to PDAs with built in GPSs and I actually paid a lot more for mine than what this is selling for. I’m really impressed by HP’s design on this one, it’s very modern and it really gives you a sense of mobility. They’ve gone all out here and have stepped far away from the typical PDA design. This device is loaded with the Windows Mobile OS and even though I’m not a Windows user on my laptops I really like the Windows Mobile Operating System for a handheld device. This comes with the popular and proven SiRF GPS chipset and is loaded with navigation software and maps.

See larger image Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver (Electronics) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Used from: $130.00 In Stock

No matter what there’s a place for this type of simple device. I call the Garmin eTrex Venture HC a ‘Disposable GPS’ and I don’t do that because it’s a bad device. I call it a Disposable GPS because it’s cheap enough and has enough functionality to be worthwhile taking to some of the more rugged places on the face of this earth. When you’re hiking in the Upper Sierra of Chihuahua, Mexico with the guys toting their ‘cuerno de chivo’ (AK47) for your protection this is the type of device that you’ll be wanting to carry. If you lose it, scratch or break it or even if it gets stolen from you it’s pretty rough to take, but it’s not as rough as losing or breaking your PDA. This is also a great first time GPS device – something you can pass off to a friend or family member when you decide to upgrade to something more sophisticated.

By the way – take EXTREME care in the back-country of Mexico. If you happen to stumble on something that doesn’t look right – my suggestion is don’t ever touch it, don’t look at it, and keep moving as if you had never seen it.

But really, it was a bad move throwing away your compass. It was a bad move even to not bring your compass. A GPS is an awesome tool but there is nothing like real time knowledge of the direction you are actually traveling in.

With a GPS you can actually go around in circles a few times before hitting your waypoint. This is most apparent when you’re actually using your GPS for accurate positioning in areas that are truly outback. It doesn’t take a person very long to turn direction or go off of heading when trying to dodge heavy brush that is wacking you in the face as your hiking through the bush. Your GPS is probably updating one time per second if you’re lucky and one time every five seconds if you’re not.

For this reason it’s always best to carry a compass and look at the digital compass face that your GPS will show you and the degrees off of north to your waypoint. Use your compass to move in the right direction because you probably generally know where north is but 10 degrees will throw you off a whole bunch.

No doubt that some of the newer devices now come with electronic compasses that work just as well as the traditional compass but if your GPS doesn’t come with one of these built in – this little tip will save you a whole lot of extra walking!

The Juno is basically a handheld mobile computer running the MS Mobile 5 operating system with the Trimble GPS hardware integrated into the device. The only thing more that I would like with this little machine is phone capabilities and maybe a 3 megapixel digital camera that supports GPS information in the photo exif data.

Trimble has been in the world of positional and field measuring hardware for a long time and has a reputation of being some of the most durable and accurate hardware used in this market.

The Juno ST has not been available for a very long time – I believe it is their first attempt to enter the general user marketplace with their GPS products. With a price tag of about $600 the Juno ST is priced well below their other equipment which starts at about the $4,000 point and continues upwards to about as far as you can imagine.

Since the Juno ST handheld has the MS Mobile 5 operating system you also have to your avail all of the other features that a mobile computer gives you. Spreadsheets, documents, notes, internet, email and instant messaging are all at your finger tips. Of course you’ll need a WiFi connection to use some of the features offered by the handheld device – so if you’re out in the field in the middle of nowhere you probably won’t be able to use the features associated with Internet Connectivity. If your hauling around a lot of gear you can forget about having to bring your MP3 player by loading up your handheld’s SD card with your MP3 collection before you leave.

If you’d like a full feature list of the Trimble Juno ST handheld computer all the information is available on the Trimble Juno ST web page.