Magellan SporTrak Map Waterproof Hiking GPS

This Map model resides at the low end of Magellan's Sportrak series, which is geared more toward the outdoorsy type than the business person navigating appointments from the car. The Sportrak Map offers a 2 MB built-in map database of North America, a relatively small 6 MB flash memory for downloading maps and points of interest from your PC, storage for 500 waypoints and 20 routes, and WAAS reception (more on that in a moment).

Our first of the Sportrak Map was that it was much smaller than we imagined from the online images we'd seen. At 2.2 inches wide and 5.6 inches, it's about the same size as our old Nokia 5190, and its 6.1-ounce weight is slightly lighter than that old behemoth. The controls at the bottom of the device are well laid out and easily accessible, whether you're right- or left-handed (though the smaller Enter and Nav buttons could prove challenging if wearing bulky gloves). The 2.2 by 1.4-inch grayscale display was adequate, and definitely geared toward handheld viewing.

The Sportrak Map has 9 information screens, including compass, track details, and satellite status. It also has such useful features as track back (which helps you to retrace your steps to previous waypoints) and a track-to-route saving function. (A track represents your current direction of travel, but it won't be saved to your GPS until it's created as a route.)

As mentioned, the Sportrak Map is a fairly base-level GPS unit, which can be a bit disconcerting for GPS newbies. Though it does have a North American land-mass and waterway database, it does not show much mapping detail (save for major highway systems and points of interest like airports and lakes). Again, the Sportrak Map is best used for hikes, mountain biking treks, and the like. You can easily set it to capture the path you follow (i.e., create a track) with specific markers (waypoints), and then upload this set longitude/latitude data to a PC to record your route. Our first attempt at naming a waypoint, which requires using the thumbpad to navigate to onscreen letters and numbers, took longer than it should, but we devised a system that kept our names short but recognizeable.

In our testing, we had access to a Magellan Mapsend CD-ROM, and were able to download maps to the Sportrak Map. We grabbed a large swath of the Seattle metropolitan area (including detailed city streets) and transferred it easily to the device (the file was a little over 3 MB, or half the available memory). Smaller map selections for multiple hikes and such will definitely fit on the device, though highly detailed topographical maps may not.

As with most new handheld GPS receivers released since the middle of 2003, the Sportrak Map adds WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Service) reception for a reading of your location that's accurate to about 3 meters. Is it handy? Definitely, for some--but it will be mostly transparent to you under typical use. For others, such as a friend who is plotting specific hikes in the Pacific Northwest for a book, the accuracy WAAS provides will improve the precision of tracks and offer better detail for map illustrations.

The Sportrak Map isn't the most powerful GPS receiver out there. But if you're looking for a navigation device that offers accuracy, transfer of routes and waypoints to a PC, and a modicum of extended features (such as detailed map download), the Sportrak Map might just be your ticket to adventure. --Agen G.N. Schmitz

Pros:

• Easy to use, accurate GPS receiver for outdoor activities
• Ruggedized, waterproof exterior (that even floats)
• Internal memory enough for medium-sized map downloads
• Ability transfer of routes and waypoints to PC via included serial cable

• 6 MB memory won't be enough for detailed topographical maps
• No external memory card capability (for that see Magellan's Meridian series)
• Isn't recommended as primary in-city navigation device

Included in SporTrak Map is a 2 MB North American basemap of highways, parks, major waterways, and political boundaries. You can take advantage of its 4 MB memory to download detailed maps from Magellan's MapSend line of CD-ROMs. With Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) support, the SporTrak Map offers readings with up to a three-meter accuracy.

The large display, along with a front-facing 9-key keypad, makes it easy to use in any environment. SporTrak Map software includes seven graphic navigation screens, storage for up to 500 waypoints and 20 routes, a best fish and game time calculator, and BackTrack for finding your way home after a long trip into the woods.

The SporTrak Map runs on two AA batteries for up to 14 hours. It's housed in rubber-armored, impact-resistant plastic that's waterproof and also floats.

Navigate with ease using the SporTrak Map's intuitive controls.