I have been looking for a replacement for my good old Garmin Emap that has served me very well over the years. In that time I have had several Garmin Etrex series, a Magellan Sportrak and a newer Garmin 60CSx. All of them have been good units but I still feel something was missing. I recently purchased a DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 and so far I am extremely impressed with this unit.



I purchased the unit from Walmart.com who has them on sale for $245 at the time of the purchase.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog...?product_id=10759794



The unit comes with the DeLorme Topo software, a 1gb memory card, a package of Energizer batteries, and a lanyard. The picture shows the unit coming with Topo 7 but mine came with the new Topo 8 software package and the most recent firmware version 2.5! I looked at the information on the unit and it had a manufacture date less than a month old, how new is that.

Geocaching

The PN-40 has paperless geocaching capability which is a HUGE benefit for those like myself who are hopelessly addicted. Below are some screen shots from another website showing the notes and other information that can be loaded form geocaching.com in the form of a GPX file. The notes and hints load the past five logs from the website and can be accessed while looking at the cache or while navigating. Very cool!! Below are some screen shots off of another website.




Once you have found a cache it brings up another screen so you can add notes and look for other caches. Another great benefit of this unit is when you return to your geocaching page you can upload your field notes and log your visits without having to visit each cache description....very nice.

Mapping

I use my hand held unit quite a bit attached to my ATV or in my hand while hunting. I found this unit maintained lock very well. On my last ride I had my old Emap on the handle bars and sense my Ram mount had not arrived yet the PN-40 was wrapped in a rag and placed into a fender bag. The PN-40 never lost lock and acturally tracked better than the unit on the bars...Very impressive. I have not seen an issue with loosing satellite lock and would compare it to the Garmin 60CSx that I have used in the past. Here is a route taken from our past ride.



Here is the associated profile, the blue line was my speed



I am liking this unit more and more.

Other Features

Where the PN-40 really shines over other units in my opinion is the ability to download aerial images, quad maps, NOAA nautical charts and Sat images! You read that right you can overlay the basemap over an aerial image and still see your location. If you have other maps loaded you can toggle back and forth as to what background you would like to see. This is very impressive and with the capability of handling a 32gb memory card you have one powerful tool. Below are a few screen shots off another site.





This unit will also do turn by turn directions although it does not talk to you like others out there it does beep to let you know when to take an action. I did notice that if you clicked on a point of interest you could get the address and phone numbers to the locations. I know the 60csx has this function and some other handheld units might that I am not familiar with.

Conclusion

All in all I am very pleased with this unit and if I would do it again I would choose the PN-40 in a heart beat. It does not have the fancy features like touchscreen like the Oregon does but feature for feature, dollar for dollar this unit can not be beat.

DeLorme PN-40 pros

Aerial imagery, USGS topo maps
Detailed hard-copy owners manual included
Topo USA included in purchase
Triaxial electronic compass
Fast redraws
Paperless geocaching
Good visibility in various daylight conditions
Excellent support forum

DeLorme PN-40 cons

Small screen
Unintuitive software (Topo USA)

Below is a link to a much more detailed review which I used the screen shots from.

http://gpstracklog.com/2009/02...te-pn-40-review.html

Junfan - great report. Thank you.

quote:

I purchased the unit from Walmart.com who has them on sale for $245 at the time of the purchase.

Nice review and boy, did you get a deal! I clicked on the price link and it came back at $309!

Junfan~
Thanks for posting that report. I also like everything about that GPS except the screen size,...it is just to small for old eyes. When they come out with a larger form factor this I will seriously consider grading.

I also have this unit since late July. The more I use it the more I know I made a wise choice, for once.

Very user friendly verses the Magellan's I used in the past. I like the Delorme's Topo software, and also like you can upload the topo info "You Select" to the unit with separate area discs.

The small screen size really hasn't bothered me. I am borderline for bifocals, and I do use cheaters (reading glasses 1.25 & 1.50) when I have the contacts in, plus doing close up technical tasks with the regular prescription glasses on.

You can make the map closer, and select bigger text on other screens, but hasn't come to that yet.

I have the SE model of the PN-40, it has more internal memory, plus I added either a 4GB or 8GB card as well for external memory (have a few of extras both here, so whatever I grabbed is in there). I also optioned for the rechargeable batteries with 12-volt plug. I have yet to have it fail me for loss of power.

A major con though is it takes forever for the batteries to charge. After a days ride, might as well plug it into the house current over night as it takes a long time to recharge.

Never used a Garmin, but between a Magellan and the Delorme, Delorme PN-40SE wins hands down.

Yesterday I went up to Cabelas looking for a new GPS and came home with Delormes PN-30. It is basically the same as the PN-40 except it doesn't have the altimeter and compass. I will be using it solely for hunting so I will always have my magnetic compass with me, and there really isn't that much elevation changes it the area I hunt so the altimeter isn't really needed. I couldn't justify spending $100 more for something I didn't need. The PN-30 is $299 with a $50 rebate. I just wish it came with the orange case so when I set it down in the woods it is easier to find. (I set one down a couple of years ago and had a heck of a job finding it.) Since I will be walking, not riding, the screen size works fine.

I have the Topo USA v8.0 installed on my computer and have been playing with that. This programs operates pretty much the same as all the other Delorme programs so there is no real learning curve for that. I just have to figure out how to transfer the maps to the GPS. It will take a little playing with it, but I am sure I will figure it out. If not, the Delorme company is less than 1 hour ride from my house. I will load Topo USA on my laptop and go up to their mapstore and have them show me.

When you have topo opened on the puter, hook up the GPS to it, turn it on. A window will pop up. The right side is the GPS, the left side the puter. It the menus you need select what you want to transfer. Then use the buttons between the 2 windows to either send to GPS, or send to puter.


Before that when you power up the GPS, an option will appear on the screen, select data transfer and hit enter. Then use the 2 windows mentioned above.

Very easy compared to the nightmare of changing files, etc with the magellan's I've used.

As for the maps to the GPS, put whatever the area you want to upload CD in your computer. Menu should open up for you to select the state, or areas within that state.

Kenny, thanks for the reply. I figured out what I was doing wrong. More to the point, what I wasn't doing. I selected my maps ok, but I wasn't giving my selection a name, so the save button never lit up and I didn't have anything to transfer. Once I figured this out, everything went pretty smoothly.

One thing I did notice that transfering large area maps created a problem. I tried 2 different selections; 1. all of Me, NH and Vt and 2. entire state of Maine. Both times, the selection transfered, but the GPS said the maps were corupt. Smaller areas, like a single county worked fine. Oh well, I really didn't need all that area right now. I can add it as I need it.