GARMIN 010-00270-02 Rino Series 120 GPS with 2-Way Radio

PROS
Looks really cool in dark green, people have asked me if its a satellite phone or military grade etc..
Its a really great concept, and is the forerunner of next generation mobile phone location systems.
Its a fun novelty to use, and the gps feature alone can be used in non-extreme adventure settings too- to track a run, bicycle or car trip in detail- times, average speed, top speed route, time stopped etc..., and also has a feature called area calculater which you can use to measure sizes of land by walking around the lands perimiter.

CONS

As you probably know, the coordinate sending capabilities only work in the low power FRS channels of the radio (due to FCC restrictions). I thought maybe I could find some kind of hack to override this restriction on the radio, but no luck, still searching. The way to make best use of the rinos is to coordinate with other rinos both one FRS and one GMRS frequency, and always scan between the two, just in case.

The unit will continue to send old, stale coordinates to the other unit if it hasn't gotten a new position fix to replace it. This is annoying because when you think you know where the other one is, so proud of your technology, you can be way way off, much to the humor of the person your showing it off to.

You can not use this radio as a homing device- It cannot be set to automatically send out data at intervals. (I think it would be against FCC rule for unattended broadcast, but it would be great- to attach to your child, pet, or girlfriend to make sure they stay out of trouble while at the park or beach.)


Not too bad but has some issues.   May 21, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This unit works fairly well. I can tell you that the radio feature of it does not seem to work as well as a regular FRS radio. I was in a situation where I was standing right next to someone with a regular radio and they were picking people up that I could not hear. My communication abilities were not as good as the rest of our group. They were trying to talk to me several times and I never heard them. I am not sure if this radio just doesn't have the transmit strength of a regular FRS radio. I am also not sure if it possibly has a higher squelch threshold which would cause it to not hear as well as other radios.

Overall it is not a bad product. I will be interested to see version 2 of it. It think they will fix some of the minor issues that it has.


great!   May 16, 2003
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

I have just purchased my second unit and have a few things to share with the first time buyer.

This unit comes with a serial cable that is used for programming the unit and sending GPS data to the computer. after getting a new unit, check for updated firmware at garmin.com. the newest firmware helped the start time of my unit (the time it took to find a satellite) and improved its reception capability. after I updated the firmware I got a solid sat. lock from my living room couch.

some of the older units are effected by a poor audio quality due most likely to a faulty microphone in the unit. read the footnote at [website] and it says Rino 120 - Serial Numbers 38905977 through 38941463 are recalled. I have two units in this range. they are usable but you have to speak at just the right level. I will be returning them and getting updated ones when they become available in my area.

The FRS radio works well with my other motorola radios, and from my limited testing the sub channels (0-38) appear to all use the same tones as motorola. the FRS radio has the ability to 'scan' for conversation. something that is very useful if you were using it in conjunction with search and rescue (trying to find someone that you knew had an FRS radio)

some people have commented that when you are driving down the road the unit shows you as being off the road. the reason for this is that the basemap is VECTOR based (straight line between points) and there is a limited number of points stored in memory. If it bothers you to have your point shown off the road, there is a feature that you can use 'snap to road' or something like that. The actual position reported by this is VERY accurate. I have gotten the unit to 9ft of accuracy which is helpful for such things as geocaching.

There is limited third party software to generate your own map. do a search for 'garmin custom map' at google.com

this device is a great integration of GPS and FRS. the... pricetag seems steep until you realize that the exact same GPS WITHOUT a radio (and the vibrator that is in the model) is about that price. The features over the 110 are well worth it. it has a basemap of North/south america, 8 meg of memory for downloading map data, and a vibrator that will vibrate when you receive a call after 45 seconds.


Fun Toy, Awkward Tool   May 9, 2003
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

These radios cram a lot of great features in a package that almost fits in a pocket. And the price isn't bad for the combination of a decent radio and an adequate GPS, especially when you can do neat things like broadcast your position to other Rinos so that it appears on their GPS map display. But all these great features only really work if you are paying close of attention. There are simply too many features to use conveniently as part of any real outdoor activity. A superb, well thought out user interface might solve the problem, but that's not what you get with this product -- not by a long shot. Garmin has done a decent workmanlike job with its menus and buttons, but it simply isn't nearly enough to save these from being much more than toys.

Two further points worth noting. The longer range GMRS radio does not broadcast location information, and in order to use GMRS you must apply for a license with the FCC, involves a fee and several very confusing forms.


Mostly Pleased   May 2, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have not put a lot of time on this so far. One thing I am not the most happy with is the accuracy on the maps. It is fairly close but it will show you traveling paralell to the road you are supposed to be on. It does however put a circle of accuracy on the map with you. You are withing that circle of accuracy, so it is working correctly.

It has the capabilities to work with mapping programs other than the one that Garmin sells. I used mine with Microsoft Map Point. It worked great. The accuracy was much better on my laptop than on the screen of the 120.

I plan on using this for marking some specific points on some property then using it to navagate back to them in the dark. I hope it works well for that.

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