DeLorme Earthmate GPS Receiver

However, with respect to the EarthMate GPS receiver device, I am afraid that I have to agree with the review below of Ray Butler from Hudson Mass. I was profoundly disappointed in this product. It basically does not work, and I can only characterize it as an expensive piece of crap. Let me explain.

I already owned an inexpensive Garmin eTrex hand-held GPS device before I bought the EarthMate. But because I was about to embark on a long road trip and wanted to track my progress while travelling I decided to "upgrade" to the EarthMate, which is a more expensive device, a year newer, and is recommended by DeLorme. Unfortunately, I had nothing but trouble with it, and wish I had simply bought the data cable for the Garmin eTrex instead. Here are my complaints about the EarthMate.

1) The EarthMate is EXTREMELY slow to get a satellite fix even under excellent sky visibility conditions--if, indeed, it EVER gets one at all. It never takes less that 5-10 minutes, whereas the Garmin takes at most 2 minutes. And the feedback during the process of getting a fix is terrible. It often spends a long time reporting "No GPS"--a message that I do not understand. I thought it meant that no GPS data was making it to the laptop, and hence spent an inordinate amount of time checking batteries, cables, serial port status and other possible hardware problems before noticing that sometimes it spontaneously progressed from the "No GPS" status to the "No fix" status on its way to eventually getting a fix, and thus the problem wasn't hardware at all.

While it is trying to get a fix it can display a table of information related to the satellites it is listening to; but as there is zero documentation sold with the EarthMate, I have no idea what the various table entries mean, or what many of the error messages mean either.

2) Even when the EarthMate does manage to get a satellite fix, it loses it so easily that it is almost useless. I drove 200 miles through the Bitterroot mountains with the EarthMate on the roof of the car, and I would say that the EarthMate was lost about 3/4 of the time. If you pass a row of trees on the side of the road, it loses the fix. If you go through a canyon or past a hill, it gets lost. If you pass a row of buildings in an urban area or pull under the overhang of a gas station it gets lost. Even if you just do a quick 180 and backtrack a way, it usually loses the fix. I am not exaggerating! And when this happens, your only recourse is to find a spot with optimal sky conditions and sit still for 5-10 minutes. By contrast, the eTrex, which was located INSIDE the car on the same trip (a much poorer receiving location, though more convenient) never once lost its fix under any of these conditions! And it both costs less, and has the enormous advantage of a small display, which means it is useful without a laptop!

3) The integration of the EarthMate with the DeLorme software is poor. It was clearly an add-on, and not designed in from the beginning, so there are numerous deficiencies. For example, it seems to have only a small amount of memory devoted to storing the recent trajectory you have travelled. It periodically throws away the recent track and starts afresh, which means you cannot have it plot all of a lengthy trip; nor can you save the track information in a file, or at least I have been unable to figure out how.

While it is plotting arrows on the map to mark your track, the arrows often go behind another window (e.g. the map legend) and you cannot see them until you move the offending window (a dicey operation while driving--don't try it!). The DeLorme software should be able to automatically translate either the map or the other windows so that your current location is always visible on the screen. It should also be able to dynamically rotate the map so that your direction of progress is always "up" (or "right", if you so choose) on the laptop screen. And it should be able to constantly display besides your speed, altitude, direction of travel, the estimated time and distance to next waypoint, and other trip-related data. Other GPS devices can do all this inside a handheld; but the DeLorme system cannot accomplish it even with all of the computational resources of a laptop! I can only characterize the EarthMate software as a feature-poor afterthought to the Street Atlas and Topo software.

In summary: the disastrously poor performance of the EarthMate, its mediocre software support, its comparatively high price, and the poor customer service by DeLorme reported by other reviewers, suggest that you should save your money or buy a different GPS device.


Good reception, blows through batteries   July 6, 2001
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Consider getting the PS/2 adapter for pass through power. I seem to have to pull the batteries out of it everytime and it gets annoying.


Good/Excellent, but use your head   April 24, 2001
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I've been using the DeLorme Map 'n Go v.5 for a good while, and find it very useful and worth the price when purchased as a software/Earthmate receiver combo.

Just know where you're going in general terms, and review the route on the screen for "reasonableness". One example I can give is a route sought for a trip from Wilmington, DE to Amherst, VA. I cited an "avoid" for the Washington metro area, which I refuse to drive thru; The route properly took me the way I normally go for that regular trip as I-95 ---> I-70 ---> US-340 ---> US-15 --> US-29. US-29 runs straight thru the center of Virginia, and goes directly to US-60 which is the Amherst, VA exit. So, why does the map software insist that I take US-29 to I-64 in Charlottesville, go west across the Blue Ridge to I-81, and then south to US-60 in Lexington and then go east again to Amherst?

So, do look at the route and just make sure that the plot makes basic sense even if you don't know the intimate details of the area. Challenge in your mind why one or the other detour may have been suggested and put in "avoids" to alter your trip. An example of "avoids" was used on a trip from Wilmington to Boston; By planting "avoids" in Jersey City and in New York City, I found a very peaceful drive thru northern NJ and southeastern NY state to Connnecticut and onward, which took less time than the suggested "direct" route thru a very congested part of the country. [On the return trip, I missed a turn and simply re-computed my trip, and the program got me back on path by an alternate route.] It was GREAT listening to the radio traffic reports citing total logjams on the roads I had chosen to avoid completely.....