Garmin Rino 130 Handheld GPS Navigator and 2-Way Radio

I have had this for a year now and it works great. Matches ACU color. I would buy the 430 or 420 with the color screen but I don't need the color screen. I haven't downloaded any new base maps but I intend to do so at some point before a deployment. If you want a cheap GPS to give you MGRS grids, purchase the Foretrex not Forerunner. The Forerunner is only for lon/lat. So unless you are a flyboy and you want a cheaper, smaller unit get the Garmin Foretrex. I would like to get another unit that has an MMC slot, currently the only ones that have that are the E-Trex and some other models.

Overall it is a great item.

After reading all of the online reviews here on Amazon, and on the manufacturer's web site, I decided to purchase the units and judge for myself. I had been planning a trip to the Michigan sand dunes, and thought it would be nice for safety to have at least two units in case any member of my family got lost, or seperated during the trip.

Within the first few hours of using the units, we learned a few of it's idiosyncrocies. One thing you have to know is that the units must have time to "locate" at least 4 satellites before it will accurately report location info. The time required can vary, depending on the environment. Terrain with buildings, or other barriers, natural or otherwise, will increase the time required for the unit to "lock-in" satellites.

Once the unit's find the satellites needed for self-navigation, the unit works without much intervention. My 14 year-old son was able to learn how to use the tracking-navigation feature within a couple of hours of tickering with the unit.

Out in the field, my 14 year-old son made a miscalculation, and ended up in a chest-high pond of water, with him, his ATV, and the Garmin Rino 130 fully submerged for about 3 minutes. After the initial panic of making sure he was ok, and removing the water-logged ATV from the water, we immediately checked the Rino 130, and it was still working great. However, the external PTT microphone that is sold as an accessory did not survive the plunge.

The unit works so well, and is so simple to use, it can seem almost "toy-like" until you realize how much data it keeps track of at one time. Once I initiated the "tracking" feature for the other two units I purchased, it maintained location data for the duration of the trip, without any further manipulation. I was actually stunned by the simplicity of locating any of the units, even standing still. Although the compass feature works better when moving, it is still very accurate in a fixed location under the right conditions.

Overall, I would recommend this unit for anyone needing basic communication and GPS capability. The Radio was a bit under-powered in my opinion, but they were suitable for short distances in wooded areas. Near some metro areas, RF interference is definitely a problem, but that's no fault of the unit. Many of the people who have complained about this unit seem to either have received a defective unit, or don't like to read manuals.

I bought 2 of the Rino 130's for my wife and I to use for hiking, boating, and geocaching. We were excited about the prospect of peer to peer positioning, etc. After 10 minutes, one of them locked up, then the second one would not transmit only receive a radio communication. The only way to get either one of them to function properly again was to remove the power source, wait a few seconds and reinstall and power up again. The first time this happened I was hoping it would be an isolated incident; then it happened again 10 minutes later. I checked the software; one was running ver 5.40 and the other 5.20. Webupdater would not work with one of them. It would lock up during the firmware upgrade.
I chose to immediately return the items, thinking that if it is this much trouble now, what will it be like later. I expected better quality than this from Garmin. Great features and an intuitive user interface are a plus; however, dependability in the long run is apparently non-existent. The GPS portion of the unit is terrific. The problem seems to be aligned with the communication creating instability. I am purchasing a different unit and plan to make it a Garmin product again.
Amazon is easy to deal with on returns; 5 stars to Amazon.

We have many sets of radios as we use them for airsoft and paintballing. When we decided to buy a 2in1 system (GPS and radio) we deicided to look at these. The GPS unit is awesome.

When using the radio, I find that the batteries drain a little too fast. We therefore purchased a set of IASUS throat mics online (AMAZON doesn't carry them!) so we could save more battery power. That actually made the unit sound better also! If the radio didn't eat up so much power and sounded better, I would give the Garmin a 5 star.

I have been using the Garmmin Rino 120 and 130 for two years for Boondocking Snowmobiling in Alaska, and Hunting. As for hunting my son lost his 120 in the tundra caribou hunting and I used the poll for position function and it locked on to his 120 and I used the GOTO function and it brought me right to the lost GPS. I have had no problem with the radio I think it works great, I was able to locate and communicate with other members of my hunting party when they were out of sight in a draw and at an 800 foot higher elevation and 1 mile away. The MapSource is easy to use and down load the needed maps fairly easly, and the Garmin web site is easy to download software updates. I have found the altimiter to be spot on when snowmobiling. The batteries last about 8 -10 hours depending on how much you use the radio and you get about 45 mins of time after you get the low battery warning but the radio does lose clarity and transmission strength at this time.
I find the function buttons and zoom fuction easy to use, I would diffently buy this unit again.