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Garmin Rino 120 Waterproof GPS / FRS / GMRS

Garmin Rino 120 Waterproof GPS / FRS / GMRS

List Price: $269.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nice gps/radio combo
Review: I have a rino 110 also but wanted the 120 for the mapping capabilities. It is worth the extra money because the rino 120 comes with the pc interface cable and a basemap of highways and routes. I bought the metroguide software and was able to install 4 area maps onto the 8 megs of memory. The unit works well when navigating around town. Radio range is expected with the 1/2 watt frs radio. When I received the unit, it had a minor defect. I returned the unit to garmin tech support and I had a replacement within 8 days. The 120 does have some features that the 110 does not have like vibrate, voice scramble and the ability to send a text message. It works well with my other rino 110's and I am happy with my rino 120.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great!
Review: 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.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mostly Pleased
Review: 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.

...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: short battery life
Review: I have the rino120 dnathe bartters go dead in about 3days. Is there somthing that i can plug into my 12v system in my car or logging truck cig liter.i am always on the road and it is hard to put batters in it while moving . thank you . larry logan 4008 wilson way lincoln dalif 95648.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Garmin Rino 120
Review: I purchased my fist Rino 120 a little less than a month ago. It operates as advertised. I like it so much I purchased a second unit today. No, not one for each hand. The second unit is for use by other members of my family.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A combination long awaited
Review: I was delighted to see the RINO models, as we found that carrying both a GPS and a separate radio while hunting was a real juggling act. This combination was an answer to prayers. I expect a significant number of my family and hunting friends will end up with these units.

Some of the reviews mentioned problems with radio compatibility with the Motorola FRS units. We have six of the Motorola units and have had no problems between them and the Garmin. I have also, so far, not had problems with battery life, and have used the unit in all combinations of operation. One hopes these problems were isolated events.

I find the RINO's operation to be very intuitive, little or no reference to the manual was necessary (though I have now read the entire thing). The unit is certainly the easiest of all the various GPS units I've used. This one even picks up signal while in our house, something no other unit I've seen has done.

A factor I had never considered with other units is how well the machine fits/holds in the hand.

So far, in our short association, I'm both very impressed and pleased with the machine. I would recommend it highly.

--------------------------
June 03.
The RINO and I have now been together for a number of months. It continues to be an excellent tool.

In addressing the reports of battery life and radio reception, I feel it necessary to report that I STILL have not had problems with battery life. I get two full days of 8-10 hour use from a set of batteries, with power left over.

Between my wife and kids, we have five different Motorola units and have zero problems communicating with them. Both my parents and my in laws have generic "no name" radio sets and the Rino also "talks" to them with zero problems. My unit has software version 2.10, and that may be a factor.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: make the motorola talkabouties jealous
Review: I would have given it three stars due to its mediocre usabilty, but the concept of this radio alone earns it the 4th star.

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.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: rino is junk
Review: im very disappointed in my rino 120.its plagued without problems.the microphone is not sensitive enough no matter how loud you talk into mic people can not here you on other 2 way radios.the input jack for headset is faulty you have to wiggle headphone plug around to get headphones and mic to work.basemap that is included with rino is vagued so plan on spending at least another [money]100 for mapsource cd.rino uses a click and stick button to switch modes and change setting the botton is small and difficult to use.lcd screen is so small you need a pair of binoculars to read it.i contacted garmin and they said tey were aware of the problems and were working on solutions.they would contact me when they come up with something.that was a month ago.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GPS Great/ Radio
Review: In Regards to the GPS functions/features it a great deal for the price. While the 2 way radio, well my title says it all, it's not a Motorola. The microphone is not sensitive enough no matter how loud you talk into mic, in addition people can not here you on other 2 way radios. However on Dec 23, 2002 new firmware (version 2.20) was released, and this appears to have fixed the several key issues, i.e. the microphone sensitive.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: FRS and GPS? No.
Review: Looking for an FRS radio and GBS in one unit? This is not it - Yet! FRS communications are garbled and intermittent between
other 120's and Motorola handhelds.

Per Garmin support, microphone and speaker have problems working
together. Software fix to adjust mic gain fail to fix the problem. I hope there is a hardware fix soon.

Had to return two units.

To be fare, the GPS works well and has lots of nice features.
The serial interface also functioned with Topo USA well.

I Truly look forward to a unit that works as advertized.


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