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Lowrance H2OC????
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:57 pm
by Wallyboss
Who has this GPS and what do you think of it???
Thanking you in Advance
Dan aka WB
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:12 pm
by steve-hamilton
I have it in the non colour version. i paid over 300 dollars a few years back.
its incredibly easy to use.
its waterproof. (h20, duh, lol)
the screen isn't the biggest, but its portable, so just put it closer to your face, lol.
it comes with the cigarette adapter plug in, use it. she eats batteries.
i would sooner go fishing without a fish finder (and thats great lakes trolling) than a gps.
you'll read tons of folks love their garmin's, but nothing wrong with the h20.
only thing that SUCKS about it, no USB plug in. you have to buy a memory card reader if you want to transfer your info to your computer.
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:19 pm
by Gord
Got one for Xmas Wally.......so far I like it.......but I'm still tryin' to figure out how to use it!

....actually, Slushy knows more about it than I do!

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:31 pm
by steve-hamilton
what you having prob's with?
maybe (stress maybe, i'm not that great with it) i can give ya a hand.
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:26 pm
by Wallyboss
What card for maps do you have??? have you heard about the Canada Lakes one??? from Navionics?? If so do you know if it has the ottawa River in it. I know that the great Lakes East has it.
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:41 pm
by joco
take a look here...
great site explane all gps..
great rpice.............plus free shiping if you are a quebecgeocashing member.....
there tons off info on deferent ships and all to.
joco
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:52 pm
by Wallyboss
Joco take a look where???
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:03 pm
by joco
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:32 pm
by Weekend Angler
Hi Guys;
I bought an H20 last spring. I spent most of the summer playing around and learning how to use it.
I love it and the price was great. $183.00 at LeBaron during the no tax sale. They dropped the price last year when they came out with the color one. The BW unit used to be $300 but now the color unit is $300.
I don't need to see rocks and deadheads in color...
Go for it. Well worth the price for all the functionality you get. The only thing I wish it had is the barometer. It wasn't worth another $150.00 to get the hunting version which has the barometer. Go figure you would think they would put that on the fishing version...
I didn't get a car charger with mine but I bought a set of rechargeable batteries and charger for under $30 and one set lasts all day no problem. I like that they only need 2 AA batteries.
Later
Weekend Angler
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:53 pm
by eye-tracker
Walyboss,
The Lowrance H20 is a great unit, many of the great features have already been covered in this thread. A few additional features I will mention are, it runs the same software as all the Lowrnace/Eagle GPS units so in the future if you upgrade or add an additional large GPS Marine unit like a GlobalMap 9200C all the menu functions, operation, saved way points will be the same and work in the new upgraded unit. Lowrance offers excellent software updates for their units that you download from their website. Last but not least you can learn, practice to use the GPS with the free Lowrance emulator software:
http://www.lowrance.com/Software/PCSoft ... efault.asp
One comment on colour vs. grayscale, colour on a GPS marine map helps you quickly distinguish the colour of a channel buoy. (Green vs. red) Other than that both units work fine for navigating.
-sheldon
GPS
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:39 pm
by JimW
I have had an H2OC for about a year and a half and love it!! I use the Navionics Gold chip in it for fishing certain bodies of water, and use the MapCreate Topographic maps when using it for hunting. I have been using the similar iFinder Pro/H2O units for about 3 years. I find them quite user friendly. The high school students that I teach a course in basic GPS, topo maps and compass use find them easy to work with as well.
Only thing I dislike is they do go through batteries very quickly as e-t mentioned, so carry extra batteries if you do not have a 12V power supply. The Lowrance product emulators you can down load and "play with" to see the features of the units are great. I use the program to teach my students, works great.
JimW
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:19 am
by IanD
I've ben running my H2Oc for over a year now, both in the truck and in the boat. Have it hooked up to 12v in both so I really cannot coment on what the battery life is like.
I use MapCreate for custom maps and Navoinics Hot Maps Premium Canada chip for fishing.
I had a problem last fall with the unit, it would not aquire the sat signal. Returned it to Lawrence on a Monday morning and had a new unit on the next Thursday. Now that is customer service.
Highly recommended units.
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:44 am
by Gord
steve-hamilton wrote:what you having prob's with?
maybe (stress maybe, i'm not that great with it) i can give ya a hand.
Steve.....thanks for the offer dude!

I'm not having any probs really.....it's just takin' me a while to work through it.....I'm not really that tech savvy

...so its a slow process. Good thing Slushy's a techno geek!

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:29 pm
by Wallyboss
Picked it up today. Can't wait to use it, all the settings and the way it works is just like the one I have on my Eagle fish Finder(minus the maps)
So i'll have to start my eagle and copy my waypoints over to this one.
I will be looking for a Canadian Topo map for it, what is everybody using???
can't wait for the Spring to go lose myself on the river!!!! What am I saying lose myself(that's why I bought the friggin thing)
I'd like to thank everybody that replied and endorsed this GPS it made decision a lot easier.
Lowrence H2OC
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:24 am
by Joey Rat
I might as well add my two cents. I also got mine for Christmas (from me

) and am still learning to use it. So far so good. I also got the Canada Map Create.
I ordered both from GPS Central in Calgary and even with shipping their prices are better then most Ontario dealers because of no sales tax.
I also picked up a couple of 1 gig SD cards for $35 each and then just after Christmas, Future Shop had 2 gig cards on for $45 and I got one of those as well.
I have the whole country (minus the territories) in 5 files (QC/NS/NB/PEI & NFLD, N. ON, S. ON, MA & SK, AL & BC) on one 2 gig card. That takes care of my detailed street level requirements. Are there any streets in the territories?

Any how I'll make another map for the far north if I need it.
I'll use my other cards to make some area specific maps that I can load up with trails and way points etc.
All in all I've got about $500 wrapped up in this thing and I still need a holder (another $75) and if you plan to use it in your vehicle you might want to look at an external antenna (another $125).
Good thing my wife doesn't read this forum.
