Customer Reviews

Garmin Rino 520 14-Mile 22-Channel Waterproof FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio and GPS Navigator

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For the longest time, I resisted geting a GPS. Any soldier worth his stripes should be able to figure out his ground position to within 100m just by comparing the ground to his map, and maybe shooting a bearing with his compass.

But then I picked up a cheapie Garmin Etrex, and while it doesn't replace the map and terrain reading skills (by a long shot) the ability to generate an exact position fix at a moment's notice comes in very handy, especially when one is operating in an unfamilliar area. GPS may be a crutch, but it is an *effective* crutch.

There were a few small problems with the Etrex though. It was very sensitive to sky view, such that it often lost signal inside a vehicle unless it was on the dash. It didn't do mapping, and it would eat AA batteries at a ferocious rate. With the newer, fancier units on the market, I started thinking about upgrading.

Many of the troops in my unit have Rino 120 FRS/GPS units. It can be handy to have an additional means of communication other than the issue radios, and the position reporting function was interesting, so I bought a Rino 520 - specifically a 520 vice a 530 because of reports of better battery life, and the extra geegaws on the 530 didn't seem to have much practical purpose.

Wow!

1) The 520 has tons of memory, such that I could upload topo maps for every area I was likely to operate in and still have room to spare. The detail and accuracy has been outstanding, and having street names (which the issue 1:50k maps lack) has been a godsend.

2) It is much less sensitive to sky cover than the Etrex was. It'll still lose signal if (say) stuffed in a glovebox, but it'll work on your lap in a vehicle, where the Etrex would not.

3) The "breadcrumb" track mapping means I can record everywhere I go, and then download the tracks to my computer later via Mapsource - which can then be overlaid on satellite imagery via Google Earth (which has already proven useful in proving that I was at a certain place at a certain time)

4) The routing function and the turn-by-turn instructions were recently tested on a 900km road move, and worked - although the unit made a couple of odd suggestions, and I think it may have been hampered by not having detail maps loaded for the entire route.

5) It has a nifty "alarm clock" mode, where you set the alarm, and the unit shuts off - and then turns itself on and screeches at the appropriate time. Cool!

6) The data pages are customizable, meaning you can set up pages that contain just the info you need.

7) The radio and position location/transmit functions work exactly as advertised. I don't yet have a good feel for the max range of the radio (even in 5W mode) but it's not huge. The speaker gets all distorted at max volume, but when used with an earbud it is just fine. My gut tells me the radio is fair to good.

8) The only real concern I've had has been battery life and the fact that it uses a proprietary batty pack that must be recharged from wall current - which can be tough to find sometimes. But so far, battery life has been exceptional (a three day exercise with heavy radio use only dropped to 60%, and a 2-day road move with the radio turned off finished at 90% used) and an add-on pack that uses normal AA batteries (at the cost of dropping max transmit power to 2W) is availible.

Overall, this is a great unit, and highly recommended.

DG

My Rino 520 is almost the most awesome electronic gadget I've ever purchased. The 2-way radio works great - better speaker sound and range than any other radio I've owned. Almost great GPS with the color screen and optional topo mapping. User friendly interface. Above all the location feature of a fellow user is the killer asset. If the unit worked perfectly I would highly recommend anyone to buy it. But I must add my agreement to previously mentioned issues:

My screen goes blank occasionaly. Comes back on after a power off-on cycle then sometimes will stay on long term, sometimes requires another off-on cycle.

The optional topo map usually shows some incredible detail about very obscure roads, but yet hasn't been updated to a major highway rerouting in my state which was completed 30 years ago.

Overall I would definitely buy another of these after knowing the bugs have been worked out. For now I'm glad I own it even with the bugs.
Looking forward to when Garmin corrects the quality issues.

I recently purchased the 520 for backpacking and canoeing. I found it very easy to use, with screen navigation, track information and user interfaces being surprisingly intuitive. It took me about 10 hours of drive time, primarily to and from work, to master most of the features. The color map, while not a necessity in any manner, is also a nice feature, although I don't know if it is worth the money. I would imagine that the grayscale display would be more than adequate. The batter life is absolutely, positively phenomenal. I got close to 90 hours out of mine without a recharge. I don't know if this was typical, but it far exceeded my expectations. Although I have not used the 2-way feature on it, I expect it to be quite useful when canoeing and backpacking with multiple parties, and is one of the primary reasons I purchased the unit.

Contrary to the above poor review, the FCC and the Canadian government have granted Garmin a waiver so a license is not necessary to use it.

I purchased a Rino520 to use with a Rino530. Several times, the screen would blank out after pushing the "push to talk" (PTT) button when using the radio. The screen would recover after turning off the unit, however, it would blank out again after pushing the PTT button. In order to temporarily provide a more "long-term" solution, I had to disconnect the battery to power down the unit. After doing that, the screen would still blank out intermittently, but not with almost every push of the PTT button. Even with the screen blank out, the radio would still function, but then one is left with an expensive two-way radio.

I'm much happier using a GPS60CSx and a pair of Motorola Talkabouts. My Rino's have been such a headache. The convenience of being able to communicate location to another Rino user while out in the wilderness is a great idea. I still anticipate owning a pair of Rino's in the future. However, I'm waiting until Garmin improves their quality control.

ATTENTION BUYERS: Use of this product within the United States requires the purchase of an $80 FCC license because this radio operates on frequencies in the General Mobile Radio Service. FALIURE TO PURCHASE A LICENSE WILL RESULT IN A FINE OF UP TO $10,000. For more information, visit www.gmrs.net.tc or wireless.fcc.gov/services/personal/generalmoblie. FRS/GMRS radios are marketed incorrectly because they are treated like regular consumer electronics. YOU MUST PURCHASE A LICENSE IN ORDER TO USE THIS UNIT. To apply for your license, visit www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls.