Anyone know a realistic cost (with all the relevant maps) for someone who likes to walk alot in one area at the moment (locally in Durham) and with the map facility would get out more to the Lakes and North Yorkshire area ?
It's a how long is a piece of string question really. The suggested retail is £299 for the unit itself, but I'm guessing you'll be able to save some mony on that with an astute choice of retailer. Beyond that it depends on what mapping you go for. You can buy a single county at 1:50,000 scale for just under 30 quid, you could do the same for Cumbria and North Yorkshire, which would be adequate and cost you a total 90 on top of the unit.
But if you were going to do that, you could buy the whole of northern England for 60 quid. Or you could buy all the National Parks at £39.99 which looks like a cracking deal but you'd also need the Durham map for local stuff. Or you could buy Northern England for £59.99.
I've been using the Premium National Park packs which have both the 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 mapping for each park, but come in at £99.99. It's nice to have the 1:25s, but not essential.
Sorry if that seems confusing. I suppose it is a bit, but I think the bottom line, if you shop around and just use the 1:50,000 maps, is that you should be able to get kitted out for a little over £300. On top of that you then need to factor in batteries of some sort.
Jon - the 1:50,000 are adequate for most situations ?
Thanks for the input, may order a unit from Field & Trek using the discount code on the forum (got a good interest free deal on my credit card at the moment !)
Well, yes and no... before you order, a little bird tells me that we might just be giving away a Satmap Active 10 on Christmas Eve in our Advent Calendar Competition complete with a Premium National Park map of your choice - news story to follow.
And yes, I think the 1:50,000 should be very adequate given that you have a very accurate idea of where you are. The 25,000 is the icing on the cake and to be fair, is handy if you're threading your way through farm buildings for example, but for general use, the 1:50,000 scale works well - a bit like with paper maps in fact.
I think most questions come down to shades of grey at some point
I agree with Jon totally, and the overall cost is always going to depend on the area and scale of cover you want. The factor to consider in overall cost is if you want to use the mapping on your PC. SatMap maps don't have a PC based application along the lines of Memory Map, Anquet or Quo Pro. This means if you want to view routes on screen as overlays on a proper map you'll have to buy another application and pay the Ordnance Survey another hefty chunk of money for another license for exatly the same digital data.
Well I have taken the plunge and ordered a unit from F&T along with the North of Britain maps which should cover all of our planned holidays/day trips.
Now if only my back was OK I would be able to get out and about again
On another thread, can't find it, some people complained about problems with this bit of kit. Have they been sorted out yet? Has a new, improved version been produced?
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