It might be officially dead, but the Geko 101 is still out there - entry level GPS tested.
Garmin Geko 101
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Price:
£74
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Weight:
88g including batteries
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Features:
Although now discontinued there are still plenty of
101s around with a street price of around £50. A simple,
tried and tested, receiver ideal for entry level or for occasional use
to confirm your position. Full spec below.
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What's It
For?
A GPS receiver uses satellite technology to pinpoint your
location anywhere on the planet and give your positon quickly and
accurately to assist in navigation. The Geko 101 is a popular entry
level unit ideal for checking your location and relating it to your map.
The Techy
Bits
When it comes to GPS there's no shortage of techy specifications, but
in practise there's really only a few that matter. Once you've got a
fix to the satellites accuracy is pretty much the same for any receiver
and they're all shipped with the datum and grid sets for UK use. The
bits that really matter for the average user are weight, storage
capacity for routes and waymarks and battery life.
Specs
Waypoints: 250 with name and graphic symbol
Tracks: 3,000 trackpoints; automatic track log; TracBack lets you
retrace your path
Trip computer: Current speed, average speed, resetable maximum speed,
trip timer, and trip distance
Position format: Lat/Lon, UTM/UPS, OSGB and other grids
Receiver: 12 parallel channel GPS receiver
Acquisition times:
Warm: Approximately 15 seconds
Cold: Approximately 45 seconds
Update rate: 1/second, continuous
Power Source: 2 AAAbatteries (not included)
Battery life: Up to 12 hours
Size: 1.9"x3.9"x96" D (4.83 x 9.91 x 2.44 cm)
Weight: 3.1oz with batteries (88 g), 2.3oz without batteries
Display: .92"x 1.44"(2.33 x 3.65 cm), 64 x 100 pixel, high-contrast,
bright LED backlighting
Case: Waterproof to IEC 529 IPX7 standards
Temperature range: -15∫C to 70∫C
How It
Performs
The Geko 101's been a good little receiver over the years,
although it's easy to see why it's now been discontinued. Being an old
receiver the 101 struggles when it doesn't have an un-obstructed view
of the sky and its lack of any PC interface is a big drawback.
Although you can store plenty of waypoints and track your routes you
can't export this information, and there's no way of sharing or
displaying your walks off the device. The 101 doesn't support routes,
and in common with all Garmin's present receivers, you can't look at an
OS map on screen.
What you do get with the Geko 101 is a cheap, simple, receiver that you
can happily leave in your pack all day for emergency use when you need
to backtrack or check your precise location.
Cheap but limited unit now discontinued, but fine if all
you want your GPS to do is pinpoint your position occasionally. Lack of
PC compatibility is a major weakness.
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 Very simple and compact,
can now be found very cheaply indeed.
 Basic use only, needs
clear view of sky, cannot connect to your PC.
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Know more or want to?
If you'd like to add your own
experiences of this
product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
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us direct, ask
Richard Gear or try
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