How do you like your Lowrance H2O Color Handheld GPS?

[AQUAJOE]

You can zoom really well except that map they are using is like 7 to 10 years old.

For example on Medicine it shows a Seaplane base that has not been there for years. Roads have not been updated in at least that long.

I am really disappointed in buying a new device that has that old of maps on it.

When I am at my house the sat position and address that comes up is 4 houses down from me.

So far not very impressed with the IH20 C.

[Captain B.R.K]

AquaJoe, do you have the Lakemaster chip in your unit? I ask because my parents leave just south of Forest Lake on what use to be a gravel road , now tar, and it showed up on the Lakemaster chip. I was very impressed with the detail.

Sorry to hear about all your troubles with the H20c. I guess when something is hyped up and one has high expectations of something and then it doesn't come through, it kinda of stinks.

[hoggs222]

I took my H20c to Mille Lacs this week & it was just as I expected! This thing has a bigger screen than some of the Garmins I've seen & it seems to acquire the position pretty quick. I have an old (6-8 years old) Lowrance handheld & that thing is sloooow. They've come a long way on speeding that up.

[LMITOUT]

Mine just arrived about an hour ago. Nice unit! The Lakemaster chip is supposed to be here next week and it should be fun to get on the lakes with a new toy.

With the Mapcreate maps loaded into the H20, it should be darn accurate when showing the street-level detail. I went outside to let it initialize and it was very close to my position, and I didn't even get WAAS acquired (60ft error). I don't have an extra MMC/SD card, so I just pulled the one from my X-15 which was already loaded with my waypoints and mapcreate map of central MN.

Acquiring position did take some time, but you can speed the process up by selecting "Initialize GPS" and then move the cursor to your current position and hit enter. The further you move from the last time you powered the unit down, the longer it will take to acquire your new location. This is the same as it was with my old GMap 100.

I'm retiring an older GlobalMap 100 so this larger and color screen is a big improvement. Not to mention it only uses two 'AA' batteries instead of four.

[AQUAJOE]

Captain B.R.K I do have the Lake Master Pro Chip in.

[Captain B.R.K]

Hum.....interesting that you are still having problems. I just was welcomed into the H20c world this evening when I opened a package from the UPS man

I put my LakeMaster chip in it as well as the 2 AA batteries and my unit picked up a signal in my home in a matter of seconds. I did initialize my GPS.

To do this, you'll have to take your unit off of Easy mode. From there just menu to where you see Initialize GPS and then it has you move the cursor to where you are and then hit enter. This will help your unit pick up the satellites that are above you vs. the satellites that were used in the factory.

Give that a whirl and let us know if you are still having problems AQUAJOE.

[Captain B.R.K]

What kind of case did you guys get for you new H20c?

[dockehr]

AQUAJOE, on your menu page you listed in your post, make absolutely sure that you UNCHECK the box labeled "Require WAAS". You can CHECK the box "Use WAAS/EGNOS".

Having a check in front of "Require WAAS' will really slow down acquisition times.

As for Medicine Lake; I have both the Lakemaster chip as well as Lowrance's FreedomMaps chip (MapCreate on a chip) that covers that area. The roads, etc are the same, including two seaplane bases. Since Medicine Lake is in 5' contours, Lakemaster did not survey this lake but obtained the data probably from the DNR. I zoomed in all the way to .02 miles and got listings on all roads shown.

If your acquisition times persist in "taking too long", then I suggest that you bring your unit to a retailer that has a functioning H2Oc unit and compare them side by side.

I have used mine for hunting in Arizona (using Lowrance's TopoMap chip), ice fishing ( using Lakemaster's chip), and finding specific addresses in Illinois (using Lowrance's FreedomMaps F6 chip). This is one hot unit!!!

In the past I have owned Garmin's GPSMAP168, GPSMAP238, GPSMAP76cs. I currently own Lowrance's LCX18c, LCX25c, LMS332c, iFINDERH2Oc, and iFINDERHUNTc. If I say the H2Oc is a hot unit, I can back up my statement with hands on experience. Ask Reeds as I pay retail.

dockehr

Dr. Roland E. Kehr, Jr.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

My unit is off on my location at my house too, but it doesnt bother me too much since I will be almost exclusively using it for fishing. Now I have only had it on the lake once so far but it seems like once you are out in the open it really increases the accuracy.

As far as the detail on the lake maps themselves go it depends on the lake size and survey. Some lakes have 3 foot countours and you and to zoom in alot farther to get good detail. I usually just have a paper map to look at and when I find a location I want to fish I bring it up on on the GPS.