Garmin Rino Advice

ChubbyTuna · Jul 19, 2009

Recently my father has had heart issues. He's always been healthy and never any problems in the woods or at altitude. We typically hunt within 5 miles of each other in moderately rugged terrain, 8-11K feet. With his recent health issues I'd like to be able to keep an eye on him and help him with downed game.

The Rino looks like a good way to do this. Couple questions for the guys that use these.
Does it work as advertised?
Do you recommend the 5 watt over the 1 watt?
How good is battery life if I leave it on all day?
Any general tips or advice?
Is there other options besides the Rino?

Thsnks for the help.

nickman · Jul 19, 2009

If you have real concerns about staying in touch with anyone at ANY distance in "rugged terrain", you need to save your money and forget FRS type radios.

All of these type of radios basically operate on "line of sight". You get a ridge, gorge or low hills involved and communication is undependable at best.

I know.......the add says 25 miles.........at sea maybe, but not in any area that most guys hunt in.

I have been selling and using these radios for years and while the top of the line Garmin are as good as it gets, they are simply undependable.......and "5 miles in rugged terrain", is impossible........as well as unrealistic, should someone in your party have heart trouble.

If I had real concerns, I would simply invest in a radio system used in the business level, with repeaters and dedicated frequencies.

You will have to contact a commercial communications service to get you set up.

In your scenario, I would rent 2 sattelite phones for a month and forget anything else. They have been 99% functional in the most rugged and isolated areas of the Sierra.

Horniac · Jul 19, 2009

My hunting partners and I bought the Rhino's a couple of years ago and love them. As Nickman said though, they are basically "line of sight" like any of the other radios of their type.

Since I am assuming you will be hunting fairly close to your father, you should be able to keep pretty good tabs on him throughout the day with the position reporting function. If he gets an animal down, you will be able to navigate right to him.

We have the 530HCX's with the 5 watt radio, color screen, and the micro SD card slot. We bought the Topomap program so I have topo maps of the whole western United States on my Rhino. Having the GPS and radio combined lets me carry one less piece of gear.

I leave mine on all day and have 20% to 30% battery life left depending oh how much I use the radio and other various functions. I bought the optional AA battery pack and carry that in my pack for emergency back-up though I believe that this power pack only gives you half of the watts for radio transmission.

In addtion to the GPS and radio/locater, the other functions I use frequently are the alarm clock feature, which once set, the Rhino will go into sleep mode and wake you up with a user selected alarm tone at the desired time, sun and moon for obtaining the legal hunting times for the unit being hunted, and hunt and fish times for the best hunt and fish times for the days being hunted. Not sure how good the last feature works but it sure is fun comparing the given times against actual game sightings.

The unit has many more features and functions (too numerous to list) and I don't think you will be disappointed if you buy a set for you and your dad...

Horniac

coolspringoutfitters · Jul 19, 2009

I would really go with the 5 watt... I know you might hear that they aren't what they are cracked up to be, but I will tell you this, from my own EXPERIENCE they WILL give you very good communication. If it is rated at 25 miles, it will do 5, even in rough terrain, mine has gone through mountains, through rock ridges (I was in the bottom, he was on the other side in the bottom)
I think it would be VERY helpful for you to have the polling that comes with it... You can send out a poll and it will tell you exactly where he is. It is awesome and would serve you well.
PM if you want details on what kind of range I have...
They will last all day on 1 charge, but thats about it. 5 watts is a lot of power...

CSO

It's all about the good times...

BigMass · Jul 19, 2009

You need to listen to what Nickman said. They are line of sight radios. It doesn't matter if they were 25 watts if your in two different canyons you won't have contact with each other. I have used a lot of these radios they don't transmit through mountains.

ChubbyTuna · Jul 19, 2009

The sat phones are a great idea except you have to be "awake" to use them. From what I understand the rinos keep a constant tab on your partners location. Are there other devics out there that will perform this same function. . I use the "SPOT" when hunting solo and wondered if there was a similar product for tracking others in your group.

Crunchy · Jul 19, 2009

I think you might get 2 miles or a little more in rough terrain. The furthest we got with our 530hcx is about 5 miles, but my partner was on top of a ridge above me and I was in the timber. Other than that they are awesome!! I wouldnt trade mine. I hunt with 8 or so friends and we all have Rinos so somebody is gonna hear ya.

bigandtasty · Jul 19, 2009

If I was you, stay as close to your Father or anybody else, not 5 miles! That's a long ways to be close, if help needs to be applied.
I have a 130 and some of my other friends have 120's or 130's and we do just fine, a mile or less from each other.
I have a satellite phone also, but beware what they say about "getting a signal anywhere", as they don't.
I've been in a deep canyon, under large trees and still couldn't get a signal. I'd have to walk to a clearing or meadow or get out of the canyon or gorge, to get a signal to call.

I would go with getting the commercial radios, as my lion hunting buddies use them and they sure can go far!

Semper Fi.

out4elk · Jul 20, 2009

+1 on most everything said so far.

One thing to keep in mind with the Rinos is the peer to peer is dependant on radio signal with your hunting partner as well. If you get into an area that has week signal you wont get position updates when you poll their position.

That said I still would not go hunting without my Rino's. They have proven themselves worth the money and they are still top of the line when it comes to FRS/GMRS radios. The farthest I have ever been able to communicate and update peer location functions at the same time is 11 miles in the mountains.

I have two of the old model 530's and one HCx model 530 and the old ones will go on the fritz from time to time and radio functions go south. When this happens you will not be able to talk to anybody farther than 50 feet until you perform a hard reboot on the radio; after that everything is back to normal and good. Both my older models have done this to me 2-3 times in 3 years but the HCx has been issue free.

Hope this helps

?Life is like a ten speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use!?