Brunton Multi-Navigator MNS GPS with Neoprenerying Case

User Review: - What's with the Amazon Price
How is it that Amazon, who claims to have lowest prices, is selling this GPS for $399.00, when Brunton, the manufacturer, has a suggested retail of $359.00?! I've seen this unit listed at $299.00 else where, and that includes shipping. Try Kooters.com

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User Review: - MNS For Mountain Hiking
I have used the MNS for about a year hiking in the mountains of Colorado. I decided I needed a GPS because I started climbing mountains without well-defined trails; I climbed the wrong mountain several times. I used the Brunton MNS in parallel with the Garmin Etrex Vista for about a month.

The MNS is more accurate than advertised when finding positions. When entering a waypoint on the "way out" of a daylong hike, the MNS usually registered "found" within 5 feet of the landmark that I recrossed and recognised on the "way back." The MNS can acquire a signal in light forests near tree line, but not in the heavy forests of Ponderosa Pine at lower altitudes. The heavy smoke generated by the fire burning West of Colorado Springs this Summer killed satellite acquisition.

The altimeter is not accurate to within three feet, even given that the weather is clear and constant. It is of equivalent accuracy to my Sunto Vector altitude watch which is rated accurate to 10 feet; both must have the same internal mechanism. If I start climbing at 10,000 feet and climb to 14,000 feet, both devices will register about 13,900 feet. Interestingly enough, both devices always register low, which allows me to intuit the real altitude. On that closed loop between 10,000 and 14,000 feet, both mechanisms will register within 10 feet of 10,000 feet on return to the starting point.

The MNS mechanism is capable and has kept me from getting lost several times when weather on the return trip became bad.

The Tracklog function has little value because there is a very small limiting number of collected waypoints; a user is bound to miss that bend in the trail or special landmark that he would enter if he were setting waypoints manually.

The MNS is somewhat more accurate than the E-Trex Vista in finding positions. The E-Trex is far more user friendly in entering data. It might take twice as long to manually enter a route using the MNS vis-a-vis the E-trex.

I wear reading glasses. I cannot view the E-trex map or any of the displays without my glasses. I can view all the displays on the MNS without glasses. This was the ultimate reason I kept the MNS and returned the E-Trex Vista.

The Map on the Vista is so tiny as to be of little value. When I hike, I print a map of my route from my mapping software on plasticized paper; this printed map is far more convenient than the tiny map on the Vista.

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User Review: - Buying second hand Brunton.
My aim was to get a GPS with no map capability in order to maintain good habits when navigating with visual checkpoints. The low battery consumption was also an important matter. The Brunton unit I got from Finalcall fulfills all my expectations. The very large screen, additional features such as the compass, the altimeter or the barometer in addition to a full GPS unit are perfect. I will use it mainly when making cross-country travel in a Cessna 172 as a complementary tool to classical navigation instruments. The service given by Finalcall has been perfect.

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User Review: - GPS Nut
After receiving the unit, I tried all the features it has. Wow!
It is an amazing gps. Great. It performance exactly as it said on the specifications especially under the thick forest trees. Without this I could be lost in the jungle during one of my weekend jungle trekking trip. Unbelievable. It even track signal under tiles roof in my house.
I have another gps of other brand (I wouldn't mention it brand name) it is of no use in that conditions eventhough it has all the other features which I think is great. These are good when I use it in lake and sea.But totally useless under thick foliage without satellites signal.
Trekking under the compass mode is great when there isn't any satellites signals. It saves battery. You wouldn't get lost in any conditions.Great feature!
Don't go jungles (from my part of the world a lot of jungles here are virgin jungles) trekking withou this gps. You can leave others gps at home at least it save you space and weight in your backpacks. Believe me.
TQ
GPS NUT

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User Review: - Some type of acquisition glitch.
There is some type of acquisition glitch with this unit. It occured to me today when I was doing a GPS site survey of a noted East Coast Navy Shipyard. With steel vessel components and buildings a plenty, the MNS would occasionally lose GPS fix. After moving to a "clear" area where initial acquisition was obtained the MNS would just sit there and try for many minutes to re-acquire. After shutting the unit off, then powering back up the MNS re-acquired almost immediately. This may be an artifact of using the device in a shipyard, however in some instances 3D fix was maintained while walking underneath the ships while they were on the land level facility. In this respect the MNS functioned perfectly in the shipyard with some variations between 3D and 2D acquisition, only a few lost tracks occured. Given the steel ships, cranes, and buildings the MNS really performed very well except for the re-acquisition thing. I intend to try to get the MNS to do this in a different environment. For the 2-3 times I lost fix, only once did I have to reset the GPS unit (power off-then on again). Overall I give the highest rating giving the conditions of the testing I made with it. Tonight I intend to take it with me when I visit a small island about 5mi offshore, we will see how it does in a marine environment.

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