Garmin Rino 530 Handheld GPS Navigator and 2-Way Radio

No matter where your outdoor activities take you, the Rino 530 keeps you on track and in touch. Similar to the 520, this rugged, two-way radio with GPS packs a bold color display, 14-mile communication range, and turn-by-turn directions - giving you peace of mind in the great outdoors.

Taking it a step further, the Rino 530 adds an electronic compass, barometric altimeter, and NOAA weather receiver, making it a favorite with hikers and climbersExclusive position-reporting capability and a host of other unique features, make the 530 one of the best all-in-one two-way radio and GPS receivers around. As with other members of the Rino family, the 530's patented location-reporting feature allows you to send and receive GPS positions with other Rino users in your group. One call to your partner's Rino, and your location shows up on the map page. You can even poll another Rino user's location in emergency situations.
-Whopping 5 watts of transmit power
-Bold color TFT display
-Automatic route generation, off-route recalculation, turn-by-turn directions
-Mini USB and 56 megabytes of internal memory for rapid download
-.65lbs (LxWxH) 2.30"x 1.80"x 7.50"

Technical Details
Radio channels: 15 GMRS channels, 7 FRS channels, 8 GMRS repeater (USA only)
Radio squelch codes: 38
Radio operating range: Up to 2 miles on FRS channels; up to 12 miles on GMRS (transmit power limited to 2 W in Canada for a range of up to 8 miles)
Receiver: WAAS-enabled, 12 parallel channel GPS receiver continuously tracks and uses up to 12 satellites to compute and update your position
Acquisition times: Warm: approximately 15 seconds; cold: approximately 45 seconds; AutoLocate: approximately 5 minutes
Update rate: 1 per second, continuous
GPS accuracy: Position: less than 15 meters, 95 percent typical; velocity: 0.05 meters per second steady state
DGPS (USCG) accuracy: Position: 3 to 5 meters, 95 percent typical; velocity: 0.05 meters per second steady state
DGPS (WAAS) accuracy: Position: less than 3 meters, 95 percent typical; velocity: 0.05 meters per second steady state
Interface: USB, RS232 (serial interface requires optional accessory cable 010-10572-00)
Antenna: Quad-helix
Waypoints / roots / track points: 500 with name, graphic symbol and notes / 50 reversible / 10,000
Electronic compass accuracy: +/-2 degrees with proper calibration (typical); +/-5 degrees extreme northern and southern latitudes
Electronic compass resolution: 1 degree
Barometric altimeter accuracy: 510 feet with proper calibration (user and/or automatic calibration)
Barometric altimeter resolution: 1 foot
Barometric altimeter range: -2000 to 30000 feet
Power supply: 8.4 V 2400 mAh Li-Ion battery pack
Battery life: 18 hours typical with Alkaline battery pack, 16 hours typical with Li-Ion pack
Data storage: Indefinite; no memory battery required
Display: 1.7 x 1.3 inches (WxH); 176 x 220 pixels, 256-color transflective TFT
Case: Waterproof to IEC 60529 IPX7 standards
Operation temperature: -4 to 140 degrees F / -20 to 60 degrees C
Dimensions: 2.3 x 5.1 (7.5 with antenna) x 1.8 inches / 5.8 x 13 (19 with antenna) x 4.6 centimeters (WxHxD)
Weight: 10.3 ounces / 294 grams with Li-Ion battery pack, 6.2 ounces / 175 grams without battery

Customer Reviews
A++
I bought this for my husband's birthday. We gave our old one Rino 150 to our son who is a Boy Scout. My husband is the Asst Scoutmaster and they go on a ton of hiking and camping trips together. The 530 has a large color screen and we can link the two Rino's together in case our son gets lost. The gps maps link together and they have a walkie-talkie feature. All our son has to do is click a button and my husband can see where he is on the gps map. My husband clicks back to our son and now our son knows where dad is and can follow the arrows back to dad, and vice versa. I highly recommend this product and we are very happy with all the features, especially the safety aspect with our Scout!

Frustrating
Let me start by saying I was excited to get this product for an upcoming ski outing where four of us including two children were going. I imagined myself able to locate the kids when we tried to meet up, or find them if we got lost (or god forbid worse). I bought two from Amazon and bought two more from a local retailer while waiting for the Amazon order to arrive. I took my girlfriend's niece out for a practice run to see how they all worked...five minutes later mine locked up. I went and found my niece..."Uncle XXXX, why does the screen look all funny" The units from the local retailer had a problem with the screen locking up...so I exchanged them, but then, so did the two I got in exchange. I thought perhaps I got a bad batch from the local store, but when the Amazon units arrived, they had the same problem. We took them out for a stroll with some friends from MBA school...the unanimous opinion after a few minutes of test use by late 20 year old and early 30s self proclaimed gear lovers..."dude, these %&#!".

Forget, locating the people in your party, even if all your friends are incredibly patient geeks. (I should know, I was so excited when I ordered the radios that I applied immediately for a GMRS license with the FCC). The Rino 530's simply don't work well. A combined GPS and family radio seems like such a great concept for a product, but at $400 a unit, they are pathetic. $1600 for four units bought me disappointment, frustration, trips to the store and time on the phone with customer service agents who act surprised that there is a problem. Frankly, the GPS is useless because the screen flips out every seven minutes. You have to stop, remove the belt clip and take the battery off the back and reboot...then it happens all over again a few minutes later. The product becomes a real distraction instead of an enhancement to your outdoor activity...You wind up thinking how great it was when you had $20 radios that worked.

I spoke with three Garmin reps who denied they knew of any problem, one told me it was a complicated piece of equipment and occasional crashes were to be expected. Every seven minutes? Come on, Windows 95 was more stable than that. Finally, I got a guy on the phone who said, "Oh yeah, there's a problem with the 530's, you should avail yourself of the local return policy if you can. If not we can send you some more, but I can't make any promises." He explained that they are having an issue with the electric signal to the LCD and said they are trying to develop a firmware solution. Reading the other reviews, I'd guess they've been unsuccessfully working on one for more than a year now...and through multiple software releases. I am not holding my breath for working a firmware repair.

I've certainly bought products that had bugs and got better with firmware releases (Linksys routers for instance, Palm Treo's) but this is no $50 router, (or generally stable $400 phone) and frankly, I have to reset my router once every four months at most. This product is really bad, I wish it were better because the concept is great, but I would strongly urge anyone considering this purchase to keep your money and save yourself the headache.


Garmin Rino 530 disappointment
To build upon the reviews as listed below, I will expand on them to say that even with the lastest firmware the issues till exist and Garmin cannot get it fixed.

The hardware radio section is also pitiful and is out of deviation.

But probably the worst part of it all is that after five total sets sent to me from customer service as well as 5 sets returned for various firmware and hardware issues. Garmin cannot seem to get the quality control correct.

Worse than that is a set that was supposedly CHECKED by a service tech and listed in the report as OPERATIONAL withing spec. Out of the box was failing....that is terrible customer service and technical help.

I love the idea of the Garmin 530 and would buy two more in a second * IF * they correct all the known bugs and issues with the product. I do not belive they can and or will and Garmin appears to be in denial about this product.

Stay away from this item until you hear that they have taken the bull by the horns and corrected this product.