specialty outdoor gear

OUTSTANDING to say the least. I carried a Rhino 110 for a year during operation Iraqi Freedom. It suffered more abuse in this year than any normal person would subject it to in 2 lifetimes. The radio performed well when other handheld radios failed from abuse and dirt. The GPS is user friendly and proved to be as accurate or more accurate than Army issue. I personally know at least 20 other soldiers who are using either Rhino 110s or 120s here who are equally satisfied with this piece of equipment. The only hiccup I have found so far is the unit will shut down from a sharp blow, but it will always power up again.

Nice radio/gps for the price. I bought two of these radios and the position reporting feature is really neat. I also like the polling fearure which allows you to locate another radio without them sending their location. This of course must be enabled in the settings. Navigating through the menu is relatively easy. Reading the manual does help though. Range is as expected...I usually get at least 1 mile outdoors. Garmin also updates the software which you can download from their website which fix minor issues. You must buy the serial cable to do this. The unit is also waterproof, not just "water resistant". Battery life is about 15 hrs using the gps and radio at the same time. You can turn off the gps or radio if you want to use only one. I'm very happy with my purchase. These are good quality gps/radios.

The Garmin Rino 110 occupies an awkward middle ground between being an
interesting toy and a serious tool for the outdoors. On the one hand
the idea of melding together GPS and radio communications via FRS/GMRS
is dynamite. Unfortunately the devil is in the details when it comes
down to actually using them. As others have noted the 110 can be
quite finicky about battery life, and even a slight jostle can cause
the units to shut down. There's also the issue of range. I have
found that best way to use the 110 is for car-to-car communication, or
within the controlled distances inside of a campground. I would be
very careful before trusting the 110 in a real "hardcore" outdoor
situation.

Within those limits the 110 is a nifty little device. I am quite keen
to see that the folks at Garmin come up with next. I for one would be
willing to pay more for a unit that is more "ruggedized" or requires a
license but gives you more radio output power in return (and removes
the FCC restriction about sending GPS data at GMRS power levels).
Also a more clever approach with regard to batteries/power management
would be a huge plus.