I've been lurkin' just a little while and have 5 questions I hope some of y'all might be willing to answer. The PM2 looks like a chance to Finally convince the boss to take the plunge.

1) How weather-resistant is the PM2, especially the antenna and external power connections?

2) OK,2 AA batteries. Anybody tried NiMH and is the life of a pair of alkalines really about 8 hours? [sorry, 2 questions :-) ]

3) What is the optional external power supply?

4) What about the software and updates? (learning curve, costs, ...)

5) How about the "accessories"? What do you really need?

Yeah, maybe I should ask a dealer/distributor these first instead of bothering y'all, but users seem more likely to give the straight scoop and benefit of hard-earned experience. And, yes, I'm a GPS greenie/rookie whose only experience to date is with a basic yellow Etrex :-(. And, finally, I realize it's L1 static.

Thanks ahead of time for any info.

Chuck Rushton, NCPLS

Let me first state that I work for Ashtech, so I may be a bit biased on some fronts!

1) How weather-resistant is the PM2, especially the antenna and external power connections? The receiver is MIL spec'd 810E for wind driven rain, the antenna is "waterproof".

2) OK,2 AA batteries. Anybody tried NiMH and is the life of a pair of alkalines really about 8 hours? [sorry, 2 questions :-) ] I tried my 1700 mah NiMH AA's from my digital camera, got 6.5 hours of continuous logging. Frankly, I was surprised that they were not better, those are VERY hot batteries in my camera.

3) What is the optional external power supply? Not yet available, no real guesses on this yet.

4) What about the software and updates? (learning curve, costs, ...) The Solutions software is included with the two or three receiver bundles, and upgrades have always been free. I think it is the easiest PP sw out there, but, I am biased...

5) How about the "accessories"? What do you really need? You just need a tripod, tribrach and adaptor. You COULD use a prism pole and bipod, though!

Modified By Mike Margolis on 10/26/2001 at 3:44 PM

Thanks for the reply, Mike. I'm no less excited about trying to get a set-up.

Re: the NiMH - they provide terrific performance in "high drain" devices like cameras compared to low-load, constant drain devices like GPSr's, but I've used 1600 mah AA's in my etrex since I got it and usually get about 10 to 12 hours with no backlight use. It makes sense they'd last less time in a unit with 8 MB data-logging.