Beepers are good, GPS is better. Especially in a few months when the native prairie grasses grow taller than me. Any one have a new Rhino GPS/FRS they can report on?

Hi Paul,

No, but I've been looking at them and considering whether to purchase a couple. The range with the GPS is limited to the family band (2 miles). There are some questions I'd like answered before I purchase. One, how does the unit transmit its position? Only during a special transmit? During a talk transmission? Can it update continuously? If so, how long will the batteries last in continuous transmit? Does a button have to be pressed to transmit location? Etc.

At $169 each, that's pretty reasonable when you consider what they're capable of. Heck, if it transmits sound while transmitting location, you could hear it as it took off.

The Rhino GPS units do not automatically transmit their location. There is a pushbutton on the unit that is pressed to send it's location. I don't recall if there is an "external" access to this switch, which means you would have to open the unit and add "something" to simulate the external switch press.

The Rhino GPS radio can be polled for its position. With the radio in the rocket set for polling, a ground radio can poll the rocket's radio for its position. The FCC limits the polling operation to once every 30 seconds, so the radio has a built-in timer. The rocket's radio can respond to as many requests for its position as it is able.

This mode of operation appears to be a useable solution for finding a rocket. Should the rocket drift out of the radio's range, you would still have several fixed points (every 30 seconds) to give you the path the rocket was taking. Once you get close to the rocket (less than 2 miles) the radio should start responding to the position requests.

Go to WWW.Garmin.com under outdoor products to see the two models that are available. You can download the user's manual and see all of the featurs that are available.