0ur opinion:

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The Rino 130 is the most feature-rich unit in the Rino family, with a built-in electronic compass, barometric sensor, weather receiver for seven N0AA weather channels, and 24 MBs of internal memory. This handheld radio has a built-in electronic compass to give a heading while the user is standing still, and a barometric altimeter to provide extremely accurate elevation and pressure information, which will assist users in identifying weather data.The Rino 130 provides two-way radio communication with a transmission range of up to two miles using FRS channels and up to five miles with GMRS. The integration of two-way radio and GPS enables users to transmit their position with a simple button press, allowing others to navigate to their position. The Rino 130 also has a polling feature, which allows a user to manually request GPS location information from other Rino units.

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The the most feature-rich device in the Rino family, Garmin's Rino 130 combination 2-way FRS/GMRS radio and GPS receiver comes fully loaded with an electronic compass, a barometric sensor, a weather receiver for 7 N0AA weather channels, and 24 MB of internal memory for downloading and storing MapSource detail--including data from products like U.S. Topo 24K, U.S. Topo, Recreational Lakes, BlueChart, and MetroGuide (MapSource products sold separately).

The Rino 130 is also outfitted with a marine-point database and a basemap of North and South America. The database includes nautical navaids for North and South America. The Americas Highway basemap includes the United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America, and covers an area from W180 to W30 Longitude and S60 to N75 Latitude. Also included is a high-level worldwide map with political boundaries and major cities. Among many other included elements are oceans, rivers, and lakes (greater than 30 square miles), principal cities and many smaller cities and towns, major interstates and principal highways, and political boundaries (state and international borders).

lntegration has its advantages: the Rino 130 sends and receives GPS locations using FRS channels and shows them on the map. The GPS device is a 12-channel, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver. WAAS, which stands for Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), is the global-positioning-system of choice for mariners. The handheld's built-in electronic compass give a heading while you're standing still, and its barometric altimeter provides accurate elevation and pressure readings to help you identify and analyze weather conditions.

The Rino 130 also provides two-way radio communication with a transmission range of up to two miles using FRS channels and up to five miles with GMRS (be aware that use of GMRS requires an FCC license). The integration of two-way radio and GPS lets you transmit your position with a simple button press, so others can easily navigate to your position. The Rino 130 also has a polling feature so you can manually request GPS location information from other Rino units.

You get 14 FRS channels, 8 GMRS channels, and 8 GMRS repeater channels, as well as 38 sub-audible squelch codes per transmission channel for semi-private radio communications.

The unit's ergonomic design grants single-handed operation, with its Call, Page mode, and Press-To-Talk (PTT) buttons mounted on the side, Power/Backlighting button on top, Volume and Zoom buttons on front, and a Thumb Stick positioned in the center. The thumb stick allows channel selection and volume adjustment in FRS/GMRS mode, as well as quick map panning, enter, and selection functions in GPS mode.

0ther features include a backlit display (160 x 160 pixels), external voice activation (V0X), waterproof construction to lPX-7 standards (immersible in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes), storage for up to 500 waypoints with graphic identification and 20 reversible routes, 10,000 trackpoints and up to 20 saved tracks to retrace your path or a companion's path via the location-reporting feature, trip computer with speed tracking, sunrise/sunset read out, trip time, and trip distance, and multiple grid formats including MGRS and Loran TD. The Rino 130 even sends and receives short text notes for quiet communication.

The Rino 130 has a battery life of 14 hours (typical use) on 3 AA alkaline batteries (not included).

What's in the Box
Rino 130 receiver, a PC-interface cable, a wrist strap, a belt clip, a user's manual, and a quick-reference guide.









Piece Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Buyer's feedback: - * Battery could last longer if you use a throat mic ...
We have many sets of radios as we use them for airsoft and paintballing. When we decided to buy a 2in1 system (GPS and radio) we deicided to look at these. The GPS unit is awesome.

When using the radio, I find that the batteries drain a little too fast. We therefore purchased a set of IASUS throat mics online (AMAZON doesn't carry them!) so we could save more battery power. That actually made the unit sound better also! If the radio didn't eat up so much power and sounded better, I would give the Garmin a 5 star.

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Buyer's feedback: - The Best GPS I have Owned
I have been using the Garmmin Rino 120 and 130 for two years for Boondocking Snowmobiling in Alaska, and Hunting. As for hunting my son lost his 120 in the tundra caribou hunting and I used the poll for position function and it locked on to his 120 and I used the GOTO function and it brought me right to the lost GPS. I have had no problem with the radio I think it works great, I was able to locate and communicate with other members of my hunting party when they were out of sight in a draw and at an 800 foot higher elevation and 1 mile away. The MapSource is easy to use and down load the needed maps fairly easly, and the Garmin web site is easy to download software updates. I have found the altimiter to be spot on when snowmobiling. The batteries last about 8 -10 hours depending on how much you use the radio and you get about 45 mins of time after you get the low battery warning but the radio does lose clarity and transmission strength at this time.
I find the function buttons and zoom fuction easy to use, I would diffently buy this unit again.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Try something else ...
I bought a Garmin RINO 130 specifically for a mountain climbing trip to Mt. Fuji and the altimeter, compass and go-to features failed. Even manually recalibrating the altimeter to posted altitudes proved futile because the successive readings would soon be off. I checked my RINO reading 3,000 meters to a signpost reading 2,700 meters. I re-calibrated the RINO to 2,700 meters and climbed for 30 minutes and my RINO's new reading was 2,694 meters. The GOTO feature took me back down to the wrong rest station that I had stored on the way up. In Tokyo, the electronic compass was 180 degrees off even after recalibration.

On the island of Hokkaido, the RINO failed to find enough satellites. Either there are super secret bases on the island with GPS jammers or I passed through a wormhole to the Twilight Zone.

I hope Garmin aviation products fare better. I got a refund.

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Buyer's feedback: - My Garmin RINO 130 Locks Up
I have had one for almost a year and have sent it back to Garmin twice, they replaced it once. It still has the same problem.

It will lock up and sometimes power itself off. Sometimes I can use the power button to reset it. Other times I have to remove a battery to get it to reset.

There have been a couple of times I have pulled it out of my pack or coat pocket to find it locked up. But, it has also locked up while in my hand. So far this has happened when I have been in the reset menu.

Has anyone else had problems with this GPS ?

UPDATE: 2006-10-05
Garmin has a firmware upgrade that is supposed to fix the "lock up" problem I was having (when using the reset menu in the trip computer). It seemed to fix the problem in my friend's rino130. I upgraded to the rino530. (no problems with it...yet.)

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Buyer's feedback: - * Pretty cool device ...
The Rino does all it states, with the one notable exception being interfacing with the computer. Why is that? Garmin sends out a cable that goes to a serial port instead of a USB, so you need to spend another $50 bucks to get it to work with your computer if you don't ahave serial ports.

That's the only complaint. It does a nice job with the GPS, the GMRS/FRS is clear, the batteries don't vibrate loose when riding (I mount mine on the handlebars of my dirtbike while riding in the desert)batteries have a good life, the poll location send location is a GREAT feature. Imagine riding with your kids and you loose sight of them, simply poll their location and there they are on your screen. Also if something happens to you being able to send your location is great. I really like the trip computer functions, tells me how far I've gone how fast I'm going ETC.