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Land Ops - The Off Road, Navigation and Amateur Radio Search Club
Hi LandOps friends! Hoping Jim and others might chime in with words of wisdom... for off-line GPS mapping, what are Pros / Cons to going with the current builds of Backcountry Navigator XE, Backcountry Navigator Pro (now legacy?), and GaiaGPS? (I use an Android phone and would likely use it on a Samsung Tab A7, but iOS and Web would be useful options, too. I know we had some brief discussions at the Nov. 2021 Desert Comm Op, but now looking to start downloading and trying at least one of these platforms out. TIA!
Kevin,
I believe both apps work very well for off road vehicle adventures. I use Gaia and am very happy with it. They are constantly improving and adding new features and new maps. I know Jim uses Backcountry and I believe he is happy with it as well. If you are a user of APRS one advantage Backcountry has is it will interface with APRS Droid and it will plot APRS stations around you on the map. If that is important to you that might sway you one way or the other. I believe both offer a free 7 day trial period, so give them a try. Lastly I use a Samsung Tab device. I like it because you can buy a 128 GB micro SD card for about $30 and you will be able to store a ton of maps with that level of storage. Hopefully this helps a bit. I really don't think you can go wrong either way. Find one on sale or a discount code if you can.
I have and use both on my Samsung Tab A7 Lite. Both have their virtues, but since I'm a proponent of APRS, I tend to use Backcountry more often. That being said, I really like the interface of Gaia. It is much easier to use than Backcountry. When APRS is not a concern, I will use Gaia in conjunction with my AllTrails app. AllTrails: Trail Guides & Maps for Hiking, Camping, and Running | AllTrails
Just my two cents worth of opinion.
