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When you hold (and admire) the 6033 you’ll notice the soft,
rubberized exterior and the non-slip bottom.
Having GPS receivers on your dashboard you don’t need them to
slip-side all over the place.
In case you're planning to do aerobatics the non-slip bottom
won’t suffice.
Use the power of the built-in magnets to attach it to
anything metal.
Just remember to keep it away from the compass!
And in case you can't find anything made of metal in your car
(which is very likely these days) use the supplied round metal “
” pads with adhesive.
You can also do without reflections from the GPS receiver in
the windscreen. That’s why I like the matt black case.
The three LEDs
are well positioned for a good view from most angles.
Here is
happiness: the LEDs don’t blink when they’ve acquired satellites
and established a Bluetooth connection!
Why draw
attention to the unit by blinking if everything is OK?
Well done,
Rikaline!
The lower part
of the unit has a MMCX connector for an external antenna.
The top end of
the 6033 sports the recharging jack and a 3-position slide
switch: ON-OFF-AUTO.
Another
thoughtful move with the AUTO On/Off function: if the unit is
powered constantly by the vehicle you can simply leave the
switch in the Auto position.
Start the car
or aircraft and the GPS springs to life. Very simple indeed.
Rikaline is a
well-known GPS manufacturer in Taiwan and we have reviewed quite
a number of their different models.
This one is by
far the best GPS receiver we've ever tested.
Yes, even
better than the solar panelled f-tech Solar 7 which does have a
longer battery life but the indoor sensitivity leaves a bit to
be desired.
The reason for
that is the Solar 7 uses the FirstGPS engine from Trimble, which
is only an eight channel receiver.
Normally, eight
channels are more than plenty. In some places you may be lucky
to get 8 channels at all.
When you're out
of the open, 8 is all you need. In fact, 3 or 4 are all you
really need.
If the sky is a
little hard to see, like in an urban canyon or because of
foliage, a receiver that can handle more channels is the way to
go.
There is a
downside however: a higher power consumption.
It seems that
the 6033 uses the 32 channel mode only during the cold start
acquisition to obtain a very fast lock on the satellites.
It can do this
in about 30 secs. It seems to display only the best 8 sats to
conserve power as well…
I tested the
6033 with my favourite moving map program: OziExplorerCE.
I use this both
in my Ford Falcon as well as in our aircraft, a Cessna
Centurion.
In both
environments the GPS6033 handled impeccably.
It never lost
track of where we were. Lock-on was near instant.
This is by far the most sensitive
GPS receiver we have tested to date! |
