Portable digital altimeter?

Codger_64

Codger_64

Moderator
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
62,324
I'm looking for a portable digital altimeter and these are my criteria. It needs to be a stand alone unit (not hard wired into the car) so that I can move it from one vehicle to another. It needs to be fairly accurate but not expensive. I don't need a fancy watch with one built in or a new GPS unit. Just an accurate, easy to read altimeter. As an example, I drove 27 different recovered vehicles this month. Altitude is important to me because of lung issues. If I know the altitude, I know whether I need meds or supplemental oxygen before exertion makes an issue of it. I moved here from an altitude of 480 feet. It is 4800 feet here but some mountain passes I have to cross range to 8000 feet or more.
 
All skydiving altimeters are expensive. For a stand alone it's all I know. I can only imagine others are too. My advice would be to go with a Suunto watch. Super accurate altimeters, just as expensive. Any digital alti will be expensive. Analog altis will be less expensive.
 
If I personally would be buying, I don't think I'd want a watch with an altimeter as I can't believe they are very accurate. I would find a way to afford that VISO II myself if I were going to use it fairly often. I love gadgets and have used the old big analog altimeters quite a bit over the years until the digitals came out. Other than that, I would switch out my potable dash mounted GPS and make do in a car which is probably accurate enough for driving altitudes.
 
I have over 6000 skydives with over 5000 using Suuntos as my primary altimeter. I use the viso as a backup and freefall computer. The Suuntos are incredibly accurate especially considering the speed at which they are required to be that accurate. I've trusted my life to them for 10 years.
 
Hey Codger, I might just have what you need sitting around here. I'll try and dig it out.

Shoot me a PM or something.


-Xander
 
Thanks for the replies and info guys! Yeah, I am medically retired so coming up with $250 for a unit or new GPS or watch isn't going to happen. PM sent fast14riot. Thanks again guys. Any other suggestions greatly appreciated. I'd even considered contacting my brother, a retired airline pilot, to see if he had an in on a digital avionics unit that might work.

Michael
 
I may have the solution coming in the form of a seldom used watch. But darn me if I didn't imagine something along the lines of a cheap stick-on clock or gradometer like those in the old J.C. Whitney catalogs, "Jeep Section".
 
I really like the altimeter on the Suunto Core watch. It will automatically switch between Barometer (weather) and Altimeter modes. I have found it to retain excellent accuracy over a period of days, without calibration. For this reason alone its highly recommended. Since you don't want the watch, get the carabiner for it.
 
Does that watch use a unique proprietary band attachment? It's easy to convert a normal wristwatch to a carabiner watch; you don't need to buy a kit from the watch manufacturer. Even if it's an odd band attachment it shouldn't be hard to figure some way to put a clip on it.
 
The Suunto core is very large, and doe not work with a normal watch band. I imagine a carabiner might still be available on various online sites.
 
I may wind up wearing it as a watch or figuring out a suction cup attachment to a dash or windshield if it is too big and unwieldy. I'll see when it arrives. And I read enough of the instructions to figure out how to switch between functions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top