Inspired by the distinctive offset FRS and GPS antennas that give the devices its Rhinoceros-like appearance, Garmin designed the Rino series as powerful, robust Radios Integrated with Navigation for the Outdoors. They are also the only waterproof two-way radios on the market.
What really separates the Rino from the rest of the FRS/GMRS herd is the ability to "beam" your exact location to another Rino user within a two-mile range.
Garmin has received a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission, making it possible for the company to provide "peer-to-peer position reporting" on the Rino series using the FRS spectrum. Garmin also has a patent pending on this technology. So you can transmit your location to a friend or family member, and they can see the distance and bearing from your position to theirs on a Rino display. In short, this could be a life-saving feature in an outdoor emergency by helping rescuers pinpoint your location or it could be used simply for rounding up the family at an amusement park.
"We have brought together two great technologies in the Rino to deliver a compact communications and navigation device to outdoor enthusiasts," said Gary Kelley, Garmin's director of marketing. "This rugged device is for everyone who prefers to travel light, but who wants the safety and comfort offered by a GPS device with FRS/GMRS capabilities."
The Rino boasts GARMIN's traditional tough, lightweight and waterproof design to handle the rigors of any outdoor adventure. And because the Rino has standard FRS capabilities, you can talk to friends or family who own conventional FRS radios. The Rino goes beyond the normal two-mile FRS range to support additional voice communications capabilities using GMRS, delivering a range of up to five miles.
The Rino 110, in its bright yellow case, will offer standard FRS/GMRS features like 22 channels, 38 squelch codes and external voice activation (VOX). It also incorporates GARMIN’s powerful 12-channel GPS receiver for position accuracy of less than 10 feet when enabled to receive enhanced GPS data from the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). The Rino 110 has standard navigation features like extensive waypoint storage, TracBack® technology, multiple position formats (including MGRS and Loran TD) and a built-in trip computer.
The olive-colored Rino 120 takes all the features of the Rino 110 and adds a basemap of North and South America that includes major cities, highways, thoroughfares, rivers, lakes, coastlines state and national borders, and railways. The Rino 120 has eight megabytes of internal memory for downloadable cartography from GARMIN's exclusive line of MapSource® CD-ROMs — providing topographic, bathymetric, and street-level map information. It also incorporates a voice scrambler for secure communications and a vibration mode for "silent" calls from other Rino users.
Other specific features of the Rino 110 and Rino 120:
The Rino 110 and 120 are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2002 with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $194.27 and $267.84, respectively. The Rino 110 will ship standard with a lanyard, belt clip and user's manual, while the Rino 120 package will also include a PC interface cable.