Electronics

Sony's DCR-TRV20 MiniDV camcorder features their Advanced HAD CCD Technology 1070K Pixel format. Includes image stabilization with Carl Zeiss lens, night vision, and 3.5" viewscreen.

Price: $1,699.00

Where To Buy:
Best Buy
Camera World

Sony's DCR-TRV900 uses 3 x 1/4 inch CCD's for excellent color for still images.

Price: $2,299.00

Where To Buy:
Camera World

Great all-around camera for storm chasers   
By Anonymous on 9/1/2001 from Minneapolis, MN
I picked up the TRV-900 early this spring and have been very pleased with its performance and quality. The three CCD chips make for excellent picture color and quality. I can also grab still shots right from the video so I can post my chase accounts quickly (see http://www.grovesinternet.com/chase). There's tons of effects and other features I'm still learning about. So its a great all-around camera, if you can get past the price ($1800 at B&H Photo).

Sony's DCR-VX2000 is a professional-grade 3 CCD chip MiniDV camcorder with a 2.5 inch LCD screen.

Price: $3,199.00

Where To Buy:
Camera World

Price: $27.99

Where To Buy:
www.gpsconnection.com

Pretty Much A Necessity   
By Anonymous on 2/9/2001 from Minneapolis, MN
It's a given that you'll want your GPS running off the car battery. And if you use a laptop in conjunction with your GPS, you'll need this dual combo cable.

GPS receiver that interfaces with a computer for display. Portable computer is required to use this receiver. Bundled with DeLorme Street Atlas USA, highly detailed maps of the United States.

Price: $199.95

Where To Buy:

Changes the whole game of chasing    
By Bob Conzemius on 2/5/2001 from Norman, OK
I tried the Earthmate, and it makes chasing much easier. Maps are displayed clearly, I always know instantly where I am, and I see the roads I can take for my next east option.

Absolutely Indespensible!   
By Glenn Dixon on 2/7/2001 from Hurst, TX
On May 3, 1999 I was headed north on 287 toward Wichita Falls when I got a call from Blair Kooistra. Tornadoes were already forming in SW Oklahoma and moving NE! I hung a right at Bowie and plotted an intercept route. My radio told me a tornado was on the ground just north of Lawton. Just south of Chickasha I spotted the top of the tornado over a raised train track. I maneuvered through town and eventually followed it up I44, staying off of the turnpike (which I feared would be blocked off) and followed back roads. I finally stopped on a hillside and got my first ever video of a tornado, a devastating F5, with the interior of the funnel being illuminated by flashes of light from transformer explosions. I have chased by paper map, and still do occasionally when I am caught without a computer (or if my AC Inverter is acting up), but when you are chasing solo and you're hot on the trail of a tornado and you're trying to drive, take pictures, take video and make all the right turns (all while staying on the road) trust me, you want to be able to see where you are and where you need to go with nothing more than a quick glance at your Earthmate Street Atlas on your laptop screen!

Not ideal, but still a solid performer   
By Tim Vasquez on 2/7/2001 from Norman, OK
While the Earthmate is a very reliable piece of equipment, it could definitely use a battery level meter. When there is no signal or data connection a dead battery is often the cause and it's difficult to tell. The other quirk about the Earthmate is that when you put it on the dashboard, your storm footage may suffer from large, neon-yellow reflections off the dashboard window. Needless to say, the Earthmate would be at fault. The manufacturer should have slimmed this unit down or painted it a much more subdued color. Otherwise we have been happy with the quality of the unit, though we generally prefer the Garmin III (and other standalone GPS units) since they allow flexibility in how much gear a chaser packs for their chase.

DeLorme Earthmate.   
By Hank Baker on 2/10/2001 from Yukon, Oklahoma USA
This is the single best tool I have ever used in my vehicle to chase storms with. Also excellent for doing damage assesment.Taking into account every piece of equipment I have, if I could keep only one, the Earthmate GPS would be the one I would keep. I absolutly love this thing. This is not just a convience item it is a safety item. Also the optional power adapter so you can run the GPS of your laptop power instead of AA batteries is a must.

Dual GPS units makes life easier   
By Jim Edds on 7/25/2002 from Florida Keys
I use two delorme gps units: one for swift on com port 1 (serial) and the other for Street atlas via USB on com port 5. The USB gps doesn't need batteries and I have a cigarette lighter adapter to run the hotwire for the serial gps unit. Go to the delorme site for the GPS hotwire cables and drivers. Batteries will fail at the worst possible time. I spray painted both units "flat black" to get rid of dash window reflections. I also use a circular polarizer on the video camera to totally eliminate dash reflectons. Just rotate the polarizer for the desired affect. A polarizer uses up a bit of light but I found it's not a issue with my TRV-900 or VX-2000. I can switch back and forth between SWIFT and Street Atlas quickly, don't have to worry about batteries failing, and don't have reflections in the window. Make these modifications and you have a 5 star working product!

One of the best storm chasing tools ever.   
By Martin Lisius on 12/9/2002 from Arlington, Texas USA
The DeLorme Earthmate does not revolutionize storm chasing, but does offer a very helpful new tool. The system helps you know where you are, accurately, about 99% of the time. Knowing where you are is vital while storm chasing. I would give this system five stars if the software was better. It often shows paved roads as unpaved and sometimes shows a road when there isn't one. But considering the trillions of roads in this country, DeLorme has done a heck of a job!

best hand held gps on the market, in 5 versions starting at 139.99$up to 339.00$, lots of 12 volt goodies to get for it. i been using these units for 9 years.

Price: $339.99

Where To Buy:
boater's world

All-you-need GPS receiver with built-in maps of all major US roads. Additional software available for more detailed maps.

Price: $499.00

Where To Buy:

Most bang for the buck   
By Tim Vasquez on 2/13/1999 from Norman, OK
I found that the Garmin III overwhelmingly gave the most bang for the buck, not surprising given its popularity and freeware support... It features cities and towns, interstates, most U.S. highways, and some state highways, roughly corresponding to 1:1,000,000-type detail. It provides denser map coverage in many cities. The display interface is exceptionally well-designed and intuitive. The unit leaves breadcrumbs (tracks), helping mark your progress as you travel. An optional data cable can interface it with software such as DeLorme`s Stree Atlas to give you a real-time display against detailed maps containing every conceivable road and landmark. The unit lasts about 8 hours on batteries (cigarette lighter adapter optional) and includes a velcro dashboard mount. -Storm Track Vol. 22 No. 2, p. 7

Must-have for chasers   
By Anonymous on 5/25/2000 from Minneapolis, MN
I was lost somewhere on the border between Nebraska and Iowa last summer when I decided I wouldn't go out chasing again until I bought a GPS. The Garmin GPS III+ was the first GPS I've owned and I'm very satisfied. I keep the GPS in my dash, plugged in to my cig lighter (cord not incl), and use it all the time. Waypoint-plotting lets you estimate your time of arrival, and it`s fairly accurate. FINALLY! No more ruffling through county maps while driving!

Storm Hawk is a PDA system that combines GPS, radar, lightning, temperatures and high wind data along with the NWS GIS latitude/longitude warnings on a single screen. High resolution street mapping is available. Screen rotates with direction of travel at the top of the screen. For authorized users, there is a severe weather reporting function that allows the user, in the field, to send geo-coded reports of tornadoes, hail size, flooding, snow depth, etc. with a few screen touches. Storm Hawk has been featured on TechTV and in the New York Times, Men's Health and other notable publications. U.S. Patent 6,603,405 with additional U.S. and foreign patents pending.

Price: $1,595.00

Where To Buy:
www.storm-hawk.com

The Cassiopeia marks Casio's entrance into the PDA market. The E-115, their flagship model, boasts a beautiful color display, a powerful 131 MHz processor, and 32MB of RAM. The Cassiopeia supports the CompactFlash expansion slot allowing a number of add on modules to be used, such as modems, GPS, and LAN adapters.

Price: $599.00

Where To Buy:

Handheld delivers in little space!   
By Jason Persoff on 4/27/2001 from Jacksonville, FL
I have chased with a Cassiopeia E-100, E-105, and now the E-115. I use it for wireless internet access and GPS capabilities. It handles beautifully and despite its small size is a much more affordable (and less bulky) alternative to a laptop. Definitely worth the look. Email me if you have any questions; I'll be happy to tell you the 1,000,000 reasons this is a storm chaser's ideal gadget! Jason@Doctormail.Com

Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 680 Handheld PC, with Microsoft ® Pocket Outlook and Inbox ® and a built-in 56Kbps modem, provides no-hassle e-mail and convenient personal information management in a compact package.

Price: $899.00

Where To Buy:

Is it good?   
By Angel Dimitrov on 12/9/2003 from Varna, Bulgaria
Hello, I'm looking at Jordana from long time and I'm wondering if it is good for storm chasing. When I'm looking at something withOUT keyboard I'm getting little nervous;) but Jordana have keyboard but is too expensive for me. Is it good? If it is good may be I will take one such devices for my outdoor activities. If it have ssh(telnet) this will be great tool.

This less expensive model provides all the typical Palm Pilot features, but has a smaller screen. Also new with this model, changeable faceplates.

Price: $149.00

Where To Buy:

Not Recommended   
By Anonymous on 2/13/2001 from Minneapolis, MN
The problem with the Palm m100 is its notably smaller screen size and lack of expansion capabilities. It was basically introduced to try to capture the junior-high-cellphone-toting-teenagers market. Save your money or buy the Handspring Visor for the same price.

Palm Pilot model that allows wireless internet access. Get stock quotes, news, movie times, and traffic information instantly.

Price: $399.00

Where To Buy:

Indispensable!   
By Anonymous on 6/16/2000 from Minneapolis, MN
The Palm VII has quickly become the most indispensable of all my mobile devices. The e-mail capabilities alone make this unit immeasurably valuable (check email while in a meeting or driving). I also like being able to check the traffic and get point-to-point directions. There`s also several weather applications, including all of IWIN`s discussions available. The downside is that the coverage area is pretty weak, only over major cities. So I usually drive out of range to use it while storm chasing. If you can get past the price, this unit is insanely great.

Has the same functionality as the Palm™ VII handheld, plus larger storage capacity for more power.

Price: $449.00

Where To Buy:

Great Color Display for video and live internet data. Access to internet through LAN and Wirless and extra data storage with PC cards.

Price:  -

Where To Buy:
Compaq, BestBuy,Radioshack

Great for other stuff as well   
By Mike Sharp on 12/1/2004 from Surrey England
I have one of the older units 3950b which has been upgraded to PPC2003. I use a blue tooth jacket to link to the cell phone, have a CF sirf GPS for the mapping software, run Pocket Weather which can be configured to anywhere in the world and can still use it for e-mails, web browsing and other stuff as well. Excellent Graphics,Worth having extra memory cards for other stuff and if used mobile buy a car adaptor. Syncs well using cradle to the desk top pc.

Rival PDA to the Palm Pilot, from its inventors. The Visor boasts an expansion slot allowing for an ever-increasing array of modules to extend its functionality. Current modules include modems, GPS receivers, digital cameras, and video games.

Price: $149.00

Where To Buy:

Same as Palm Pilot, but Great Price   
By Anonymous on 2/13/2001 from Minneapolis, MN
This model of the Handspring Visor (~$150) is basically a price-killer competitor to the Palm III (~$250) from 3Com (now Palm, Inc). It is almost exactly the same except for the expansion slot. The expansion slot is a great idea, but everything that plugs into it costs an arm and a leg.

Choose your Visor in a variety of colors. Also comes with increased RAM and includes cradle.

Price: $249.00

Where To Buy:
http://www.handspring.com

Pefect for Chasers   
By Anonymous on 3/6/2002 from Spartanburg,SC USA
This product is perfect for chasers. It has wireless internet acsses.