MY LITTLE CUDA

When I bought a Lowrance LMS 350A sonar/GPS unit for my boat it was the top-o-line unit available. That was 15 years ago or more. It served me well but the sonar part of the unit failed last summer.

I replaced the unit with another top Lowrance unit, the HDS 7. It has a color screen, maps, connects to the Sirius Marine Weather system and has more screens, apps, buttons and features than I’ll ever use. So when I installed it, I left the 350 in place and relied on the old unit for 98% of my GPS needs. (And 98% of the time all I need is my current position, the speed I’m going, the direction I’m heading and the direction I need to go to get to somewhere else.) The HDS 7 will do that, but punching through the various buttons and commands to get the basic info kept me relying on the antique model.

The 350 burned out about 6 weeks ago. One of my first thoughts was to purchase a used 350 on eBay. My wires were still in place, just swap out the old and in with the new(er). A few units were listed and I hoped to pick one up for about a hundred bucks. I lost the first auction at $150. Haven’t seen a unit since go for less than $200–some much more if the seller offers a money-back "guarantee" the unit works. Most sellers say in their description the unit was working, last they knew–take your chances.

I have a hand-held GPS but the batteries are usually dead, the screen is so small I need my "cheaters" to read it and I use it so infrequently, each time is a learning experience. They no longer make "stand-alone" dash-mount GPS units.
MY LITTLE CUDA

Plan "B" came when I got a sale flyer from Cabela’s. The sale was for a Lowrance Cuda 350 for $169. It’s a sonar/GPS, but with a small sonar screen with fairly low resolution. Since I only wanted it to show a screen which shows my location, speed and direction of travel--98% of the time--and in a font size I could read, easily. I didn’t need the sonar–I already have 2 of those on board. I’ve used it on several fishing trips and it does exactly what I want. (I didn’t even install the sonar transducer.)

So what about my LMS 350A? At the time it was made, the best GPS units required remote GPS module/antennas to work. I sold the antenna module on eBay for $145. And for giggles and (35 cents) I listed the 350 unit, announced it was broken, blew fuses as fast as you could change them and came with no wires, GPS, transducers or guarantee of anything other than it was broken.

Go figure! I sold that unit for 50 bucks. So I’m happy, I’ve got a user-friendly back-up GPS on the boat and I’m money ahead!