Understanding Proximity Alarms on Garmin Outdoor Handhelds

With Proximity Alarms enabled, the handheld will make an audible tone and display a visual alert when you are within a predefined proximity of a specific Point of Interest (POI).

The information below goes over these alarms in detail.

Creating Proximity Alarms on an Outdoor Handheld

Proximity Alarms can be created for any POIs on an outdoor handheld using the Proximity Alarms App accessible from the Main Menu. The proximity of a waypoint can also be set by editing the waypoint through Waypoint Manager.

After a Proximity Alarm has been created for a POI, a circle is inscribed around the point on the map according to the radius setting.

NOTE: On Garmin Outdoor handhelds, the Proximity Alarm will only alert if the moving speed of the handheld is above 5 MPH. Approaching and Leaving Alarms will still alert when moving below 5 MPH.

What are Approaching and Leaving Alarms?

Approaching and Leaving Alarms produce alerts on the handheld when entering and leaving the proximity area of a POI.

The distance when Approaching and Leaving Alarms are triggered is determined by the Proximity Radius setting of the Proximity Alarm. 

For example, if the proximity radius for a waypoint is set to 300 feet, the Approaching Alarm will ring when your GPS position is within 300 feet of the waypoint. If you were to continue moving toward and past the waypoint until you reach the opposite side of the proximity radius, the Leaving Alarm will ring when you move more than 300 feet beyond the waypoint.

What is an Upcoming Speed Alarm?

An Upcoming Speed Alarm produces an alert when when the moving speed of the handheld exceeds the predefined speed for the alarm while within the proximity of the POI.

To get speed alerts, Custom POIs containing speed data should first be added to the handheld using Garmin POI Loader. Speed data is added to a Custom POI by including the speed number in the name of the individual POI file preceded by the @ symbol.

For example, to create a speed alert for a POI named SpeedTest with a speed of 20 MPH, the location file should be named SpeedTest@20. When approaching this point of interest, the device would alert you that the speed limit is 20 MPH if you are moving faster than 20 MPH.

NOTE: Upcoming Speed Alarms on outdoor handhelds are only triggered when the handheld is moving faster than the predefined speed of the POI. If you are moving slower than the speed set for the POI, the Upcoming Speed Alarm will not go off.

Creating Proximity Alarms with Custom POIs (Points of Interest)

Proximity Alarms can also be used on outdoor handhelds by sending Custom POIs with proximity data to the handheld with Garmin POI Loader. The basic process is as follows:

1. A location file is created in GPX format using Garmin BaseCamp™ software.
2. Garmin POI Loader is used to add proximity and other alert data to the location file.
3. The newly created Custom POI is transferred to the Garmin handheld containing the necessary data to trigger proximity alarms.

Beyond using BaseCamp™ software, there are other methods of creating Custom POIs including creating POIs in a text file or spreadsheet but are generally considered to be for advanced users only.

For more information on working with Custom POIs, see Related.

Additional helpful information about creating Custom POIs can be found by clicking Help in the Garmin POI Loader software.

NOTE: Custom POIs containing proximity data do not produce the inscribed circle on the map of the Garmin handheld by default. To produce a circle around the Custom POI on the map, the POI should first be saved as a waypoint then edited to include a Proximity Radius.