Triple Crown

I own a Garmin 60Csx and I was in the same boat as you. I went to REI (no questions asked return policy) and bought the PN-40 because of the maps. In my opinion, it's a very capable unit but the Topo 7 is a users nightmare and it took me 3 days of downloading to get the aerial imagery of San Diego county loaded. The downloads are horribly slow, but cheap and the images are pretty but you can't zoom into too much or they pixilate. After 30 days I finally gave up and returned the unit. The user interface was too daunting and I had to change the defaults on almost every page to accomadate geocaching functionality. The map re-draw speeds on the unit were not a problem at all. There are a few DeLorme fans who swear by them, but for me it was too difficult to use. I passed over the Colorado based on the experiences of several friends. Lack of accuracy was the big complaint. I then bought the Oregon 300. I'm really happy with it. It's easy to use, but it IS more expensive and the basemaps only have major roads. I ended up finding it on-line at compu-u-plus for $382 and there is a $50 Garmin rebate until 5/20. The I had to shell out $99 for the City Navigator NT 2009. I already own the topo maps, and they are not locked to a specific s/n, but I know a guy who borrowed his friend's topo and installed it for free... There are a lot of comparison threads to look at. For me the better daytime screen visibility of the PN-40 was more than offset by the ease of use and larger screen size of the Oregon.

http://wap.geocaching.com This site gives you all the basics and is easy to read on cell-phone screens. http://www.bcaching.com/ This site promises more functionality but I haven't ried it yet.

Wow, don't watch the forums for a little while and you people go crazy with milestones! Kwvers 12K! Habu 5700! FisnJack 5K! LLOT 4700! (Talk about heart!) Snake & Rooster and Lost Clan at 4K! Devhead 3600! Congratulations! You guys rock!

Not that I'm a thread hijacker, but thanks!

I had this problem when I first got the Oregon. I use GSAK and export my caches as a GPX/LOC file, but make sure you select GPX ver 1.0 at the top. Ver 1.1 exports them as waypoints, ver 1.0 exports them as geocaches.

I just got a 300, and I use Sanyo eneloops. I use the same batteries in my flashlight and in my 60CSx. Works great, last long, and they re-charge!

From Rockin Roddy: Now, I'm going to ask a few questions in an attempt to better understand: To triple crown...when you say the field notes disappeared, how? Did you ever download the field notes or did they often just poof and gone (not an attack, just trying to understand)? I personally have never had a field note disappear (and sorry if this is attacking you for giving my experience), I have found the field notes very helpful. --I wanted to look at my field notes on the unit, not download them to the computer first. Couldn't find them. On the street names not showing...did you try street view setting in your map setup management menu? It's default setting is to show topo. --I don't remember. It showed the streets but only the names of a few, and it called I-8 (8 lanes!) Camino Del Rio N. which is the parallel access road. The street routing...did you set the unit to automatically get you back on course? --It took a few tries to figure out that I needed to tell the unit I still wanted to navigate to the assigned point (another default settings issue) The Topo 7....were your abilities to use the GPS hampered because of the learning curve? Also, did you just plug along trying to learn this on your own, or did you follow one of the many step-by-step processes which someone who took the time to learn the software so caringly put out there for all to use? --The tutorials posted on the DeLorme forum were awesome, I couldn't have done anything without them, but I guess thats part of the problem, I needed lots of help from users to get anything done. The loading of the caches by PQ, is that problem the result of the workaround (I would have to think so), or do you think this is how the unit will always work? --I believe the problem is related to the workaround, but the DeLorme product isn't available yet, so if I wanted to go caching now, I had to work with what was available now. Yes, it's a bit of a learning curve, but since you can learn as you go and still have full functionality of the GPS while learning, I feel the software is great and well worth learning (and as Triple Crown stated, it does a darned lot). I tried the trial sub (meaning I had just bought the unit) and had no problems when following the step-by-step...however, I did make a mistake when I got too cocky (and because of a nyquil buzz) and then had to strip all maps from my unit and start over (I was able to fix my mistake without the need to send it in and before anybody had to tell me what t do, gotta love that). As for the PQ comment, I bought my PN-40 knowing some areas needed work, I knew well before I bought that the cache register app was in the works and I'd have to be patient. I was and am very happy to see the progress, and, since I can load all the caches I want with the send to function, I have yet to use the PQ workaround. Didn't you know about the issues at hand? --I think I got sucked into the 'CacheRegister will be released any day now' hope. As of today, it doesn't do what I need it to do as well as my older unit. Yes, the default settings make some of the workings unsatisfactory, but with a bit of experiment and some asking, I was able to get mine set to work nicely! Would it be nice if they defaulted the settings to how I want to use it out of the box, but I doubt the designers know exactly how I want to use it! A few changes and life is good! --As you can see, some of my problems were operator error, but if the unit were more intuitive and user friendly they could be avoided. The unit is capable of lots of great things, but the bottom line for me was that it was too difficult to use and it required way too much time to learn. The screen debate is a matter of personal preference. For me, the screen size wasn't a problem on the PN-40 but compared to the Oregon it is smaller and has lower resolution. It's almost the same as my 60Csx, but for me the tradeoff of cool imagery was not worth the frustrations of finding and adjusting all of the settings I needed. I tried it for a month (I try to cache daily), so I feel like that was a reasonable amount of time.

I have a 60Csx and really like it, but I was enamored with the PN-40 satellite imagery so I bought it. My impressions. Satellite imagery, very cool for seeing which trails the caches are on, but you can't zoom in too far or it gets blurry. The imagery on an Iphone (which I don't have) is much more impressive at very high zoom, but you need 3G reception for it to work well. No problems at all with accuracy or getting locks, the GPSr worked perfectly, it was the user interface problems that need more work. I love that the geocaching mode allows me to see whole cache pages and enter logs in the field. Topo7, it does a lot more than I will ever need, so the learning curve is very steep, and it took me 3 days to download aerial imagery for San Diego county and load it onto the unit. The $30 map subscription is a good deal, but you are going to spend a lot of time learning how to use it. Choosing & cutting maps is too time consuming. The downloads are excruciatingly slow. The screen is relatively small, but because the fonts for geocache pages are large and easy to read, text is much easier to read than the on the 60Csx or Oregon. DeLorme has hands down the best customer support in the industry, great forum and very responsive. Unfortunately the PN-40 default settings are terrible for geocaching. I had the 2.5 beta firmware. The unit is not intuitive for new users and I had to change a lot of settings on almost every page. Street routing is clunky and hard to manage, the maps are great, but the street names are not displayed which greatly limits utility(probably another setting but I never did get it work well). I tried the unit for a month before I finally gave up. I think the CacheRegister interface will make a huge difference. Until then, there are major problems. When loading a PQ, it frequently 'lost' caches, 300 caches sent, only 230 arrived on the unit. Not good enough. Cool field notes when you find a cache...later, where did they go? How can I retrieve them? I'm really looking forward to the next model. A bigger screen, backlighted buttons, more intuitive menus. I want a unit geared for me. IMO Garmin fell on its face with the Colorado, but fixed most of the problems (except waypoint averaging!) with the Oregon. Hopefully DeLorme will do something similar with its next model.. I'm getting an Oregon next, but if it's not a great leap forward from my 60Csx, it's going back too. Hope that helps.

Way to go Nancy! Congrats, Nancy! That's an awesome achievement! J&J - you guys are no slouches - I see your streak has been going for over 3 years! Wow! Not slouches? How dare you? They're tremendous slouches for getting THAT much time off! (Hi Mr. & Mrs. Kettle, I'm Mr. Pot, I noticed you're black!) Congratulations Nancy!!! (I think you're gaining on them!)

Congrats to lulu499 on her 3000th find!!! You go girl!!!

They are amazing, as well as all the other mega-finders of San Diego! Way to go, you two!!! Congrats, kwvers!!! 11,000 is awesome!!! Congrats Jim & Denice!!! Amazing!!!

Wow!!!! Unbelievable!!! Awesome!!! WTG M8s! According to the Grand High Pobah that ranks them: 8th in California AND 27th in the USA AND the WORLD!!! WooooooooHooooooooooo!!!!! Congratulations!!! Way to go!!! A big WooooHoooo from us ! You two are amazing, we bow to the masters! Looks like Kwvers! are about there also,..........Game On!! The Splashes 11,000 finds! Wow! At their current rate my calculator will explode before summer...

They were kilts! I'm going to have to side with Lulu on this one...if you lift it up and see a pole, its a KILT!!!

6000 for Flagman Way to go Flagman! WhoooHoooo!!! FlagMan is now 6050, no wait 6000 and 50!!! Congratulations on ALL of your milestones!!!

9,500 Congrats to all! The Fat Cats just reached 3500!!! Congrats to the Fat Cats! Yay Sue!

Great Googly Moogly, Duncan! found #9500!!!

OK, OK, so I didn't answer my phone. This still seems a bit harsh! Let that be a lesson to the rest of you! I'm very stern and a cruel taskmaster, and quite grumpy when I can't get a lifeline. Not as many lifelines would be needed if you bowled more often Geo-bowling?? Woah, who knew?! Count me in, I'll show you ALL my skills at knockin' down uh ... well, last time I think I got 140 or so . Coulda been less, now that i think about it. Hmmm, whose team can I be on? boysnbarrie I see a Big Lebowski Bowling Night Geo-Event coming soon to San Diego. More info as the plan comes together!

OK, OK, so I didn't answer my phone. This still seems a bit harsh! Let that be a lesson to the rest of you! I'm very stern and a cruel taskmaster, and quite grumpy when I can't get a lifeline. Not as many lifelines would be needed if you bowled more often You're right, but I think I had too many White Russians, plus, obviously I can't roll on the shabbat.

OK, OK, so I didn't answer my phone. This still seems a bit harsh! Let that be a lesson to the rest of you! I'm very stern and a cruel taskmaster, and quite grumpy when I can't get a lifeline.

Congratulations to BoysnBarrie on 1000 finds!!! Chuy! on 7500 finds!!! And Ginger! on 2000!!!

Congratulations you milestoners!!!! lulu499 2500 FlagMan 5700 Duncan! 9000 Thunder-4 3800 SuperDave! 2000 Chuy! 7400 U2U 2500

Congrats to Canadian Grl for passing 1200!!! Rock on, SuperStar!!!

Congratulations you two!!!!!!!! Great job. Now keep that streak going. ......1........0.........0...........0............0 Congrats ot Jahoadi & John on OMG! 10000!!!

.....1.............0............0............0............0 CONGRATS AND IT'S MY PLEASURE TO HAVE HELPED YOU BOTH TO GET TO THE LARGE NUMBER IN THE PICTURE. Great Googly Moogly!!! 10,000 Finds!!! Congrats and Keep-on-a-Goin'!!!

Congrats to Fat Cats and Lost Clan Congrats to Jared too, but I heard he's really 25, he just hasn't logged those other years yet!