MikeK5117

I purchased a refurbed G-III+ a few months ago and other than the sticker on the box declaring it a refurbed product it looked brand new. I imagine the unit you get will not be distinguishable from brand new.

The Legend is a great unit, especially if you got one when the rebate was in effect. Lots of bang for the buck. Don't discount the Venture, for a strictly geocaching or off-road unit, it is hard to beat. However, for an all-purpose unit at a great price, go for the Legend. There are times when I would like to have the compass in the same unit, but most times I can use a handheld compass to get my bearings when I get near a cache and then the GPS is all I need.

On all my GPSr's. when geocaching I turn off the tracking display on the map. That is, no display of breadcrumbs. I find they really get in the way when I am covering an area trying to narrow down a fix on the cache and the display gets filled up with tracks.

Currently Garmin GPS-V, Etrex Legend and Etrex Venture. Just sold a Vista. Previously also had a GPS III+ and want another one some day soon. Also had a Lowrance I-Finder. Pretty good unit, not waterproof so not too suitable for caching or any other outdoor activities.

Any decent slide scanner will do a reasonable job. Available from a couple of hundred $$ to many thousands. You don't necessarily need a DVD burner, a CD burner will do the same job, just won't hold as many slides. The files tend to be pretty big if you scan at max resolution. Many DVD players these days will play a CD with jpg images on it, I use this all the time to show family slide shows.

I'll second (or third) DW's comments, for a day pack wear it however it feels most comfortable. There has been lots of advice posted here on fitting a backpack, but IMHO if you can get it to fit as described it ain't a daypack anymore, its a backpack. Cinch it in tight so it doesn't sway and catch on stuff, and use the waist belt to stabilize it esp. if you are carrying something heavy or are climbing or scrambling where your balance is important.

The best feature about caching with a V is it will put you into the parking lot closest to the cache site. Sometimes this is a disappointment, I once only hiked about 30 ft after hitting the trail before finding the cache when I was really looking forward to a long trail walk. Otherwise, I usually leave the V hooked up in the truck and grab an Etrex for the hunt.

Does anyone miss the active route page from the GPS-III+. I bought a III+ after my V and really liked that feature. Liked the highway page display as well. I returned the III+ in favour of a couple of Etrex's but if I ever come across one again I think I will pick it up.

Pretty lucky your employer gave you such an expensive phone. I've been waiting for the prices to drop or my carrier to offer this phone as an upgrade. I use the P800's little brother the T68 but the screen is too small for most internet use except WAP.

Over Memorial Day we were caching in a particularly ticky looking spot, so I decided to spray a little extra Deet on my neck and ankles. Couple of minutes later I reached for my Etrex which was cliped to my pack strap and discovered that the clear plastic front of the carry case was completely fogged from the overspray. Thank goodness I had the unit in the case. Luckily none seemed to get on the unit itself, I wiped it immediately with some alcohol-based hand cleaner and it seemed OK. Guess I always knew Deet would do this, just carelessly sprayed it without thinking.

I have done the exact thing that you are describing on my G-V and I can usually get it to work out for me. Two weeks ago I planned a trip for my wife from KC to Canada. I had to spend some time in Mapsource making sure that I had clicked on the correct roads, etc (on interstates it is easy to click the wrong lane and then it generates a backtracking route for you) but when I was done it worked perfect in the G-V. Maybe the big difference was that I was plotting mostly interstates which the base map would likely have had as well. However, I have done a number of routes which went outside of the Cityselect maps I have loaded to the unit, including routes following detailed streets to my son's home in Chicago, and always worked out for me. BTW, I do always tell the unit NOT to recalculate the route when it prompts. BTW you won't like how many maps will fit into the G-V at one time, not much chance of doing a cross country trip with them, or even handle a full day's driving. Kind of crummy in that regard, but the base maps handle most interstate driving so I just keep my local maps loaded in detal.

As another newbie I can only offer you encouragment to keep trying. I feel pretty lucky that we've found 9/9 in the past month since we got started. Up to today our hardest was a multi where we figured the clues wrong the first 2 times and spent most of an afternoon before we got it right. Today we hunted for most of an hour for one where previous cachers including ourselves felt the coordinates were about 50 feet off. We resorted to the encrypted clue which inspired my wife to find the real hiding spot. We have found you really have to watch your GPS close as you go back and forth across the general area, eventually you will narrow down the search to maybe 10-20 feet where the GPS most often shows you are closest. Even under heavy cover our Etrex's put us in range everytime if we give them enough time and watch the display closely. Then the fun begins, turning over all the branches, rocks etc to find the cache. Sometimes you can spot the likely hiding places (hollow logs, stumps, etc) pretty easily, other times the cache owner was real creative and you will get a little more educated when you find it. We also try hard to put everything back the way we found it and leave as little sign as possible so the next person will have the same "fun" we had.

Dittos on Garmin service. I sent in my Venture because the battery cover was loose and I was worried it would leak easily. They replaced the cover and in the process replaced the front cover which was marked up and scratched. They also sent me a free replacement manual since I had lost the original. All free gratus and got it back 4 working days after the day they received it from me.

Black Diamond is clearing out their "old" Gemini light which is a really fantastic dual LED + halogen unit. New model adds a second LED bulb. The original was Backpacker Magazine editors choice or some such thing. $28 + 5 shipping. http://www.bdel.com/php/allspecials.php?gear=lightware Great deal.

I might offer a different slant on the subject. If your primary use for the GPSr is off-road trekking etc, then a non-mapping model may be all you need. I already owned a Garmin V and was intending to buy a (nice small, portable, easy to throw in my pocket) yellow Etrex for geocaching when I found a good deal on an Etrex Venture, which is the same as a Legend or Vista, but without the street map display. For off-road use where you may want to set a waypoint (ie geocache) then follow trails or even bushwack your way to the point, and then backtrack your way out, I find the Venture's non-streetmap display to be much less cluttered. If I put in 3 or 4 caches I want to find, it is easy to zoom out to see all of them on one display without streets confusing the issue. Since buying the Venture I have also picked up a Legend and a Vista and I still like the Venture for basic off-road use. If it would only display topo maps without the road maps it would be IMHO the perfect off road unit. Of course, right now with the rebates the Legend sells for the same or even less than the Venture, which makes most people go for the extra features at no more money. However, if your needs include road navigation and you want to upload detailed street maps and would like to lookup street addresses, etc then a Legend or better will be needed. If you are really not worried about dollars, then a GPS-V is a great unit with superb performance with the quad-helix antenna but in a larger physical size than an Etrex. It is less than $100 more than a Vista (with the current rebates) and you get the City Select maps for all of N. America plus 12v cord, car mount, etc. A real good value, again IMHO. [This message was edited by MikeK5117 on May 14, 2003 at 01:11 PM.]

Check around for closeouts, etc. I have seen both of these units locally for under $100. Bought an open-box Venture at Best Buy for $89.00, and passed up an open-box 72 at Walmart for $75.00. Both were in new condition. BTW, my preference would be the Venture purely on a size basis. Otherwise, the 72 seems like a pretty good unit and for primarily car or boat use would likely be a real good choice, the small screen (hense small type, etc) on the Etrex's pretty much dictates (at least for my eyes) you hold them in your hand to see them well.

I checked out my version of City Select for Huron and showed lots of detail as well. It came with my G-V that I purchased early March.

I had read this thread but didn't check my version of City Select (4.01) until this morning. Same as the others, I get tons of detail for Midland TX, lots of streets, POI's etc. including those mentioned by SergZak. On mine I get "GPS Detail" down to 500 ft. after which I get the "Overzoomed" message. Looks like you need to verify that you actually have installed the detailed map sections you are looking for.

Like Poindexter said, the SPIII is a poor choice for a hand-held, off-road GPS. Screens don't show you any info that would be usefull for finding a cache except for the map screen. Size and landscape orientation don't lend themselves to handheld. Battery life is poor, and it takes 6 AA at one time. For a single unit, multi-purpose GPS, the G-V is almost ideal. I am going to eventually purchase a Vista for caching, hiking and hunting uses, but up until now my G-V (and G-III before) worked great.

I am currently debating returning a recently purchased GPS III+ that I got for a great price in favor of a Etrex Vista. I really like most aspects of the Vista including of course the size, memory, compass, etc. However, the GPS III+ has some nice features that the Vista lacks and really I don't know if any current model Garmin units have these, specifically the Active Route page and the highway page. Both of these seem to me to be great route/track related displays that the compass/HSI page in the Vista don't really replace. I especially like all the information offered in the Active route page regarding upcoming turns, headings, etc. Anyway, my question to GPS-III+ owners is how much practical use to you get out of these. If you have switched to a new model do you miss these features or get along with out them. I realize that in a geocaching application routes and tracks may not get used that much, but for other navigation purposes are more useful. I'm not really concerned about the memory and maps capability of the Vista (however they will be used) since I also have a G-V, mainly the size and compass would be the main selling features. Any comments would be appreciated, I have scoured the archives both here as well as at sci.geo.satellite-nav and haven't found a really definitive discussion of this.