[etrex Legend]

We used Legends to find our first 300 caches, and loved them so much we kept them for guests to use even though we upgraded to units that have autorouting.

 

I do have a few hints that seemed to help me:

 

1) make sure you don't "hover" over the unit--your body can block the signal

 

2) do keep the Legend facing upward as much of the time as possible and aawy from your body

 

3) turn it on a long while before you get to the cache. A half an hour is not too long! The longer it stays on and gets a signal, the more accurate the signal it gets. I would leave mine on all day; I let it sit on the dash under the front windshield while we drove to the cache so the roof of the car didn't block the signal. I got about 22 hours of battery run time from a set of batteries even when I used the backlight fairly frequently at night.

 

4) do let the unit "settle" while you hunt the cache. Use it to get close to the cache, then set it down while you look for the cache nearby. If you don't find the cache in a few minutes, check the GPS again to see if it's pointing out a new spot (Just don't forget to pick it up again when you leve or if you move too far away!)

 

If it does lose it's signal, find a clearing to let it reacquire the signal. I only had to do this twice, ever.

 

If it gets "too bouncy" (compass flipping around everywhich way) that means you are close. Try walking a tad faster--sometimes going too slow confuses the signal.

 

One other trick that helps is to walk away from the area 20-30 feet (or more) and see where it points, mark that spot mentally (pick out a rock or tree that is notable) then walk 20-30 feet away in a different direction and do that again to see if it points out the same spot. Usually you can narrow down the area that way even in the deepest, darkest woods.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them out this weekend!

[etrex Legend]

I set out this weekend with my 3 year old daughter for what I thought would be an easy first geoCache. 3 year old girls not so much interested in hiking though the woods for no understandable reason. But thats not the problem. About 300 feet into the woods my eTrex Legend kept losing reception. The trail was very defined and not to much tree cover. Any suggestions on how to get better reception?