NordicMan

A dedicated handheld GPSr is purpose built for the task, whereas in a smartphone the GPS portion is just one of it's many abilities. For that reason the smartphone GPS parts have to be small, a tiny receiver running from a (relatively) tiny battery. You figure out which one is a better "GPS device" Having said that, smartphone GPSr's do work quite well, and if their abilities satisfy your needs then you don't need to buy a dedicated GPSr. Having said that,,, even a dedicated GPSr will still have "bad days" of reception, and may sometimes also be off by 20 meters or worse. No guarantees in life

Yep multi-caches are fun! And just like traditional caches, if you stick to an easy "1/1" difficulty/terrain rated one, it should be an easy walk in the park (pun intended )

Don't listen to these guys!!! Diamonds gold & other rare gems make the best swag!! ..just tell me where you do your 'caching before depositing any

Strike the Cobra from your list too, but leave in the Lowrance if you can find a good price on one.

Yeah the Etrex's only has a 2-axis compass. Still IMHO it's worth the $50. The altimeter isn't much of a perk (to me)

www.tigergps.com usually has pretty competitive prices, & decent service

NMEA just sends current coordinate data to your PC. Switch the GPSr to "mass storage mode" in order to transfer waypoints and routes

Wow, sorry to hear that

As long as it meets the specs : http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate/ If you're looking at an older device, be sure it can connect to your computer for the data transfer. Some older PDA's use a serial connector, and most modern computers no longer have that connector. Also, if your are using a 64 bit O/S on your computer then finding drivers can be a problem too.

Pull the batteries, remove the SD card. Let it sit for a few minutes then put in JUST the batteries. Start'er up. Is it working fine now?

You'll have to explain more about what "being in the mountains" means, as just the increased elevation itself has no impact on GPSr signal quality. All that really matters is you have good view of the sky. If you're wedged in a ravine with very poor view of the sky then even a dedicated handheld GPS device will be challenged. But yes for the most part, in typical conditions a dedicated handheld GPSr will usually perform better than a smartphone GPSr

A 60CSx would complement your smartphone nicely, get that. GC's are nice too, but the 60CSx is proven, and can also navigate your car if you later decide you want that (and add the appropriate maps)

If you can enable the Endura to appear as an external mass storage drive on the Mac, you should be able to drag .GPX pocket queries into it no problem. Check the settings in the Endura.

Regarding specifically the 60CSx model, some people think the older ones are actually better because they used (according to them) a better receiver. The older ones had SirfStar whereas the newer ones use Mediatec. Now, if the reason you are buying a GPS receiver is mostly for Geocaching, then you should actually be looking at a model that supports paperless caching (the 60CSx does not).

I doubt you could estimate the height of a tree (for example) using a handheld GPSr at least not with any amount of accuracy. Maybe a monster Redwood but not a lowly apple tree Does your attempt mean you are going to climb to the top of the tree & compare the displayed altitude & subtract from ground level altitude? On a fancier GPSr you can technically either use the GPS altitude or the barometric pressure altitude, which would probably be more accurate. Edit: Another method, if the area was level ground, is to step 100 feet away from the base of the tree (according to the GPS), determine the angle from the ground to the tree top, and use good'ole trigonometry to math out your solution. ..Or do what dfx suggests

Umm no. Delorme brand maps won't work on anything other than Delorme brand GPS receivers.

The Delormes are a great value and a good choice as long as you don't plan on leaving North America with it. If you're an out-of-country traveler then you better stick to the Garmins.

Hi & welcome to Geocaching You don't actually "need" a cable for your GPSr in order to try out Geocaching. You can start out the old fashioned way and manually key in the cache coordinates into the GPS. It works out fine, although it does become tedious and be SURE you don't typo a coordinate or you may wind up searching a mile in the wrong location. But avoid typos & you'll do fine. Personally I wouldn't spend any money trying to upgrade an ancient GPS receiver. Use what you got for now, and if you decide you really enjoy the pastime then buy something newer.

Not just geocaching, I'd feel uncomfortable going *anywhere* with someone who is carrying a gun Is this guy carrying concealed or "John Wayne" open style? lol

One handy trick is to check the logs of the previous searchers. Has the cache been found recently?? It's not a surefire test but it is helpful.

Well OK first you need to get the Z22 communicating with your computer.. do you use a PC or a Mac? Check this link for a compatible version of Palm Desktop http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/33529_en.html Getting this set up will enable the "Hotsync" feature to allow the Palm to transfer data to/from your computer. Now that that's working, use a program like GSAK (it's free to try it) or another neat program called CacheMate (also free to try) to transfer hundreds of Geocaches into the Z22! http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate Do those one-step-at-a-time, let us know if you have any problems. Yeah the Palm is no more rugged or weather resistant than your Nuvi while outdoors. but at least it's a lot cheaper so you won't cry as loud if it gets busted!

Yeah but that guideline doesn't imply you HAVE TO use a dedicated handheld GPS. You can certainly use a smartphone/GPS as long as your coordinates are good, and the test I mentioned would be a good way of confirming accurate coordinates. That guideline is meant more for people who think they can get their coordinates from Google Earth or something similar.

Smartphones don't always give a sufficiently accurate coordinate precision for the purpose of hiding a Geocache. Keep in mind when designers create the specs for a smartphone all they usually expect the GPSr to be used for is to assist a person to find a gas station / ATM / bank / restaurant / etc, and for those purposes all it needs to do is get you within sight of the target. No tight precision needed. Dedicated handheld GPSr's usually (but of course not "always") will give better precision for locating a geocache coordinate. If you don't have one, maybe you can borrow one from someone? If you do wind up using your smartphone to locate a cache coordinate, then do the best you can to get as good precision as possible. Now before publishing the Geocache, try a test: Place something small at the cache location, then give your smartphone to a friend (who doesn't know the location) and see if THEY can find it using your saved coordinate

Wow that's actually a pretty cool perk I hadn't even though of

Hi & welcome to Geocaching The Venture Hc is a great starter unit which you can grab for $140 new from Radioworld, which would include a full warranty. If you "know" the seller enough to trust not needing the warranty then $100 would be a great price. http://radioworld.ca/product_info.php?cPath=4_94&products_id=4005 The Magellan GC is also quite a good device but it is kinda specialized for Geocaching usage, so if you want a device you can load marine map detail onto, the Magellan can't do that.