garcor

That's strange, my souvenir showed up as soon as I finished logging the cache. Before I even left the log in page. Seems like a lot of us attended 12-12-12 events and didn't get our Souvenirs, We found 5 caches and attended an event last evening but we didn't get a 12-12-12 Souvenir, Sent an e-mail to groundspeek but no responce yet.

I realize you say you have narrowed your search down to Garmin Etrex 30 or the Dakota 20. I am assuming you have ruled out the Magellan explorist 610 or 710 however I don't know if Magellan still has a trade in option but they were awhile back and it could mean you getting what you are looking for in a GPSR unit and a better price. just food for thought. for more info on these units click here http://www.exploristforum.com/

One thing to consider is that most if not all car GPSr's don't have the ability to do paperless Geocaching , meaning you will need to write down or print off the information on each cache and that can be a pain. you might be better to start off with a used portable GPSr that you can do paperless geocaching with if that is the main reason to buy a GPSR.

Thanks ! great post. I have used my TT 920 and GSAK to get to the trail head for few months now, however the extra tips you give will be handy.

As Triskelle said GSAK is an excellent program to use when on line to see caches on map however you need to be online. There is a program that works with Magellan's called Vantage Point and the newest version has a map with called (Digitalglobe) that you can load caches to and then view of line. DigitalGlobe is a subscription based map and it may work with other GPS units? see attached photo http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/Garcor_photo/picture001-2.jpg

There has been a quite a bit of discussions regarding batteries life on the Explorist forum and it does seem that the units do drain some power even when they are turned off. (http://www.exploristforum.com) As for your friends Magellan you might also get help on there as there are several Magellan users on the forum. I was able to get a software download for my old Magellan meridian colour back some time ago so depending what unit your friend has . .

You can download Cachesence a GPS program for blackberry http://www.cachesense.com/ I have this on my BB 9300 but I haven't used it as I have had bought a new Magellan explorist 710 a couple of months before getting my blackberry and am going through the learning curve with it.

sorry put in wrong place

There are a lot of good portable GPSR's on the market and it is personal preference just like some people like a Ford others like a Chevy. You will find that all your top end units will do what you are looking for. You might want to take a look at some of the different forums for the different brands. One of the things that I found when I was looking for a new unit back a couple of months ago is in the upper end units the Magellan Explorist series you seem to get more bang for your buck when comparing units in the same price range. here is the link for the Explorist forum http://www.exploristforum.com/

Thanks Xyzee for the info You are right it isn't a bad unit for an older one. I did like it for it's accuracy. I just dont't like the fact that you can't down load the detailed cache information to it, only the Waypoints. however if I don't sell it I can still use it as a backup. Gary

Meridian Color comes with Map Send Direct Route (USA) and windshield mount, I have used this for highway directions,GeoCaching,and Marine ( no Blue chart maps for marine just base map ) Geocache pocket queries waypoints can be downloaded but not descriptions. In good working order for an older unit. $100.00 Can + Shipping Firm. (PayPal accepted) At the time I bought my 710 from Amazon I didn't realize that Magellan would have allowed me over $200.00 on their loyalty program if I had ordered from them.

As the owner of several Magellan and Garmin products, the history of Magellan shows they don't do this. Magellan tends to ABANDON all product support. When they came out with the Explorist GC, they abandoned all support for the Triton's. When they released the Triton, they abandoned all support for the Explorist 100-600 series. Magellan is nothing like TomTom, Magellan has had at least 4 different owners in the past 7 years. Magellan's biggest problem is they don't listen to customers, they only listen to their "insiders program" and the insiders only tell them what Magellan wants to hear (out of fear of losing their "insider" privileges). There is no public beta program (Delorme and Garmin both have this). If Magellan would simply allow us REAL users to download beta software and report to them, it would do wonders for their units. I will tell you right now what is wrong with the 710 (along with all the x10 units). The odometer is off by about 30 percent, the maps are out of date (they don't even have 5 year old interstates on their unit), the battery life is bad, the average mph is way off, touch screen is very buggy, unit slows down when all it's features are in use, magnetic compass requires way too much calibration, fonts can be small, unusable without backlight on, reception lags in any tough enviroment (trees, inside) compared to Garmins and Delormes, takes way too long to auto-route compared to the Garmin Dakota's and give me 5 minutes and I'll come up with some more. I tested and found these errors on the 710 and the GC. The 710 I returned but I do own the GC, which gathers dust) I realize this isn't the biggest issue that you have with the 710 however you say one of the issues with the 710 is that the average MPH is way off. I am not doubting you but I wonder how you come to that descision. If you are compairing it to your vihicles mph then it is more than likely that you vihicles MPH is off or at least that is the case with all other GPS's. I know that my TomTom and old Magellian Maderian are both more accurate than any vichicle. I have also read about this issue on the TomTom forum.

Me either. If their latest greatest most expensive best unit was as bad as that, I don't want anything further to do with them. I have checked (without posting) on www.exploristforum.com and although they have come out with a new firmware release that fixed some of the problems, the remaining ones would still drive me crazy. I have been using the 610 for a couple of months and other than being a bit more file orientated I believe this will give any other unit a run for its money as it is--"I guess by your comments there must never have been any software problems with the other high end units in the past" I just ordered the 710 and it should be here next week. As for the issues that is being talked about here I would think should get straightened out in the future firmware updates, As for being a high end Product model having software problems this seem to happen a lot with most products. I have a Top of the line TomTom I bought a few years ago and it has had several firmware updates some good and some not so good but if Magellan is anything like TomTom I feel they will work out the bugs and come out with fixes. I guess companies feel if they release a product in the field consumers will find the bugs and report it back to them. We become the field testers.

I have the nexxtech USB 1.1 serial adapter cable and drivers that I use with xp I went to there site looking for drivers for 7 but no luck, however there was a advertisement for USB serial adaptor cable that works with 7 here is the link http://www.beaglesoft.com/232usb.htm?gclid=CLbd0cObhqkCFYfe4AodwWP3pw Perhaps you can PM me on how to get geocash wp downloaded to my Mariden I have been unable to do so and have had to do it manualy.