Jeep4two

I want to rent them for geocaching. Its a tourist town that has geocaching events and vacationers are always looking for something to do. Here's just and idea that popped into my head: Go with something realtively inexpensive (as you are already planning) and consider setting up routes that are preloaded on the GPSr to guide the users from cache to cache. You would need to create a basic workflow / training that you would give when the unit is picked up (and documented so users can take some sort of a guide with them). For example - a 4 hour rental with a predetermined route for caching of say 5 to 10 caches (adjust based on difficulty of caches). If you had at least as many different routes as you have GPSr's for rent you'll avoid having renters run upon each other (unless you want to intentionally have them cross paths). If the idea takes you can expand it. I see lots of possibilities for bike mounted rentals, mountain biking trails, Oregons for foot trails with the easy navigation available on them. Sounds like you may have a good idea. Working out the details on rental costs to be appropriate and enticing and selecting a unit that makes it easy and quick to learn makes for a difficult balance to attain and maintain profitability especially at the beginning. I'd also offer units for sale at your shop/location for that 'instant gratification' personality that gets instantly hooked and just has to have their own GPSr and can't wait. Good luck and post back on how it goes.

You can't log a found. Think of it this way. "I got to work, and I could see my office (factory, etc..)" ". . . But I didn't go in and work" "Did count this as a work day?" Ok - Ok - yeah you can get paid for a while but when the sick/vacation days run out I suspect the checks will stop coming and the pointy haired boss (or your own personal hell's equivalent) will eventually hand you a pink slip. If you can see it, but can't log it for some reason then plan a return visit and/or log a DNF or note.

Another big thanks out to Red90. This application made quick work of modifying my Metroguide NA v6.xx maps to be routable on my Oregon 400t. I tested with a regional (4 states). Very nice. I'll be sending some PayPal $$'s to the developer, or purchasing the gold version of the application that allows for single maps up to 2 Gb (with would cover all of the Metroguide NA product. Thanks again for the heads up.

First - I have an eTrex Legend (older non-high sensitivity model) and just got my shiny new Oregon 400t (these are both Garmin branded units). The GPSr you decide to go with needs to meet a few criteria. Must meet your budget Must do what you want to do Must be accurate enough to support Geocaching The nice thing is that number 3 in the list is satisfied by virtually any modern (read: new) GPSr. Even older eTrex units without the high sensitivity receivers will work for Geocaching. Take a look at your budget and decide how much you can afford to spend and try to shop within that range. It is a lot like buying a car - there's a broad range of bells and whistles but they all get you from point A to B. Consider what options you must have (point number 2). If you want paperless geocaching then you'll need to consider whether you want a single device to do this, or whether a more basic unit will do the job and use that in conjunction with a Palm device, Blackberry, Axim or other PDA. The key thing here is to remember that this hobby is a hobby. It's addictive but I'm sure there are lots of people that shell out cash for a shiny new GPSr only to find they end up only caching on rare occasion or lose interest. For that reason I would suggest getting a lower cost more basic unit (consider used off of eBay - or check the garage sale forum here). Then if after your first season you see that you are really into it then go crazy. Lastly: My personal recommendation. If you have a $600 budget and want what I feel is the best all in one solution for paperless caching, accuracy and user friendlieness. Buy a Garmin Oregon 300 or 400t, pickup routable maps (or find a freeware solution for routable maps) if you want street mapping/routing on the device and have a blast. Good luck - and have fun!

Thanks Red90 - do you have any experience with this software? It looks like it can give me routabiliy for my Metroguide maps - Interesting., . .

My net cost for an Oregon 400t (after MIR) is about $410. Don't know if that is out of the budget range, or if you were even considering the Garmin Oregon - just thought I would throw that out there. I won't post the reseller here but you can Google Shopping search it to find them - they are in Michigan and provided great customer service for me.

Actually it isn't transflective. From Garmin's Website - Oregon 400t Specifications list the display as: "Transflective color TFT touchscreen" Just looking at the screen easily identifies it as a transflective LCD - which is why changing angles helps read the screen more than on non-transflective screens. My point in referencing 'high resolution' was basically because the higher resolution means more LCD pixels and less light passing back through as reflected light to help read the screen. I think back to my Palm m505 which had a large but low resolution color transflective screen. It performed much like the Oregon but was a little brighter in bright sunlight. My theory would be the lower pixel density as at least one part of it. None the less - my experience this afternoon (bright and sunny here earlier, then overcast late this afternoon) was that the 400t is very readable in most any circumstance. I could understand there being some situations where it won't be ideal but I used in it a windshield mount with the BL on and it was great in the car. Out walking without the backlight in bright sun was great - with backlight was great as well. I loaded a GPX file and walked right up to a micro here in town that I've been to before. Accuracy was great and the ability to now function paperless for caching is GREAT! Don't let the screen be the reason you don't buy an Oregon...

In addition I'll add that I have Metroguide (v 6) but the older Metroguide doesn't support on device routing. I was hoping that it would. . . but no joy (I know - it wasn't designed for routing - just was wishing).

Just got my 400t. The basemap is pretty basic, but it does have street level mapping which was a little bit of a surprise. I knew that there was no on device routable mapping included on the 400t (Oregon). I also know that City Navigator North American will solve my routable map problem. However before spending the additional $$ I wanted to see if anyone was aware of any routable street level maps out there. Is there anything available in the open source world that offers freeware routing (on the device) for the Oregon 400t? Thanks in advance.

Got my new Oregon 400t today. I haven't had time to get out and walk to a cache yet but I'll be doing so first thing after work. My initial hour with the unit over lunch was outdoor usage (short walk and in-car). I was pleased with the screen and it performed as I expected. This is a high resolution transflective TFT screen. The backlight does seem to improve readibility outdoors compared to having it off however either is fine for me (light on or off). I feel that it is going to be a great unit. I'm going to test the unit at a benchmark on the way home then try a cache if I have time.

We've had fewer problems since my wife started dressing like a tree when we go caching: Photo taken at the Opryland Hotel in October 2008 - it was actually quite interesting to watch this woman pose and move along in her costume. She stood about 9 feet tall (about 14 feet tall with arms, or limbs, extended above her head). If she stood still long enough the crowds would disperse and then she would freak people out when she started moving again.

We'll know soon. I think you are right, we will know soon enough - however I suspect the 500 will end up being the very same hardware platform as the 400 with the addition of the camera. I think that from a manufacturing and engineering standpoint that it is not very likely that a company would take a platform (like the 200, 300, 400 Oregon) and then suddenly change the 'heart' of the unit (chipset) when effectively only adding one real 'bell' or 'whistle' such as the cam... the cost for this level of change on the engineering, design, and manufacturing process would probably make the 500 cost prohibitive. On another note: While I can see the usefulness of the cam on the unit for geotagging I usually have a cell phone (with 1.3 Mp cam - likely similar to what will (or is) on the 500). While I might not have a geotag I have the low quality tool needed for 'snaps' (and ability to follow every shot up with a quick snap of my GPSr). I typically carry my DSLR with me for true quality photography and would never rely on a fixed focus cam for that level of photography. That said there may be a large part of the "On Trail" Garmin consumer that the camera on the GPSr will appeal to. I know, I know - many would never consider toting $1500 worth of camera gear around on the trail, but that's what accidental damage/loss insurance is for...

EDIT: My original post wasn't really fair. . . I'm not fond of ad sponsored surveys. If you just want to collect the data - I have a survey application loaded on my personal webspace. PM me if you would like me to host it in an ad free zone. . .

I've been guilty of this in the past. I had every intention of getting the TB back into a cache but I honestly forgot about it. The owner must have as well because he didn't contact me until it had been a year (lift got in the way. . . ) Once I was contacted I found the TB and got it moved along as soon as I could. Be patient - and maybe e-mail again in a month. . . Has the user been active on GC.com (last login/visit)? Any active logs?

I've personally never felt the need for a screen protector. I'll be strongly considering a carry case of some kind once something functional becomes available for my new oregon. The current hard case is useless that Garmin makes. I'll add that I've had my Legend for a long time - while the case and screen area have some minor scratches there's not thing on it even with numerous drops and over 600 hours of use that would reduce its resale value or usability.

The extra cost of the Oregon is well justified if you are considering tying another $100 up in a PDA (not to mention the annual or at least one time cost of the PDA software). The Oregon does it all and allows you to do logging in the field without needing a PDA. For me it was a no brainer. I hope I'm happy - my unit should arrive tomorrow and I have been planning a few different options for at least one full day of caching this weekend.

Interesting. I've seen this question/topic a few times on here lately. Another poster was hoping to save a few bucks and get started alone. I can see where it would be something that could be fun to try - and can see especially how all the many many micros that exist in more urban areas might be fairly easy to get with out a GPSr (by way of Google Earth and zooming in to street levels to get a very close idea of locations). However - the last part of your example does use a GPSr (even though only one person in a group may have made the investment and is willing to share the experience of the find).

I've found many of the same things Naomi has come across (and I'm just getting started). That's by far the best part of this sport/hobby. When it comes to physically tangible 'things' so far the best we've managed value wise is a carabiener. Personally the wife and I really like seeing geocoins and creative travel bugs.

That would do it for me ^^^^^^

Very interesting. To OP: I would suggest to the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife that they simply determine what the crime specifically is according to state law. Issue a ticket to the owner of the vehicle, mail the ticket (along with an envelope to remit payment to the state of Mississippi) along with the photos. I would imagine the offender would simply write a check to avoid returning to the state for court - and likely never do it again since they would be quite surprised to see the photos taken from some mystery observer in the woods. They would always feel like someone was watching RE: Crimes near caches and the 'teen couple'. Funny how common this must be. Just a few weeks ago on our hike out we observed a lovely pink sweater draped over a branch up off the trail and the owner of the sweater quite involved in some misdemeanor conduct in public. . . There was a park ranger not far behind us getting ready to hike out so we hoped he would take care of it on his way out.

Hmm. I've got a GPSr that cost $150 (my new $400 unit is on the way). Why would I worry about the $2.50 monthly cost to access the Premium Member features of GC.com? It's worth $2.50 to get Pocket Queries and the ability to instantly filter my search results. That kind of database development is expensive so I don't have a problem paying. I see the PMO caches as a bonus to my Premium Membership. The post above also points out that this sport has never been free. Ad support helps cover costs as does premium membership. How many of you go to work every day without expecting to get paid? Not many I suspect. Expecting all the work that goes into this site to be done for free is a little ridiculous. I propose that based on the popularity of this sport, that the owners of Geocaching.com and the folks at Groundspeak have been very genrous. The opportunity to capitalize on the explosive growth if this hobby exists on an extraordinary level. They could have easily started building a heavily fee based structure to their site and their services after developing the following they have. But they didn't. They offer some pretty basic features as 'add ons' for a nominal fee and supplement that with some of the specialty features of trackables and merchandising. I doubt anybody is getting rich but I do hope they are making a good living in exchange for their hard work, creativity and contribution to the lives of all the members (free and premium).

Just had problems with the registration on this page myself. Got a java script null error, then retried and got an 'already registered this unit' error... Awaiting response from the contact e-mail addy. Ok - strike that. Just realized that I was just being impatient and that my membership was in fact upgraded. As an FYI: If you have a GPSr (Garmin) that you haven't used to activate a 30 day premium membership trial, you may be eligible even if it's not a recent purchase or an Oregon, Colorado. Mine was a Legend. I'm looking forward to trying out some of the premium features before purchasing my annual membership.

Oregon - 400t (PM me for a source that will meet your price if you are interested - I'll be happy to share). I just ordered mine, $460 (appx) shipped from an authorized retailer, less the rebate and I'll be at $410 (not too far over your budget). I wanted the topo but didn't need to have topo on my PC. I'll supplement with my existing Mapsource Metroguide that I got for my Legend for street detail (and other free options out there). The screen issues I believe are overblown in general and mostly based on biases for particular users. I'm confident I'll be happy with the display. I'm looking very forward to getting my unit (hopefully tomorrow or Thurs) and having a nice weekend with a more accurate GPSr than my old Legend. My 2 cents...

Welcome to the sport - You'll love it. Spend some time reading the faq's and the forums and ask any time. The folks here are friendly and will be glad to help you along your journey. Hope you love your Oreogn. I'm giddy with excitement waiting on my 400t to arrive.

I've read tons and tons of posts, and google searched for images of the 400t (or 300) in action. I found that when care was taken to properly photograph the screen in action that the problems that are often emphasized by some were truly not as bad. I can't find the video but I did find one somewhere and that gave me a good idea of screen readability too. In addition I visited a Dick's Sporting Goods and they had both the Oregon 400t and the 60CSx in stock. I got to play wiht the 60CSx but the 400t didn't have a power supply hooked up and the folks in the store were not interested in helping me with the units (strange considering I was contemplating spending full retail for the device just so I could get it 'that day'). I ended up leaving without getting to see the 400t in action - bummer. None the less - I ordered a 400t (i wanted the Topo feature and got the unit for $465 shipped, before rebate). UPS however decided my 400t needed to go to Wisconsin for some strange reason so now I wait for a routing correction on my shipment. . . lovely. Having used devices with transflective screens in the past I suspect I'll be fine with the Oregon.