LizaJne

Great question, I wish I had an answer. I've had my first two held for a couple of weeks before being dropped only to disappear. I personally have a coin I picked up over spring break, but I contacted the owner and told them where and when I was going to drop it and they were cool with that. I would love it if the person that picked up my coin and held it would contact me to let me know their intentions, but I realize that all cachers aren't that conscientious. I hate the not knowing where my coin is or how long it'll be held hostage.

I placed several caches in February (my first ones) and in 2 of them I placed a Firefighter and an EMT geocoin. Well, the person(s) that picked them up kept them for a few weeks which is fine with me because I've done that before, although, I email the owner to tell them what my plans are for placing the trackable soon, anyway, they then placed the 2 coins in their own cache and they haven't been seen since. The saddest thing of all was that I got an email from someone in another state warning me that if my coins fell into certain hands (4 different ppl named) that I might never see them again. Sure enough, the email was right. I was told by one of the ppl involved to "be patient" and if it's that vaulable to me that I shouldn't release them, just "dip" them which is no fun for me. OH well....lesson learned. Hopefully they'll show up in a cache somewhere.

I use a Land Rover Discovery. She's a great ride for caching, hauling the boat or sea doos, carrying horse feed, and of course...the family!

I see what you are saying, I've recently released 2 coins that both came up MIA after only making it 9 miles. My question is this, I would like for them to travel to various EMS departments and Fire Departments, without the hassle of taking them there myself. So, if I kep them and "dipped" them wouldn't that be defeating the pupose of them being travelers? and to me, it's not as fun if I have to take them. I'd rather see others enjoy looking at them and helping them on their journey. Is MIA coin just the risk I'm going to have to take? Thanks

Ok, I went back out last night to the one closest to home and I disabled battery saver, made sure WAAS was on, and went ahead and recalibrated. Much better coords this time. Turning the battery saver off gave me a margin of error of +-7ft. Whew, I think I may be good to go now. I'll go out and check the rest of them this afternoon. Thanks so much y'all.

Okie Doke! Thanks for all the help, I'm going to take your suggestions and see what I can do. I really appreciate it.

Ok, yes it was in Battery Saver mode and I do have WAAS enabled. I spent about 20-30 minutes at each location, but my problem my have been impatience (not letting it sit long enough at ground zero). When I would mark a waypoint it would tell me how far off it was, should I not mark it unless it's less then 10ft? I've read the Garmin manual over and over, but all it does is make me crazy! I would take about 6-10 waypoints at each site and then average them manually. I tried the auto average, but I wasn't sure I did it right b/c it took so long and seemed like the accuracy was in the toilet. I live in oklahoma and today was in a flat open area with no powerlines and the closest accuracy I got was 34 ft with about 10 satellites.

Ok, yes it was in Battery Saver mode and I do have WAAS enabled. I spent about 20-30 minutes at each location, but my problem my have been impatience (not letting it sit long enough at ground zero). When I would mark a waypoint it would tell me how far off it was, should I not mark it unless it's less then 10ft? I've read the Garmin manual over and over, but all it does is make me crazy! I would take about 6-10 waypoints at each site and then average them manually. I tried the auto average, but I wasn't sure I did it right b/c it took so long and seemed like the accuracy was in the toilet. I live in oklahoma and today was in a flat open area with no powerlines and the closest accuracy I got was 34 ft with about 10 satellites.

I've recently placed 5 caches in my area. I tried to do waypoint averaging and came up with what I thought were pretty right on coords. On all of my caches I'm being told that I'm about 40ft. off. Is this normal? I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx and it gets to the caches almost everytime, the couple we've missed I blame on us not being very good lookers. I met up with someone I know at one of my caches and used her coords, but on mine it tells me I need to go 7ft south of where it actually is. Is this just a difference in equipment and is there anything I can do to improve my accuracy? I have noticed that when I'm sitting at home 1/2 mile from this cache, my satellites have an accuracy of +-20ft, but out at the cache it runs about a 50ft accuracy. Please help me, I'm very frustrated and I hate the fact that I'm sending ppl in the wrong direction, it makes me feel like a failure. Thanks a bunch y'all! Liz

My 60CSx came today and I love it...so far. coolness isn't a factor with me, I just want something rugged and reliable. We use the eTrax at the fire department and they're nice, but now I have everyone wanting this one. We took it out today and checked some of our mapping and this unit does an excellent job. I can't wait to use it on our first *hunt*. I'm trying to wait for the weekend so the kids can go with, but I'm not sure I can last that long. Thanks for everyone's input and help. I really appreciate it. Liz

I think the button layout on the 60 series is better, but we could debate which device is better for us all week long. To get to the OP's original question, they will both perform about the same as a GPSr. You already stated the differences. Screen, Form Factor and battery life. You need to hold them both in your hands, see which one feels better, which one has a better screen for you and make your decision based on that. Best case scenario is for you to borrow one of each for a caching/Hiking trip. If after you try them both you still can't pick one go with the Vista, hard to argue with lighter and better battery life. The one thing I can say is the 60 series looks more like a cell phone when I am being sneaky and putting it up to my ear when people stare at me. Ok..I just bought a 60CSx over the weekend and it should be here monday or tuesday. I'm very new to this and the reason I chose this particular one is b/c the person that demo'd geocaching to me at an expo used it, and for me it looked pretty straightforeward to use. Now I'm scared. I'm worried that I might not have purchased the best one for me and I'm wondering how much more it's going to cost me to get started, ie: maps. I'm impressed with the microSD cards that are loaded with maps, but I'm not sure which way to go...please help me if y'all can. I'd really appreciate it. liz