Rubberhead

If you consider the $30 rebate on the Vista, it can be found for only about $20 more than the 301, but it comes with a cable (which you will need). Even if you buy a cheap cable you are going to spend around $13 to $15 for the cable, shipping and handling. So for all practical purposes, the 301 and Vista are the same price. My experience with the Vista's compass is that it is fairly accurate. It does not need to be held completely flat. If you have some tilt in the compass when it is calibrated, then it will expect that same tilt during usage. The good news is that it tells you when it is happy. I've never used a 3-axis compass (the kind that doesn't need to be held at a certain angle) but from what I've heard they are not as accurate as the 2-axis models. I still believe that if you want to get serious about geocaching, take an extra job this summer (or sell some junk on e-bay) and in a couple of weeks you'll have enough extra money to get a Garmin GPSmap 60CS. It blows away the other models you've mentioned.

I resend the eTrex Summit recommendation because it doesn't have WAAS.

The Geko use AAA batteries and the compass and barometer are heavy energy users so I can only imagine that you'd be disappointed with the battery life of a 301. For not much more money, you can get a Vista which also has a compass and barometer but many more features including a much better display resolution. There are some on this board that my try to talk you out of the e-compass, but personally, I'll never go without one again. You might also want to consider an eTrex Summit or even better the 60CS.

If you're wondering why carleenp doesn't have any problems with punk teenagers check out her picture dated 4/17/2004. Here's a link: http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/log/3268f...d4c49291b50.jpg

I've used RAM mounts for years in my boats. They are top quality. I just purchased the GPSmap 60C(S) RAM mount and I'm very pleased with how stable it is in my boat. The really wonderful thing is that since I've already got two 1" ball mounts installed on my boat, I didn't have to re-work anything to move to the 60CS.

Garmin has had their map viewer available online for years. They've done as much as they could to make information available for purchasers. I've spent nearly $400 on Garmin mapsets. I've been able to thoroughly research each purchase so I haven't had any surprises. I haven't been at all disappointed with any purchase.

I've used Map Point to create some demographic profiles. The population database behind Map Point is its real strength.

Have you tried using the Trip and Waypoint Manager that came with your 60CS?

The maps Garmin uses are made up of three different type components. 1. Points: Points are single points on the map such as a marine buoy or business location. 2. Lines: Lines are roads or elevation gradients, or depth gradients for lakes or bluecharts. 3. Polygons: Polygons are surfaces such as the area of a National Park, surface area of a lake, or the proper boundries of a city. There is a special case of the polygon which is a background that displays across the entire map segment. When you load overlaying maps the GPS displays all three components of each map loaded. It is the last map's polygon and background segments that hide the previous maps details (points, lines and surfaces). If Garmin makes a map that has points and lines without backgrounds and it was loaded over the top of a map with all three you would see all three components of the first map and the points and lines of the last map displayed over the top of first map. I've always thought that Garmin should sell Topo maps without roads and road maps without surfaces. That way you could choose the surface map that you wanted and cover it with the road map that you wanted. For example, I could load the autorouting road maps of City Select over the topo maps or if I didn't have or want autorouting, I could load the Metroguide maps over the topo maps. In my case, I like Bluecharts and Recreational Lakes as my surface maps but I would love to load the autorouting City Select roads and points of interest over the contours of the "On The Water" maps. I've been trying to get MapEdit to do this for me but the public domain version isn't quite able to do all I want it to.

My GPSmap 162 has a similar menu system to the 76(S) and it allows 5 different sized fonts. However, it looks like the 76C(S) series uses the same "page" system that the GPSmap 60C(S) uses. Even with this being said, I'd like to have a choice of fonts on my 60CS too. I don't use the data fields in the map mode because they take up too much real estate.

It looks like the 76CS is exactly like the 60CS except for 115 MB of memory versus only 56 MB for the 60CS and that the 76 series floats. It even looks like it uses the same software.

I second the motion. I third this motion. I'm also a very serious bird watcher (we call ourselves birders) and believe that the Legend is a great starter unit that won't need to be upgraded if they get more serious about GPS stuff.

Put the Trip & Waypoint CD in the CD drive. Cancel installation if it auto-starts. Now connect you GPS to a USB slot. Windows should load the hardware drivers from the CD. Once these drivers are installed, you shouldn't have to re-load them.

It looks exactly like the software for the 60CS

That's funny I just wrote the same thing in a cache I did today. Found cache with no problem. Nicely hidden. Great location too, the view was terrific. Took: Carabiner Left: Compass Then I peed on the ground. Thanks for a great cache! TN-SL-POG

After the start of the next duck season.

Thanks Neo Geo. That's exactly what I needed to know. Obviously I'm considering getting CS for my CS. I'm currently using Recreational Lakes (non-routing) and it uses 2.50 MB for the same map segement. Thanks again.

Can someone with City Select please select the upside-down "L" shaped map segment near Charleston SC and tell me how big (in MB) the segment is as shown in the "Maps" tab. Thanks so much.

Here's where you made the mistake. If you had purchased a new version of City Select you could have added the new unit. For upgrades, you can only add the units that were unlocked for the original version.

It looks like the trend is that once you have it, you don't want to go back. This is certainly how I feel. I have two eTrex units that I let the kids use when we go geocaching. (I always get the 60CS). Anyway, even my 10-year-old has realized the value of the e-compass and fights to get the Vista (over the Mariner) simply because he uses the e-compass once we get close to a cache.

Garmin 60CS here. I've never used a Magellan SporTrak Pro, but the 60CS finds caches by itself. I just wait at the car enjoying a beverage. In all seriousness, the 60CS is amazingly accurate and versatile.

I use G7TOCE with a Jornada 520 and my Garmin eTrex units. The interface is not fancy bu it works perfectly.

I just installed GpxView 1.3.2 and checked out its icons. While I agree that the icons of GpxSonar are minimalist in the main cache list (12x12 pixels is not that large), I'm not impressed by the icons in GpxView either. I'll see what I can do to improve the icons in GpxSonar in the future... How do you currently keep track of what you've done at a cache site, especially if you do multiple caches in one day? -=(GEO)=- I'm not complaining. I think they are both wonderful programs and I keep them both loaded in my iPAQ. As far as remembering - I usually take my two kids and sometimes a niece and nephew and they remember every little detail. However, this is a good point so I may try getting used to GPXSonar so I can take advantage of the additional features. Thanks so much for these very useful programs.

Pardon me if I'm wrong but isn't the area of a circle = pi² x r? Since pi²= 9.87 then a circle with a radius of 4 miles would be slightly less than 40 square miles (4 x 9.87 = 39.48)

I love my 60CS. The only complaint is when I put a tide station as a calendar entry and select that tide station, it forecast tides for the current date versus the calendar date. This is a pain since I use the calendar functions to plan fishing and hunting trips, but one I expect Garmin will fix soon. I have also had the calendar functions "lock-up" the GPS. Again, it is a pain, but doesn't make me in any way regret the money I spent on the unit.