Maugray

We took the plunge and bought a new Garmin eTrex Legend Hcx that arrived at the weekend. It's made such a difference, not least that we found Roman Cache (GCQZ9V) following two previous unsuccessful attempts I tried adding the free TOPO maps, but the registry change bundled with the download caused MapSource to crash requiring a manual regedit to get things running again. Although maps are clearly not essential (we found a couple more caches at the weekend and placed the first one of our own) I can see the potential benefit of having more detail What maps do other cachers use, where from and how much? Many thanks to coggins and gallet for the responses so far, and to the geocaching community for taking us to new places.

Local Authorities are currently negotiating the next round of Local Area Agreement targets, a significant one being tackling obesity, so be sure to point out that geocaching encourages people to go out and use the facilities that they provide for that very reason. Good luck and fingers crossed.

Thanks for the link coggins, if I get a mapping unit I'll give that a try, and for the tip about an H model gallet, presumably because it indicates higher sensitivity. I'd still love to hear from members of their experiences using more basic units, whether they wish they'd paid extra for a unit with mapping and geocache mode. Indeed, I'm still trying to work out just what geocache mode is!

Hi all I'm new to geocaching having started a month or so back. I've been using a TomTom One but have the usual problems with it snapping to the nearest road etc. I've tried following the tip about moving the location pointer on map view, but still have more fail to finds than successes. I think it's time to look at buying a portable unit ready for the (hopefully) warm weather that's just around the corner. From reading through the forums it looks like the ideal would be a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx or a Vista HCx, but the cost new in the UK is nearly £200 - I've no idea if they would also need maps or other software to geocache or whether the basic installed software would suffice. I'm fine getting to the approximate location using the TomTom, it's just the last bit (maybe a few hundred yards, maybe a couple of miles). So - do I need the above, or would the basic eTrex do? Should I budget for maps, or are they an unnecessary luxury? And which UK suppliers give the best deals? I've seen units on eBay, but wonder if they're US versions rather than UK - does that matter? Many thanks for any comments and recommendations, and to the geocaching community for getting me outdoors in all weathers rather than sitting here at the PC!