Capitalpete

Well, checking the new product announcement Nov 18 2003, there are 3 models currently available. They are as follows; GPSMAP60C, part #101-00322-20 Available Jan 2004 GPSMAP60C w/billingual packaging, part# 101-00322-22, Available Jan 2004 GPSMAP60CS, part #010-00322-30 Available Jan 2004 Apparently at this time they are not offering the GPSMAP60CS with billingual packaging? so what they heck are they gonna do down in Quebec? Non Non monsieur, you cannot 'have le' new color garmin with the sensors.....'dere are non instructions avec the ma'chine....tabernack..... Maybe that is the missing 4th Garmin?

Ok, just had to look at the MEC ad for altimeters, and noticed this What the heck else are clocks used for ? So, I agree, go with the Brunton, the windspeed indicator is great just incase you need to land your helicopter there, but I did notice one downside: This is pretty short for a trending barometer. The Vista trends for 24 hours, and the GPS76MAPS trends for 48 hours. The 60cs also has a trending barometer, but the new product announcement that I have does not state what the duration of the trending barometer is. Yea, pretty neat toy that Brunton, but at over 50% of the cost of a new Vista, I think I would leave it for someone else and buy a used or new Vista. Also, having taken apart Brunton GPS products (made under contract by Lowrance.......shhhh you did not hear that from me) I would not touch it.

Well, I guess it is a good thing that I have my own boat! This just proves that we should really have a better alternative to DRIVING YOUR CAR on the ferry. Personally I would like to see a commuter ferry that would go from downtown Victoria to downtown Vancouver. I for one try NOT to use our car as much as possible (hate to pay for gas, money wasted on gas taxes etc etc the usual stuff, and oh yea, not good for the eviroment) so I would be one who supports this sort of business. I would take the passenger ferry to downtown Vancouver to go to a hockey game or get away for the weekend. I hate the idea of taking a car, just for the privilege of waiting in line, driving on, waiting in line to drive off and then paying for parking downtown Vancouver. I don't like what this is going to do the the island retailers, but I DO FULLY SUPPORT THE PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR BC FERRIES, they have every right to take action, even if it does inconvenience people for a while. Anyway, that is just my take on it.

Here it is now December 8th, and still no reply from Groundspeak. Will keep you updated, but it seems very unlikely I will have any gear in time for Christmas. And just for fun, my shipment from Garmin is being held up by UPS, who will not cross union picket lines to get on BC Ferries and bring my Legend and GPSV units which I desperately need for Christmas orders. Gee, I love this time of year when people go on strike. But I suppose it does work for getting attention drawn to their concerns, I hope it gets settled soon. On the plus side, got to play with the Rino units now that I stock them. They sure are a lot of fun for the money. I think I will invest in a few units to keep track of the kids, I sure do like that feature. Best of the season to all geocachers!

You mean to tell me that geocaching is not like this everywhere else in Canada? LOL, we do not even need a 4X4 with tire chains, Snowmobile, or Snow shovel to access our caches year round. Bad enough to spend $500 for a GPS to go geocaching, I cannot imagine needing to buy a $60 000 SUV, to "conquer the elements" and go find some dollar store items. Many people who buy GPS units from me get them to use for boating and fishing. But as I point out to them, geocaching is a great way to really learn to use your GPS unit, as well as a great way to spend time with the family doing something fun and inexpensive. Hey wait, you are not supposed to bury caches, so that must mean when the snow falls and all the caches are buried, then they are no longer "official geocaches". I will go caching in the dark, in the rain, or risk a sunburn, but I really have to draw the line somewhere and it would be snow. I will save geocaching in Edmonton for the summer time, thanks.

Dear Groundclutter, Yes, you would be correct. Thank you so very much for the kind words about our little store (well stores really as Sidney is it's own little store and soon to have it's very own Garmin GPS department, and hopefully another department for GEOCACHE GEAR!). I am waiting to get a reply from Groundspeak as to my request, there is still no word on if we will be able to buy the gear from them. Am I to assume that if my price would be the same as the online price that you would support local business and purchase "official GEOCACHE GEAR" from our little store here in CANADA? We are the largest General Store on the West Coast, and having been here since 1934, We would love to be the official supplier of GEOCACHE GEAR here on the West Coast. Our staff love to Geocache, and we really want to get in the game here, literally. If this is so, please, please, please, email to Groundspeak asking them to hurry up and email us so we can get the GEOCACHE GEAR in our store in time for Christmas. We can use your support to get this in place soon, so we can all access GEOCACHE gear at a reasonable price. Thank you! Capitalpete

From the official Garmin dealer release bulletin. Last note on the bottom of the page states: " Note: use with Metroguide is not recommended" But, there is no explanation as to why. Will keep you updated as I find out more.

Gawk! Sometimes I hate computers..... Had the same problem with mine (Toshiba laptop with XP), but I did not unistall the hotsync program, just right click and exit the program. Then shut the computer off to reinstall the PDA serial connector, the computer reboots with the hotsync again. Have to do it anyway as it is a laptop and I am always off to somewhere with it. Tried using the "official" Garmin USB connector, installed it, the whizzy lights lit up, and it promptly did nothing. Tried reading the instructions and find out that it does not work with windows XP. Figures.... Have had a lot of this sort of thing with helping people set up the Garmins with various software like Mapsource and Navitech (works on comport one with the Garmin in NEMA mode, by the way). Always a problem with Hotsync or wrong com port or something. If I had any hair, I would have pulled it out by now.

Ok, I remember now, it was at the bottom of the dealer info on the new 60CS, it stated on the very last line that it was not compatible with Metroguide. Which does not make sense based on the reply from Garmin that someone has posted previously in this tread. I will post again tommorow, from work when I have the dealer spec sheet in front of me. I cannot remember my login now as I am at home, so it will have to wait until tommorow. I will let you know EXACTLY what it states on the spec sheet.

Hey...............where did the page go? Comes up as a lost page! I want to have a look at that! Can anyone help out? Thanks! Pete

Try taking your legend out on the break water in the inner harbour to see just how accurate the WAAS feature is when you get a clear shot of the satellite. Walk out to the end with the WAAS off, check the accuracy, then use it with the WAAS on. I was able to get under 1M with a 76MAPS, so I am sure yours will not be far off. I will take a Legend out there just as soon as I get another one, just to compare them. I have used a Vista quite a bit, and found it to be quite accurate with the WAAS on, but you do need a clear overhead view to get it. While you are out there, check out the great cache that is somewhere out there!

Snow? Here in Victoria that is a four letter word! If it snows I am staying home, forget going to work or anything else. I probably would slip and kill myself just getting out of the driveway. You know what they say to do in that weather, just curl up with a good book, or at least someone who has read one.

Hmmm,,, Just want to point out here, that perhaps making your own shirts and stuff with the geocache logo would be a copyright infringement. After all it is a distinctive logo, and probably belongs to someone.........maybe someone who pays for these message boards? The prices that you are talking about perhaps seem a little high for Canadian prices, but really as someone pointed out, by the time you pay brokerage, exchange, customs and a penny or two for handling, it is not unreasonable at all. You have to remember that although there seems to be a lot of us geocachers out there, the market for this stuff is really really small compared to any other merchandise. Therefore we are going to pay a little more for it than say, for a "Tommy go figure" baseball cap or other common item. I do know Jo and Ian at GPS Central, and they are pretty fair folks. The prices that they seem to arrive at are driven by the need to run a "business" and be reasonable to the majority of people. They also have really great customer service and stand behind their products. But this being said, they are in Calgary Alberta, and so is the ONLY other Canadian retailer of this product. I do not want to drive 650 miles to go buy geocache gear. This being said, I have contacted Groundspeak, and am currently waiting for a reply as to being a Canadian dealer of their products. We have a 45000 Sq ft general store in Victoria, and we intend to sell Geocache items right next to our Garmin products, as a walk in business for people in our area. Therefore there is no shipping and handling involved, other than from the USA to our store. Like others we view this more of a customer service rather than a money making deal and intend to offer the items as close to the usa listed price as possible. The difference is that you could walk into our store and purchase the item right off the shelf. And then you could purchase one of the new 60CS Garmin units that we will have in stock very soon. Geocache gear would be a "extra" for all the geocachers that live in the Victoria area and shop in our store. For others, maybe it would be a good reason to visit us. And, just as important, our staff would not have to go far to get geocache gear to go out and hide their caches. Sure hope someone at Groundspeak reads this and replys to our email, Christmas is coming and we could use the gear in time to wrap it up! Sincerely Capitalpete

Oh great server programmer guru's! Thank you for the great forums! I know what a nightmare transferring info to new servers and integrating new and old software can be. Please stand up and take a bow, you must be commended! Thanks for doing this, we really appreciate the hard work. A humble geocacher......who can just hardly wait for his new 60CS's that he has on order.......LOL

Hello, I would suggest to look at the 76 series. The screen on the 72 leaves a lot to be desired, as it is a lot less pixels resolution. The 76 is priced well, and has some good features with an external antenna option and uses your existing power cables. The 76Map is all that with 8mb mapping, and the 76mapS is a lot more memory as well as fluxgate compass and barometer/altimeter but both are a lot more money than the basic 76. The 12 is discontinued, the 12xl is still available and there is no price reduction on it as of yet so it appears to be in production for a while yet. Not sure if you really want to change to another model yet, would recommend holding on to see what the new 60C and 60CS will do the pricing of the existing lines in the new year. I do know that the 176C will be offered with a really nice discount around Christmas time, I know that it is not exactly what you were asking about, but they are pretty cool. They are still a handheld, but just barely! For what it's worth....

Greetings,,,, Right from the folks at Garmin. Use the BELKIN Usb to serial adapter. Works fine. Of course you could come see us and buy the garmin one, it has some great whizzy lights and some software, all for $95, but I am not certain what the difference is, except that it IS A GARMIN accessory, and it would have to work with the Garmin. Then again, if you are using it with windows, anything can happen.

Hmm,,, I just ordered some of these new 60c and 60 CS units today, and as I recall there was something about not being able to support something.......not sure if it was the cityguide or the metroguide.... have to look and post more tommorow. Yes, it is fun, I just ordered another 30 units for our store, including this new one which is already in backorder. The units will be available sometime around Christmas. The Garmin rep and I were having a lot of fun choosing them today. I can hardly wait to get my new 60CS. As for the debate of color or no color. Give your toque a spin, no color! are you nuts? I can hardly wait to play and Geocache with it. Have to give it to the wife for a real test of caching.

My brain hurts from reading that, especially all the mathamatical square root calculation stuff.... next time I will just stick with your opinions.... I have a GPS76MAPS, and I love it. _____/)____ Pirating the sea of dispair________*

My brain hurts from reading that! From now on I will just stick with the results that the other board members give, geeeshhh,,,,,, ~~~~_/)~~~~pirating the sea of dispair.... _____/)____ Pirating the sea of dispair________*

Well, the idea sounds good to me. Kindly let us all know of when and where you are going to try and hold the event. I would be willing to donate a few prizes or unique cache boxes. Capitalpete