JeepCachr

Not sure what you mean, Mapsend Direct Route is new and it uses Navtech data, just like Garmin and every other in car navigation system. They also said the plan to release a new version each year (it is on their FAQ on their site). Wyatt W. edit: capitlization of Mapsend Direct I was under the understanding that direct route does not work on the sportraks. I may be wrong but I thought I had read where someone in this forum was complaining that Magellan told them that direct route didn't work and their was no plan to upgrade the maps that he had because that company no longer exists. If I'm wrong I will gladly admit it.

That's a ridiculous assumption. If you payed attention here in the forums or even in your local area you would know that the market is nearly 50/50. The Sport trak line is just as affordable as the eTrex line. Costco sold pallets of Sport traks and Meridians for the last couple of years. Does any one have any numbers of garmin vs. magellan sales? Both companies make good units. Both have features that the other one doesn't have. Both work better under certain conditions than the other one. Its pointless to argue about how many are in pawn shops and draw conclusions based on that. The problem I have with the sportraks is the lack of current maps and the fact that Magellan has no plans to update the maps. When I look around at the cachers that I've met, I haven't seen a magellan yet.

Would you be willing to share your source? I'd like one of those for my geobag.

So what do you think? I mounted my ram mount for my Ipaq similar to you but I had to stablize that peice of the dash the stock screws don't hold it firmly enough. This is a picture of a ram mount adapted to hold a Arkon universal mount. I have since gotten a powered ram cradle and am very happy with it.

I bet you won't when you find out what real caribiners cost.

The maps for the sportrak are out of date and there is no update or plan to update them. Its magellans older model.

Your kidding right? Please do not use those for climbing or encourage other people to use them. Any type of stress on them and they'd pop. Real carabiners are designed for much higher loads than 200lbs. Any type of situation that calls for the use of ropes would require better carabiners than these. Generally these keychain carabiners are stamped with "not for climbing". edit: Any situation that calls for ropes shouldn't be attempted by someone without training.

The boomerang effect is because of how the Magellans average your position. Often people using magellans overshoot the destination and have to circle back like a boomerang. Magellans also don't report lost satelite signals as fast as the Garmins they average your position based on your direction and speed and continue to report a good signal. The Garmins generally report to you as soon as they loose the signal. Because of this some people think the magellans hold a lock better. This doesn't mean that either one is better, its just how they do it. Personally I'd rather be told when I'm not getting a good signal than to have the unit quessing at my position. When looking for software they are more options for Garmins than for Magellans. One of the reasons I recently purchased a fortrex is because it works with RoboGeo. Magellans tracks can be converted and imported but RoboGeo can read directly from the Garmin. RoboGeo can take a GPS track and location stamp your photographs. RoboGeo is the only reasonably priced program I could find that would do this. If Garmin could do a 3 axis compass and a SD slot they could cancel 2 of the biggest advantages of the Magellans.

You have some valid points and some unreasonable requests. With the foretrex 201 I purchased a AA battery extender. It plugs into the unit and recharges the internal battery. It can also charge my ipaq, my bluetooth GPS or anything that can charge from a USB port. I can carry disposable AA batterys and I'm supposed to get 2-3 full recharges for my ipaq from one set of AA's. For me this resolves the problem of having a backup. This option isn't available from the manufacture but even if it was I would still likely buy it cheaper from a third party vendor. Manufactures can't standardize on AA batterys because people want things smaller. If the only diff between the 101 and the 201 was the rechargeable battery I would have gone the 101 route and bought rechargeable AA's for it. The difference in these 2 units is the 101 is .3 inch thicker. I didn't want it to be bigger so I went with the rechargeable. I'm not worried about the life of the battery since I am certain that I will upgrade to a new GPS before the battery starts to lose capacity. At $140 its not a huge investment and in 2 years I'll likely spend another $140 for one thats even smaller, has better features, and longer battery life. Now if it was a $500 60CS I would be hesitant to buy it with a non user serviceable battery. My bluetooth GPS uses a Nokia phone battery pack. This is a great idea but that unit is not water proof.

Yes your GPS will have a harder time getting an initial lock while moving. Sometimes to the point where it won't get a lock at all.

You have to decide what is important to you. I decided that it being .3 inches thinner was more important to me. You can charge it on the go, I just ordered a AA battery extender and a car charger for mine.

You did.

Nice idea, ugly looking card. National discounts are very hard to negotiate and what about all the people outside the US? Your also not go to get a major chain of anything to give out a non expiring discount.

That is a pretty cool feature. Most GPS's will give you a bearing which you can use when your not moving as long as you have a compass. I just got a foretrex 201 and I really like it. You probably need to define a few more of the features you'd like before others could come up with recomendations. Stuff like- Color mapping (amount of memory) electronic compass(makes the sun/moon thing not necessary) waas budget range

Mapopolis has the best maps for the US along with the best voice turn software that I have seen or used on a PPC.

Must be they don't have street level detail for that island. All the demo maps I d/l'd before I registered it were as detailed as the registered maps.

In the under $500 range the best unit out there (argueably) is the Garmin 60CS. It has a new redesigned antenae with much better reception. If you don't like the Garmin look into the magellan Meridian platinum or color. Those are Magellans top end units.

http://keenpeople.com has a online group caching tool. Everyone uploads their list of not founds and the site will spit back a gpx file of ones that haven't been done by everybody who uploaded their unfound file.

Sounds like a scam to me.

I've had great results with orders from GPS City. There prices are good if not the lowest. They also have the biggest selection of RAM mounts that I know of. I love the RAM mounts, I have them in both my vehicles.

Log it the same as any other cache.

I just got a foretrex 201 2 days ago. It does not appear that the end user can replace the battery. If this is a concern fir you get the foretrex 101. The only difference is the 101 takes 2 AAA's and is .3 inches thicker. The 101 was supposed to be available May 14 but I haven't seen any one with them in stock. I love my 201. The concerns I had with no Dc charger and no backup can be resolved with a cig cord cable and battery extender pack from pc-mobile foretrex cables.

on your pocket query page the last option is a drop down box where you select loc or gpx.

There is often a difference between what people use and what they would recomend. I use a foretrex 201 and a fortuna bluetooth clip-on. edit: I think the legend is popular right now because of the price, features, and rebate.

Many batteries today (at least the better ones) have an expiration date and they are good for quite a few years. You should leave them in some kind of package. Don't just leave them loose in the cache.