CacheHownds

I've gone through two Oregon 450's now, and I was able to buy back my old Dakota 20 from the person I sold it to! Screen size may be small, but it put me on caches far batter than either Oregon ever did!

How about in the market for a GPS that works decently? I had sold my Dakota 20, and though I was buying something with a bigger screen, capable of doing Wherigo, and expected better performance. Instead I've now gone through two Oregon 450's and have not been happy at all with the performance or accuracy of this unit. I've been considering looking at am Etrex 30 (which I was first looking at when I was shopping for my first GPS) or other model. I'm willing to spend a few extra dollars, but maybe not as much as they want for the 550 or 600 series. I liked my Dakota, I just wanted something with a few more functions to it.

What's the MAHA charger worth? Found a source for the Eneloop batteries. I have no issues on spending a few bucks on something worth while.

Interesting conversation. If the Lithium I now have works out in my Oregon 450, I may need to look at those other batteries. Been having a lot of issues with mine, and I'm suspecting that it not liking the rechargeables I had, Looking at the Duracell Rechargeables I have, it is rated for 2000 mAh, but only 1,2V. They worked OK in my Dakota, but so far not very well at all in the Oregon.

You know... you got me wondering now if the issues I've been having could be caused by batteries with not enough oomph? I've been using duracel rechargeables. I'll have to see what they're rated for when I get home.

You know... you got me wondering now if the issues I've been having could be caused by batteries with not enough oomph? I've been using duracel rechargeables. I'll have to see what they're rated for when I get home.

I'm going to be be the voice of dissent against the 450. I've gone through two of them now and I've had nothing but issues. Compass calibration is almost with every use. Every second use for sure. I've had a GZ relocate to 5 or 6 different spots within a 10m radius when looking for a cache in one spot. Caching while coming back home yesterday, the accuracy was beyond horrible. Ifollowed it to GZ on one cache and searched around the area for nothing. Thenthe signal went haywire and had me off in another direction. Thank God for theclues and my wife's ucanny geosenses as she found the cache. The 450 would have had megoing an additional 20M from where we found the cache! At another cache in the same park, it got me to the rough direction (thankgod for hints) but again, GZ location was way off. After signing the log, Ichecked the readings again and was reading 9m off, but then the numbers to theGZ started dropping and i thought to myself "maybe I just need to let thesignal settle a bit first", but then the readings moved 9m in the oppositedirection! I had similar experiences at othercaches. The record for the trip is 24m away from the actual location of thecache. I had to reset thecompass on my Dakota every 3-4 weeks. This 450? Every day to 2 days of use! This last weekend was probably one of the most frustrating one's I've had sinceI've started Geocaching. If I had started Geocaching with this particularmodel, I probably wouldn't be geocaching today! Yes, it's on WAAS/EGNOS. Yes, it's on datum WGS 84. Yes, the firmware has been updated. Is there a way to hard re-boot it?

I could live with 3, but when I was out this morning, best I was getting was 5m, with it sitting around 7m most of the time. Even tested with it on a park bench with an unobstructed view of the sky. My cell phone was getting 2m to 3m. Tough to find a micro with a 7m accuracy and it's reading GZ in the middle of a parking lot and bushes on the edges. I don't expect it to drop me on the cache, but at least give me a rough area to look in, instead of the middle of nowhere.

For those of you that own an Oregon 450, how have you all found the accuracy on it? I took mine out for the first time and so far the best I'm getting is 4m with WAAS on and stationary in an open area, and it immediately gets worse if I start moving. I used to be able to get 2m out of my Dakota, even when walking. Did I get a bad unit?

Like others have said, don't log a "needs maintenance" unless there's something wrong with the cache itself. Otherwise it's a DNF. I've logged more than a few DNF's starting out. It's a way of telling the CO it's not there, especially if there's a few logged in a row. Otherwise, it's a badge of being new.

We really want to do that one, but not sure how our timing to the Island is going to work out. We'll be there for a Friday, but with it being Good Friday, we suspect it might be not available. How hard it is to get around Newcastle Island and about how long would it take? Never been there, so just curious.

We're planning a trip to Nanaimo around Easter to see some family, and take some of the Geocaching for the first time. Now i like collecting smileys as much as the next guy, but if were going to be i the area, I'd rather do some "must do" geocaches and have quality over quantity. Also would appreciate some recommendations for some good beginner caches to take the other family along too. Heard there's a good collection on Bowen park? Also, has anyone done the caches on Protection Island? I get the impression that part of it is Pirate themed, which my kid would love. Can anyone shed some light on that? Oh, any recommendations too for must do caches travelling to Nanaimo? We're going to be travelling from and to Kelowna. Othello Tunnels are already on the list for places to stop. Thanks for any replies!

Curiosity: How do you get this to work with a Nuvi? Dount I'd use it directly for geocaching, but it is handy to get to coordinates in areas I don't know. c:geo is great for listing attributes, but everything has to be downloaded individually.

Thanks for that link. I'm okay with just text attributes, as long as there's a way to list them. Hoo boy... I see I got a lot to learn about it. But I'm having a hard time even figuring out the basics. Last time I tried to get it to upload some local caches, it left out a bunch and included a bunch more that were WAY out of the search parameters! Where do I go to even get started on the basics?

Interesting. I might have a GPS for sale soon!

Current unit is a Dakota 20, but locally they've got a really good price on the Oregon 450. Besides for the slightly larger screen, more caches, and ability to do Wherigo, does the Oregon have any real distinct advantage over the Dakota 20?

Hmmm... thanks. Maybe I'll try that with mine too. It's been running OK for the most part, but I have had some caches not showing up after being loaded.

Not using PQ's yet. Still trying to figure how to make them. Tried once, but found "0" caches. Yes, I just recently changed account settings to GPX 1.0.1 Have GSAK, still trying to figure out how to use it.

Hey all, I'm currently using a Dakota 20, that I've been happy with for the most part. I find myself looking for the attributes on caches I've downloaded with my phone (I have wifi only so no continual access with a date package) but I'd still prefer to use my GPS. Is there any models of Garmins that will list the cache attributes with the cache information?

Thanks for that one. The family and I may be in Nanaimo for the Easter weekend and we're looking for some interesting caches to do in the area.

Price different is $70 here. This will do until i determine what exactly kinds of features i want in a GPS, then I'll look at something more if/when the time comes and the amount of useage I get out of it.

I think I'm going to end up with the Dakota 20. $70 cheaper than the Etrex30, and only $50 more and can do more than the Magellan Explorist GC. It'll do until I figure what more I want to do with or have in a a GPS, besides geocaching. Thanks to everyone for their input.

Both seem to have very similar features, besides for the Dakota being a touch screen. Price being a factor, I can get a Etrex for $20 cheaper online than locally, while I can get a Dakota 20 for $70 cheaper online than locally! Etrex has twice the internal memory, and both support micro sd cards.

So I'm looking to get a new GPS for geocaching (mainly) and something I can use on backroads and for fishing (possibly hunting later). Geocaching is going to be the main purpose. I've narrowed my choices down to the Garmin Etrex 30 and the Dakota 20. I'd appreciate any experience people have with these two units, as these are around my budget for what I plan on using them for. Please don't tell me to check the reviews on here... I've tried searching before and didn't find the info I was looking for. Any info is appreciated.

I'd be interested in hearing more about the Explorist GC. The 60CSX would be great for doing more backroad exploring for fishing and would be a great price for me, but the reality is right now I'm looking something more for geocaching with the family, and probably fits my budget better.