photomankc

I used my Oregon on a three-day trip in the Tarryalls around Bison Mtn. I found that it did a fantastic job of tracking my movement and very easy to read what terrain was ahead with the screen. This was my shakedown trip with since I picked it up to try it from REI in Co Springs. I really found it a great replacement for my 60CSx out there. The niggles that go along with Gcaching don't really bother me much as a hiking instrument. Visibility was fine and it lasted most of three days of active hiking on a single set of Lithium AA batteries. I like (being able to, not the act of doing) building routes using the map screen. Gives me a much better time estimate over trail distance. I have not tried the 24K maps. I have a free set just named CoTopo. They were not very detailed label-wise but I didn't need that anyway. I still carry a paper map. I just didn't need to crack it out on the trail really.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Boxwave product. It is exactly what i was looking for. I really liked the zagg product on my iPod touch but it was nothing but reflection on the Oregon. The ClearTouch is perfect.

I wonder if they will refund the next day shipping for you guys?

Agreed.

It's dishonest as it can be. It's one thing to have a satisfaction return policy that allows you to test something out and return it and use that. It's another completely to use the store as a means to borrow goods for a day or two's use and pay nothing knowing full well you never intended to try and be satisfied.

Well imagine you are standing at the end of your street and trying to find your house but don't know which way you are really facing but someone tells you that from where you are standing your house is at 270 degrees on the compass. This will always be the case since two points on the map can only ever be joined by one particular line. This is bearing. If you know the position of point A and your position then you can calculate that which is what the GPSr does. So if it says the bearing is 270 then you pull out the old compass and you determine which way is 270 degrees and then follow that line straight to the target. You will need a little distance to get the best reading. If you are too close then the position error of your unit and the hiders unit can get large enough to skew the bearing indication way off. Bearing is data field you can add to the map screen, compass screen, and trip computer.

I have never had a true, 'My god, I'm completely lost' moment but there was a time when the battery life on my GPS was not so good nor were the maps (streets only) and all I had was marked intervals 1 mile appart on the trail. Coming in it looked pretty straight forward so I was not too concerned. Then on the way back the trail kept forking off with pseudo-trails and ATV tracks and game trails that for some reason were 10 times more confusing in this direction. The trail was one that liked to swing back and forth through saddles and so it was not always apparent which was the correct direction. This is in deep Missouri forest and in every direction there is.... just trees. Everything looks the same in every direction mostly with no major landforms that can be seen from a distance. No real terrain features to use with a paper map. That was a long hike out with the extra bushwhacking and dead-ends but since I had a reasonable depiction of the trail and a bearing to the previous checkpoint I could at least swing the correct direction to intersect the trail again rather than always have to backtrack. In that day I would mark the checkpoints on the paper topo as well. Now I use the tracklog on new trail always. It's a very simple matter to follow it back out and even if the GPS goes down I have a good idea from memory of what the terrain features I passed were on the map. I never have been real good with map-n-compass in the thick forest. No features to see and no way to sight very far. I can muddle along in a pinch but if you got me miles out into the bush and with no clear trail or idea where I was it could get ugly fast I'll bet.

First, I'm new here so I'll try to tread a little lightly and second I have always tried to say a little about the cache and my trip out to it in my logs to give a bit of description to it. That said. I'm not entering into an employment contract here. I'm doing this for personal enjoyment and recreation as are you. I will log it and say a few words, perhaps fewer than you might like. If that's what comes to mind and if that doesn't meet with expectations then, well, I'm sorry you feel that way but I'm not going to worry much about it. Sometimes I type the field notes into the GPS so they are certainly not going to be long and wordy. This is an activity that I do as side to other outdoor activity that I may be involved in. I do not do it to satisfy anyone else's desires. If I were to place one I would like to get neat descriptions too but I would not be overly upset to learn that not everyone takes it as seriously as I do. At least you are getting some feedback as to what was found and not found and how often it gets visited. Sure I can understand a little frustration about some of it, but some of these posts sound like personal affronts because strangers in the public doing this for their own fun aren't doing just the way you like it which puzzles me a bit I guess. You are going to fit in here just fine. Welcome aboard. Thanks! And let me say, I do appreciate the work that people do to set these up. I have only done a few as an 'extra' near places we walk the dogs or hike so I will never likely be the guy who can't remember what he visited that day, but I am the guy who's not going to focus much time on it beyond a quick note to say I found it and maybe a little description too. They do add a fun activity to the hike for me and the daughter though so I appreciate the fact that folks are maintaining these things.

First, I'm new here so I'll try to tread a little lightly and second I have always tried to say a little about the cache and my trip out to it in my logs to give a bit of description to it. That said. I'm not entering into an employment contract here. I'm doing this for personal enjoyment and recreation as are you. I will log it and say a few words, perhaps fewer than you might like. If that's what comes to mind and if that doesn't meet with expectations then, well, I'm sorry you feel that way but I'm not going to worry much about it. Sometimes I type the field notes into the GPS so they are certainly not going to be long and wordy. This is an activity that I do as side to other outdoor activity that I may be involved in. I do not do it to satisfy anyone else's desires. If I were to place one I would like to get neat descriptions too but I would not be overly upset to learn that not everyone takes it as seriously as I do. At least you are getting some feedback as to what was found and not found and how often it gets visited. Sure I can understand a little frustration about some of it, but some of these posts sound like personal affronts because strangers in the public doing this for their own fun aren't doing just the way you like it which puzzles me a bit I guess.

Ok, I have a grand total of 3 caching attempts under my belt so my advise comes with a salt lick. I have owned both the 60CSx and now the Oregon 300. When it comes to hiking I have no problem with the Oregon. It's tracks are slightly less accurate but sometimes it maps curves better than the 60. It keeps signal under dense summer tree cover but again with a little larger EPE. The usability for me just wipes the floor with the 60. Better map resolution, easier to scroll and select a distant point on the map. Touch screen rocks. It's the Geocaching activity that the Oregon stumbles on. It's low speed tracking of direction sucks via GPS. I can only get a reliable direction indication of direction of travel below 2MPH with the compass calibrated and working. The compass is glitchy so that's sometimes not as easy done as said. It's accuracy can be a little frustrating when you need to get within a few feet of something but then the hider may have had a worse unit so you never really know anyway. I have found the best way to deal with this is to use the 'bearing' field and to stay back 40 feet or so and take an actual compass reading using the bearing indication and follow that in instead of the pointer. Now that said. I would not be geocaching at all except for the fact that all I have to do is load them in and go when one is near my hiking spot. If I had to carry paper notes it would never happen. Not once did I ever think about doing it with the 60 because of that. With paperless, it's easy since I hike a lot and it's something neat to do while I'm in the area anyway. It adds a dimension of fun to hikes with my daughter for her too. For me, I'd not be going back to the 60. Had I known though I might have waited for a Dakota 20. Then again, I got a good deal on my Oregon and like I said... it works pretty well overall and it's shortcomings are balanced against some nice features and easy operation. If they had just used the 60's receiver and antenna and the Oregon's screen it would have been my dream GPS. Real world testing on my pack has shown that there is not that much appreciable difference in the tracklogs to worry about it. They both report my position in the same 20-50 foot area.

Well, I have found the map pointer and directional pointer to be completely useless (unless the compass is working) at anything under a fast walk. Last night looking for my second cache with the compass turned off I was walking around in circles with the pointer stuck in whatever position it was in when I slowed down. It was useless to try and follow that. I had to back up 30 feet and take a bearing from there with my real compass and then come back at it using that. With the compass on and in calibration it worked pretty well at low speed. I would at least get a reasonable pointer direction and the map pointer was pointing in the proper direction. I wish they would add a 'power' button to the compass screen so I could turn it off for hiking and turn it on for homing in on a point quickly and easily. I never did find the first one but we went on to find another and my little girl was happy to find the 'treasure' so all was well.

It would be more useful if it would snap to the map screen from other screens when a turn approaches. If I have the trip computer up I have to close it and open the map to see the turn. It's beeping in other screens to let me know I need to turn but not showing me what the turn is?! Seems kinda odd. It would not be terribly hard to make a profile setting that would enable that snap-to-map feature for automotive use.

Yep, sounds like the DeLorme is a good fit for your needs! I'd say, since you have the car-nav unit, you could use any of the PNs, of course the 40 is the best! Differences aren't much between the 20and 40, it's mainly preference IMHO. I do think the 40 would be a better choice though! Don't know that I would say that. There is a pretty big speed difference between the 20 and the 40. One of the most common complaints on the 20 was sluggish menus and screen updates. The 40 seems to have addressed that well. It sounds trivial but one thing that drives me up the wall quickly in any device or program is unresponsive UI's. Personally, I would skip the 20 and go with the 40 if you decide to go with DeLorme

With the Garmin you could get Canadian Topos for free as I understand it not something easily done on the Delorme. If this is a one-time deal that may not be important. Both the Oregon and the PN-40 will do paperless. The PN-40 would be the less expensive unit.

This. Seems to be related to the receiver, a weaker signal, and slow speeds. We're all waiting for a fix. Until then I plan to use a real compass bearing when I'm a decent distance from the point and follow that on in. Bearing should be fairly stable even if the directional pointer is bouncing.

Exactly. People are taking that number like gospel and it isn't. If the manufacturer wants to they can make it say that the EPE is 3' but that won't make it so. My observations were against fixed points and the etrex usually reported significantly larger distances from the known point. I'm not sure what the model etrex was that he was using at the time though. This was about 2 years ago.

Good Review, well written/user friendly; thanks. Is the backlight on in those photos? I find that in sunlight, the screen is many times easier to read with the backlight completely off. Plus, adding a background that is solid white rather than those silly wallpapers garmin includes helps a lot too. That's one of the best things I did. All my outdoor profiles use a very light gray background and that makes any screen where the background is under the display items much more visible and usable.

I had a friend with an etrex and his often disagreed with my 60CSx a significant amount about when we were right on top of a waypoint. It always seemed more pronounced when we were under tree cover in the forests.

Ok I tried the Zagg invisible shield and I do not like it at all. It's shiny surface made the screen harder to read outside and added lots of reflective glare that I wasn't getting before. I tried cutting down some of my cheapie iPod static protectors and I liked the way they looked but the cut edges would keep pulling up and making bubbles. I'd like something matte like those but it's hard to get an idea of which ones are shiny and which are matte from the product pictures. Anyone got any comments on products other then the Zagg?

Well, yeah. If the cover is off then water will get inside.

Waypoints are stored internally but it will import them from any GPX files you place in the Garmin/GPX/ folder of the unit. When you connect to the Oregon it writes all it's current waypoints to Garmin/GPX/Current/Current.gpx. That's a one-way deal though. It won't edit or delete a waypoint because you remove or edit them in that file it only writes what it has stored just prior to entering USB storage mode. Mapsource will compile the Topos and CN maps into a single gmapsupp.img file and put them on the internal flash or the flash card of your Oregon. From the Oregon you can select the map sets you want it to display. Waypoints can be a logistical pain in the butt to manage over time but I try to keep GPX files with my core waypoints and various hiking locations in separate files and keep those files updated as I add new ones. Then I can always wipe the internal waypoints and then drop the various GPX files back in for the waypoints I want to have loaded for a trip.

City Navigator would come with Mapsource which would allow you to manage the tracks/routes/waypoints and maps. Most of the free Topos install into Mapsource.

Topo series maps have roads and City Nav has roads. The Topo roads are often less accurate than the CN roads. Laying the topo over the top would make a mess. I have a few state parks where I would definitely not like them overlaid on each other. The only way I could see to get what you are looking for would be for Topo series maps to have no roads and then you would need CN to lay them on top of for roads and that would mean needing both maps to have any roads at all. Are there any units that can can have road vectors in all the layers and suppress just the roads from one?

- Better automotive map screen. - Better track management. - Easier to transfer stuff using GPX files than fiddling with Mapsource all the time. - Better view of more terrain and waypoints aren't massive, blocky looking, icons. [joking] - Use batteries faster. - Remember the way you WERE walking and keep reminding you of that by pointing that way. - Help you understand its construction better by making you open it up more often to pull the batteries to get it to turn off. - Help you remember to bring your compass. [/joking]

More screen, less unit. Touch screen is now a must to me. More accessible card slot. I don't want to disassemble it to swap cards. Stability. Less extraneous stuff... butt wipers, cameras, games, mud flaps, wheels, dials, walkie talkies, and buttons and instead a more dependable and accurate receiver.