MisterNixter

I'm a newbie too, and was torn between the Garmin 60cs and the Meridian Color. My buddy John got the Meridian and I got the 60cs, both arriving the same day, a couple of weeks ago. Personally, I am glad I chose the 60cs, it just feels better in my hand, is slightly smaller, and I think the display is just a bit better. I've played with both quite a bit, and there is not a lot of difference, except for the electronic compass and the Geocaching page on the 60cs. I like the layout of the buttons better on the 60cs, but again, that is personal preference. I also feel my display is a bit easier to see outside. Having the interchangable cards in the Meridian is a plus, but as someone else replied already, 56K is quite a bit. But it would be nice to have several cards prloaded with different maps if you travel a lot. We travel fulltime in an RV and use a laptop with Delorme Earthmate for that, so it was not a deal breaker for me. I have noticed that John's Meridian usually seems to acquire satellites a second or two faster than my 60cs. Again, no big deal, this isn't a race for us. One thing I don't like, and it has nothing to do with the operation of the Meridian itself, is having to hit a button to accept the agreement to not hold Magellan responsible if I fall off the edge of the earth or run into a tree while playing with the GPS every time I turn it on. It's just a minor irritation and something some bean counter in an office must havve decided was needed for a liability issue, but those kind of things just irk me. Both units seem to take us to the exact same place at the same time, so there is no advantage with one over the other that I can see in terms of accuracy. If I had never held and played with the 60cs, I would have been just as happy with the Meridian Color.

I'm sure a little bit of experience would answer this for me, but maybe someone here can help speed things up. Just got a Garmin 60cs with Mao Source CD, but have not installed any maps yet. In driving from Florida to Kentucky last week, just using the base map, I noticed the icon showed our location as being a bit off to the side of the actualy roadway marked for I-75. Is this normal? In this instance it was no problem, but I'm thinking if I was using it on city streets it might be a bit confusing. I have used the unit to find one cache so far, and it was right on in that instance.

Here's the way I see it, as a brand new geocacher and as someone who will become a premium member in the next few days. I have only found one cache so far, but I have spent hours on the site reading the forums, reading cache descriptions, and everything else on here. For the cost of renting a few movies, I can have a premium membership and help financially support this web site. I have already had more hours enjoyment and education from this site than I would have received from a bunch of rental videos. So it's a darned good value. Considering the cost of a GPS receiver and the other goodies we have bought for this sport, $30 is really not very much money, and I think there are very few of us who would really be in a financial pinch if we spent the money to become a premium member. From a business standpoint, I can relate to Geocaching.com's decision to allow non-paying member to access most areas and services of the site. That is how you (hopefully) show them the value of what you have to offer, and hopefully they will convert to a premium membership. We travel fulltime in a motorhome and make our living publishing a newspaper/magazine for RVers and armchair travelers called the Gypsy Journal. In addition to our 10,000 paid readers, every issue we print several thousand extra copies, which we leave at RV parks and distribute at RV shows and rallies. People who are unfamilier with our publication pick up those copies and will hopefully either subscribe and/or purchase some of the books I have written on RVing and travel. We occassionally run into people who tell us they have been picking up our sample copies for years now and still have not subscribed. Do I wish they would write a check for a subscription? Sure I do, but what can I do? I just tell them I am glad they are enjoying our paper and hope someday they will find it worth the cost of a subscription. It costs a lot of money to produce a publication like ours, and we do not load the pages up with advertising, so every subscription and book order helps make ends meet. I think geocaching is a wonderful activity, and I'm more than willing to support it in any way I can, from buying a premium membership to helping introduce others to the hobby. In fact, in our next issue we will be carrying a two page feature on geocaching, with several references to this web site. I hope to meet some of you out in the field someday and pick up some tips from the pros.

Since our business, website, books, and speaking engagements put us in the public view anyway, I don't withhold much. Anyone who wants to know about me can just log onto our website and get just about anything, except our personal telephone number, which we don't even share with our subscribers. In today's information age, not much is really secret anymore.

US Army 1971-1974. 1st Cav in Vietnam, upon return home was assigned to training cadre at US Military Academy at West Point, NY

Got my new Garmin 60cs last weekend and today made my first attempt at finding a cache. I selected the Wellborn Community Cache in Florida, since it looked fairly easy, with 1.5 stars, and is only a couple of miles from where we are visiting. My buddy John was with me. The GPS worked fine, and led us right to the cache. Then we spent about 5 minutes looking in the heavy cover. The cache was nicely hidden, and we both passed right over it a time or two before I found it. I'm hooked and ready to get some more caches logged in!

Thanks, I appreciate the quick replies

Okay, so I got the 60cs yesterday and have been playing with it today. Can I manually input a set of coordinates I want to go to, and if so, how?

MY Map60cs just arrived by FedEx. Too dark outside to play with it tonight, but I'll sure be out there tomorrow! Can't wait to learn how to use this thing!

My new 60cs is supposed to be delivered Saturday, if the FedEx guy doesn't get lost or lose it, and I'm really excited. I have a couple of Delorme Earthmate units in the car and RV that work off the laptop computers, but this will be my first handheld. Can't wait to get out and do some cache hunting! I'm sure I'll have lots of questions once it arrives. Has anyone used any of the Garmin instructional videos, and are they worth the money for a newbie?

I'm new to geocaching and just ordered a 60cs with auto navigation kit from JJI Elecronics. It should be delivered Friday or Saturday. Can't wait to get out and play with it.

I have narrowed my list of choices down to the Magellan Meridian series GPS units, more specifically the Gold, Platinum, and Color models. Would appreciate input & opinions on any of the three. Will be used for both urban and rural geocaching, as well as in the car, so I want the ability to use a street mapping program as well as topo maps, to use the data card, and to use a cigarette lighter power cord. I understand the Color units often require use of the backlight feature when used outdoors. I'm all ready to go geocaching, just need to buy the right unit.

We travel around the country fulltime in a motorhome and publish a newspaper for RVers called the Gypsy Journal (www.gypsyjournal.net) about interesting places to go. A year or so ago one of our subscribers mentioned geocaching and suggested I write a story about it, because it is a great hoby for RVers. I had never heard of geocaching and really did not pay much attention to him. Then a few months ago, other RVing friends mentioend thay had been geocaching while travelign in southern Indiana. They told me a little more about it and I thought I might look into it sometime. Then, a couple of weeks ago, yet another reader was in an RV park where we were visiting and he is also a geocacher and showed me his log book and told me about travel bugs and all, and gave me this website. I started reading and got hooked in a hurry. I am currently shopping for a GPS unit, and have about settled on the Magellan Meridian Color, because I can also use it for travel routing instead of my more bulkier Delorme GPS/laptoop combination. Looking forward to getting out and finding my first cache!

I'm just getting into the sport and am considering a Magellan Meridian Color unit to be used both in the car and for geocaching. Does anyone have any input on this unit? Good? Bad? Indifferent?