musthavemuzk

ok since i dont have any seat time or knowledge of the etrex..... what can you tell me/us about that? lets make it a fair decision here Monty

i thought the found get a smiley when looking at the map and in the cache listing on the GC? pretty sure it is like that. Monty

i saw this last night and jumped for joy. made use of it this morning to log caches from my blackberry tour on way to a caching 101 event. cannot go one way and return on the same route and not cache each route. so i did just that. made 9 for 9 today including the event and the one at home with the gf and her daughter when i got home. definitely wished i had know about this before. thanx! Monty

a crazy idea that came from convos the last few days..... could the issues with the GC be filed away under the category rushing to get it to market and will deal with things later? or mayb we thought it was good so we released it...oops mayb not quite ready yet. what about we want to get this out (in the background we are working on the rest of the explorist line and well that takes precedence. just some thoughts we have been tossing about. Monty

are you aware how long it takes VP to process PQ's? either directly from GC through the program or by way of importing the gpx file (one for caches and one for waypoints in the zipped PQ file) it is painful. specially if you do it often. GSAK does it in a few seconds (1000 cache PQ's) VP takes minutes at minimum. the other thing i find annoying with VP is lack of a base map with real roads on it. it has the interstates and that is in. so you have to guess where you are at when you zoom in on the map. not that i am saying GSAK is the only program to use, but it also can import tracks and personal waypoints. yes it costs for GSAK. but there are other programs out there that do similar. i just cannot think of the names right now. if a person likes a program then by all means use it. and saying things about them is ok too. i just like to hear about various programs and things they do. same goes for gps units. i like to get the big pic and not say this is the only choice. Monty

you can also browse the forums here to read the good bad and ugly about the GC Monty

as already stated this is a verry difficult question to answer. i would suggest being patient and taking your time or you will find yourself with a unit that falls short of what you want from it. find local events and go to them as ask others what they use and what they like about theirs. what they dont like as well as see if you can use the units. this way you have actual experience with them. even if for a few minutes time. as was said what will it be used for? caching, on road, hiking, biking, on the water? do you want paperless caching, routable maps, custom map options. touch screen or not? spoken directions are hard to come by on handheld units, but i do believe there is a lawrence that has that. compass wanted? magnetic or one that only is useful when you are moving as it uses gps coordinates to give you direction? there are many questions to ask yourself. Monty

are what explorist software are you referring to? vantage point (which i do not care for)? the browser plugin to use the send to gps feature? as was mentioned premium members should make use of the PQ feature and then unzip the PQ. once that is done you can copy that directly to the GC once it is plugged into the PC as it will show up as an external drive. you would copy the gpx files from the PQ into the geocache folder on the GC. Monty

fair enough on paying 200 to get paperless. though if you are new to this or have a unit that doesnt perform well it might be worth it? can get some money back by selling the old unit as well? i think the GC was aimed at getting new ppl into the game with less learning curve of a featured GPS at a price point ppl were willing to pay. just my thoughts on that. it does do somethings well. and for most ppl it will likely be just fine. however the power user will find flaws quickly. such as its pokiness to move around the map as well as refreshing at times is terrible. loading caches is easy. no need to have any other program installed to do so. for the casual user it is likely good enough as well, but for the power cacher who goes out on runs of 30 50 100 caches it might be frustrating as you wait for it to do things. keeping track of finds and dnf's is easy as well as you can do field notes and upload that to GC.com easily as well. my gf likes the GC. myself i want more and less fuss. it takes 2+ minutes for the GC to powerup and get satelites. my 62s can be ready in under a minute. i also wanted good maps and routable maps. around most towns the GC's maps are good. leave town and in some areas of town you are at the mercy of finding the direction you need to go and then finding roads to get there on. like many things it comes down to what you want from your GPSr. we decided we are gonna send our frozen GC back to magellan and hope they can fix it. hope for firmware to fix alot of things as well as add some wanted things. Monty

i am a guy who likes info. and well sometimes it is easier if you get some help. i know i visit forums for help often. on a related note....our GC froze again today. the first time it happened was when i updated the firmware. this time i was uploading new caches to it. i hit up www.exploristforum.com for info in their forums on how to reload firmware when it freezes. tried 3 times and finally called tech. she walkedme through the same exact steps so right now we have a $200 paperweight. she said to call back if i had more problems. but that time it was too late. might try to return it to best buy later today or use the form on the magellan site to get RMA number to return for service. either way i am definitely not happy with the GC we have. however i am happy with the turn by turn on the 62s. not spoken or perfect , but it is nice since i am new to the area. also found out tonight that it auto reroutes if a turn is missed. which is nice to know. good luck Monty

last night i grabbed some maps from the link provided above and today i tried it out. seemed to work ok. though i am new to the area so idk if it was taking me on the best route or not. it did find the caches though. well it got me close and i had to find them. there are also maps available at www.gpsfiledepot.com to get turn by turn though you need routable maps. i had grabbed some maps from gpsfiledepot and while they were good. i wasnt able to get turn by turn. i am guessing they have routable maps there. i just didnt grab the right ones. now remember you dont get voice with this. you can set up beeps. if battery is low it doesnt beep. so it beeps at you you have to look at the screen to see which way to turn. Monty

no problem. lots of good info around here about caching and all its aspects. some get frustrated with all the same questions time and again. well how else is a newbie going to learn. as many dont have a clue there is a search feature that works pretty good. magellan GC is in several subject lines for threads. in 2 wks there is an event kinda close to me that i am going to check out. i am hopin to learn alot at the geocaching 101 and 201 classes that are to be taught there. i am learning about our gpsr's but thereis so much to learn. got some routable maps from the web on my 62s last night. played with them today. was nice but clumbsy at times to navigate around the menus as i am not familiar with it yet. this might be a feature you would like. and well the GC doesnt have that feature. you have to be able to follow along best you can with the base maps on it. if local and you know the area it is not a big deal at all, but if you venture outside your normal area it might come in handy to have routable maps. however i paid 400 for my 62s. the GC when we got it was 200. that is a big price difference. keep an eye out around here there are always threads about sales going on. the 62 replaced the 60 and they have been on sale for 200 lately at various places. 3 months ago the 60csx was 400. their is talk about the oregon 450 being replaced and someone had those on sale too. cabelas, rei.com, bassproshops all have web presence as well as brick and mortar stores. might also score a used one that works fine but someone wanted to upgrade. i considered delorme pn-40 and pn-60 (300 and 350(on sale at basspro) respectively) garmin oregon 450 and 550. the 450 is $400 and the 550 was 5 or 550. they also make T versions which come with topo maps loaded. the 550 comes with a camera. dakota 10 and 20 the 20 is 350 dont see the 10 often. lowrance has some at the 200 price point and some like them as well. magellan seems to catch alot of flack it seems. you like them or you dont it seems. i read something about the company was sold or something like that and the new owners have alot of things to fix to get customers back or keep the ones they have. the new explorists looks nice and the whole line has cameras built it too. i forget the exact models. 310 510 and 710 i think or something like that. garmins have a huge following. alot of support from community as you can get free maps for them. or make it simple and get alot more features from the garmin maps. but you pay for it. its a personal preference. it does depend on how serious you plan on getting with this as well as what you want from gpsr. paperless caching compass (real compass and not one that only works when you are moving. one that works standing still) topo maps routable maps size of unit touch screen or buttons how much money how much time to learn how to use it how much time to learn how to get most from unit. alot to think about. the 60csx that just got replaced is still a good unit. has been a solid performer for 4+ yrs now. so i doubt a good unit will be a poor investment. just depends on all the other factors as well. it doesnt do paperless caching, but it can be fed info to get some paperless function out of it. many use their smartphones and like that. many also use their smartphone in conjunction with a cheaper gpsr and are happy. or there is the PDA working along side a gps of your choice. most say the car units are not well suited for offroad use in caching. though some use them just fine. take some time and look around the place and read read read. asking questions as you go. no rush to get a gpsr. that way you get what you want and need. hit up the regional forums as well. mayb find a local site or local cachers that will let you tag along and ask questions and see how units work. hit up some events too. we signed up in march here. however we didnt start caching til end of july. life got busy for awhile. good luck! Monty

we were at best buy today and they had the GC for 170. ithink it was a sale though. we paid 200 for ours the end of july at best buy. read around the forums here for info on the GC. mixed emotions it seems on it. last week i went and bought a 62s as i was frustrated with the GC. not saying it is perfect, but i feel more comfy with many things about it. my gf is using the GC. she commented the other day it is nice that we each have our own. i think with some polish on the GC it will be nice. i just think it is a bit rough and some dont like the price for a gpsr that is only usable for caching. well it can do tracks, but in reality it is a caching unit. i like that it can hold so many caches. 10,000 is what it says. i have done 9000 and it holds them. i wished it had a real compass on it. i wished it was not sluggish at times. i do not remember the site, but the explorist has its own little forum. might find linkage to it if you root around here awhile. it was not very active though. Monty

curious is this similar to the Wherigo caches? or not even close? Monty

first question does your explorist 600 support paperless geocaching? if it doesnt then you might not be able to get all the info on it. some units like the garmin 60csx can be made to take more info with macros and GSAK. however i do not have any seat time with that. you might be stuck with minimal info on the gps. many use a PDA in conjunction with simple gps units to get the cache info in the field. if you have a smart phone you might also be able to get the info that way while in the field. might even be able to use the smartphone to cache with. lots of possibilities here. spend some time in the forums and then you will have alot of info to process and decide what to do next. i try to get here daily and i always learn something new. as there is alot bigger curve then i imagined to this Monty

interesting indeed! my gf and i have been caching about 5wks now. she dropped her first TB off this past weekend and i am holding off for the moment as i am not sure what i want to send off yet. almost right away i fell in love with the trackable concept. i hope i do not let an owner down and can keep them moving. last weekend i found some and took them to move. i also found some that were going the opposite direction and left them. its all about respecting others property i think. i am just moving it along is all i am doing. how difficult is that to do? i was also wondering about education or ease of getting information on trackables. has the TB tag always been the same? no i noticed the tags we just got are different then the ones i have been finding and moving in the last 5wks. is there enough info on the tags or at the website on the tags to help keep them moving? the website on the tags is the main page. is it easy and quick enough to get info to the trackable holder so they dont get frustrated? just thinkin outloud. from what i have looked at for trackables on gc.com there are many many variants on info provided on the page, ways to attach tags, kinds of things attached to the tags and tb's to provide info in the field. i like having info in the field with the trackable so i know if it makes sense for me to grab it. i know they are supposed to move, but if i am going 100 or 200 miles the opposite direction is that good? i can see if i pick it up and take it home and realize i went 10 miles the other direction. no big deal. just drop it again and it is on its way. or on the next outting drop it there. but if i went to chicago from denver and grabbed a trackable that was on its way to boston......that is not so good. if it has info with it i can decide to take or leave. but not knowing i might move it wrong direction. anyways Monty

that's great to hear you got it going again. thanx for letting the ppl here know you won the battle! Monty

i dont have any help with that. i havnt tried the track feature Monty

You can also create a bookmark list, convert it to a Pocket Query, then down load it. Hope this helps and welcome. really? i like this idea. now to look into this thanx Monty

last night i used ie and chrome and had no issues with blank pages when posting a reply. blank page when going to get satisfaction. but using FF i do have thos issues. Monty

i am running 3.6.8 which is the current version. odd you mention plugins...some one on the iowa geocaching forum said the same thing.... Monty

the 62 also doesnt take cards. there were some other differences too, but cannot remember them offhand. this past friday i picked up a 62s. Monty

if only i could get to the get satisfaction page in firefox...... i might ber able to see the updates Monty

with the 1.4 firmware you get more sound options and i went with the one that seemed loudest and oddest so it could have better chance to be heard. saw the test, but havent ran it. Monty

i have grabbed a couple wooden coins recently and i like them. we are working on something else though to be different. Monty