jnlpedersen

This is a little off-topic, but Pote is right about GPS signal reflection (and we don't take any offense regarding our tech abilities). You will get some signal reflection (and therefore, positional inaccuracy) near or inside structures and wooded areas. (Go to Google and put in "GPS signal reflection" for a whole batch of good articles.) We have determined that by making use of the Meridian's position averaging feature in a wooded area that we attain reasonable position accuracy for geocaching. To my knowledge, none of the Garmin units we looked at had position averaging capability. I think the intent of my original post was to say we thought the Meridian unit had a more sensitive antenna.

This is a little off-topic, but Pote is right about GPS signal reflection (and we don't take any offense regarding our tech abilities). You will get some signal reflection (and therefore, positional inaccuracy) near or inside structures and wooded areas. (Go to Google and put in "GPS signal reflection" for a whole batch of good articles.) We have determined that by making use of the Meridian's position averaging feature in a wooded area that we attain reasonable position accuracy for geocaching. To my knowledge, none of the Garmin units we looked at had position averaging capability. I think the intent of my original post was to say we thought the Meridian unit had a more sensitive antenna.

I'm not sure I can answer all your questions, but I can tell you why we chose the Meridian Gold over all the other Garmin units we looked at: 1. The Garmin units would never pick up satellite signals inside a store, whereas the Meridan Gold had no trouble. I spend lots of time in the woods, and our Meridian rarely looses the signal under tree cover. 2. The screen resolution may be a bit coarse, but when geocaching we usually are using a data screen for the last few hundred feet or so. We normally use the map screen to trace our path on roads on the way there and to navigate in unfamiliar driving territory. I have not been disappointed by the screen resolution. 3. We liked the idea of being able to swap and choose map data stored on multiple SD cards if necessary. Finally, I chose a Meridian Gold over a Meridian Platinum because it did NOT have the built-in compass. This forces me to use a real compass, and we generally take paper maps as well for backup. There is no excuse for being lost in the back country because you are out of AA batteries. Hope this helped.

I'm not sure I can answer all your questions, but I can tell you why we chose the Meridian Gold over all the other Garmin units we looked at: 1. The Garmin units would never pick up satellite signals inside a store, whereas the Meridan Gold had no trouble. I spend lots of time in the woods, and our Meridian rarely looses the signal under tree cover. 2. The screen resolution may be a bit coarse, but when geocaching we usually are using a data screen for the last few hundred feet or so. We normally use the map screen to trace our path on roads on the way there and to navigate in unfamiliar driving territory. I have not been disappointed by the screen resolution. 3. We liked the idea of being able to swap and choose map data stored on multiple SD cards if necessary. Finally, I chose a Meridian Gold over a Meridian Platinum because it did NOT have the built-in compass. This forces me to use a real compass, and we generally take paper maps as well for backup. There is no excuse for being lost in the back country because you are out of AA batteries. Hope this helped.

Is anyone using the Magellan Map Send Topo software with their Meridian Gold? My interest is in getting topo info and more detailed street mapping. Does this software really do both? Please reply with your experiences. Happy caching!