tr_s

A reasonable GPS, I own it. But be aware of the rubber-loosening problem that ALL etrex models STILL seem to suffer from. (read: if you use it outdoors for some time in somewhat hot conditions, you will very likely have to send it back or re-glue the rubber gasket yourself, voiding the warranty)

Does anyone else find the direction determination on Garmin devices way too sensitive these days? For me, the destination arrow can jump really bad and frankly be pretty useless ("you slipped a foot backwards, so now you are moving in that direction!!!") This is on an eTrex H but the other day I had a Legend HCx behave in the same way. Some sort of user selectable low pass filtering of the apparent direction should sure be implemented?

Garmin should absolutely release a Geko H however. Not that I care much about that it's smaller, but the rubber band on all eTrexes still loosens up in months and at worst renders the units unusable. They need to fasten it with plastic plugs into the chassis or ditch the eTrex design.

Your heavy-duty industrial tape might be incredible, but so is Garmin's rubber sleeve. I have heard reports of some tapes sticking to the rubber, but have never seen a successful fastening using tape myself. As for oil dissolving the glue, it might be true but I do not think this is the sole reason. Never handled my GPS with noticeably greasy or oily hands, so if it is from that, it's natural skin oils that cause it. Anyway - there are no ways around this or excuses for Garmin, a GPS sold as a "rugged" outdoor device which can not handle "standard use" - a little heat or fats - without breaking is FAULTY FAULTY FAULTY.

This is a topic that comes up way too often, and boy how it surprises me that Garmin has not come up with a fix to it in ten years. Anyway, I know a glue which is actually sticks very reasonably to the rubber: Silane based glue. In many countries this is sold by Loctite as "Repair Extreme". Remove all gunk from both receiver and rubber using gasoline. Then sandpaper the rubber band's inside slightly, apply a thin layer of silane glue (be careful not to get it near the button areas), and slide it into place. Then wait 24 hours and your rubber should be reasonably stuck to the GPS for a very long time. I have read about some varieties of heavy duty adhesive tape working as well. Actually I think the eTrex design should be ditched, unless Garmin can come up with a good solution to this problem. I just bought a new eTrex H, would have bought a Geko H or GPS 76 H any day instead if those models existed.

There used to be an application called Geocaching.com WAP - is it still available or has it been discontinued? I have tried a lot of addresses, wap.geocaching.com..., www.geocaching.com/wap... and so on but so far none of them seems to lead to a site. If you ever make the site available again, it would be great to have a "search for caches nearest these coordinates" option. You seldom have a computer near you when it hits you that you want to cache hunt. But you always carry you phone. Would certainly be a great thing to have - at least here in Europe where we have almost 100% of the land areal covered with GSM+GPRS. Thank you Tobias Radeskog - Swedish Pioneer Geocacher.