Forkeye

Wherever you live you will have a declination, that is the number of degrees difference between true north and magnetic north. It can be east or west. So with true north set you will face true north and with magnetic north set you will face magnetic north. As already mentioned it won’t make any difference for caching or most navigating. It will become important when you use a handheld compass and paper map with your gps or if you are given a bearing to follow to a waypoint or cache, you’ll always have to work in true or magnetic readings or else convert one to the other.

The Delorme units have been around for quite a while now and you can read about lots of rescues from people using them, they are way less expensive than a satellite phone. I have the yellow Delorme Inreach SE and carry it lots of places I go. You can message to anyone from anywhere in the world as long as they have cell phone reception or internet and to Geos search and rescue who will contact your next of kin and local search and rescue in your area. They are communication devices mainly, and for navigation, not geocaching units. If you venture off the grid anywhere they are nice to have. You have to pay a monthly fee, they have different plans you can pick from and you can change plans at anytime or put your unit into standby if you decide not to use it for awhile.They pair to your phone if you want a larger screen and a keyboard. They have lots of uses. If my truck breaks down on a remote logging road, out of cell phone reach, I can message a friend for help or if someone I am with gets injured hiking or kayaking I can two way message to search and rescue. I can send text messages to avoid cell phone roaming charges and if I am on a cruise ship across the world or in another country chat with family or friends without internet or cell coverage. Delorme maps for your phone are pretty good and are free but I was disappointed to see that Garmin maps will not work in the new units. The Delorme Explorer had crude maps. You can follow my journey anywhere and see where I am on your laptop or cell phone and two way message or email me. Also I was disappointed to see that AA batteries are not used as these new units have much larger screens than Delorme units. You can make up lots of preset messages ahead of time for quick send off, but there can be delays in communicating of from 5-20 minutes depending on Iridium satellite positioning. If you have two units they can talk to each other as well. I will be keeping my eye on the new Explorer but also have a 64st it will have to win over and how buggy will they be at first like most Garmins, also maybe these are just the beginning of the integration of two way communication into Garmin units. It will definitely add cost as well a fee to use the Iridium network. Sorry for the double post.

The inReach, though, is not just for emergencies. It lets you have normal, regular communication with anyone. The Spot is mostly just for emergencies, but the inReach provides much more and you pay for it.

Wow, lucky for you selective availability is still turned off.

That's just it, satisfied users are not the first to post on these forums. Lack of real life use and knowledge can be an issue as well. Once the unit software has matured these units work quite well from my experience.

I have the older Etrex 30 for hiking and although the map panning is a bit slow, you will not see any issues with the map just viewing it as you hike, it's light, small, and has good battery life, works fine for that purpose,

I liked being able to set the speed at which the compass worked at which was adjustable in the 76/60 series

At what distance from the cache does the compass act up? Is it stable at a distance from the cache and only unstable at close range?

The faster processors are mostly 16 hr battery life I think, you will notice really fast panning of the map with them, with the older Etrex series the processor is obviously slower when panning the map but you get the extra battery life and I have never noticed the slowness of it while viewing the map traveling on foot, the Etrex are just the right size and weight for hiking on longer trips when you need to start counting grams/ lbs in my opinion. But yes this is about the 64 series, don't forget you can download Garmin Adventures on these newer units too. Way more map memory. Photo viewing. 3 axis compass.

How old are the reviews you are reading? All my units have the newest software version. My 64st works great, I take it out far more than my 62sc, and would take it hiking instead of my Etrex 30 except I like the etrex size and lighter weight for hiking.I cant say one bad thing about my 64 except I have no use for the Bluetooth function. I never had a 60scx but did have its cousin the 76csx, that 60 is a dinosaur in so many ways. The Etex 30 will get 25 hrs battery life posted ,the newer 64 units are posted at 16 hrs, you can use battery saver mode, it turns off the screen and get good rechargeable batteries. I take my Etrex on week long hikes with one set of batteries. I'll take my 64st on day hikes, but prefer the smaller size and weight of the Etrex. Take a paper map, turn on your GPS now and then to get your position only if you need to. Get a good compass with a romer, use MGRS on your GPS and a good topo map and pay attention to where you are as you travel, On rare occasions I've used it in fog/cloud cover and in areas where we were route finding with no trail for some time but have never needed more than an extra set of batteries for backup. The 64 series comes with a yr subscription to Birdseye as well, though that may or may not be useful as where I live the photos were all taken with a fair amount of snow cover so ground detail is variable. If I could add a couple of features it would be an altitude alarm and a PLB function so I wouldn't need to take my ACR PLB with me. But all in all I think you would be quite happy with The 64s over your 60csx.

Interesting, I only have topo maps on all three of my gps units and all my proximity circles are red. I have tried all of my maps out to see if it made a difference and it doesn't. However the maps are not all Garmins, I have maps from three different company's but it could be possible that whatever creates the red circle is the same in all of them. Did anyone notice the pointer color is also different in each photo. Has anyone asked Garmin yet?

I have tried different maps on my gps and also different proximity radius units and nothing has changed, the circle is still red. It is red in my Basecamp as well, and there doesn't seem to be a way to change that color either. Interesting!

My proximity circle is red with V4.30 software, installed on my etrex 30 and its red on my 64st and 62sc as well,and my track color is different so that cant be it. I am not sure you can adjust the color of the proximity circle, but maybe someone else will know for sure.

Thanks for the advice guys

OK thanks, Mineral,I was under the impression the 64 just came with that info preloaded in it, I guess with the base map, obviously my mistake, I guess one of my Canadian map programs does have it, but not one of my USA map programs. Thx again.

Well I have Topo Canada v4, Topo northwest, back roads v4, Topo USA 2008, national parks west 24 k. USA. I turned all my Canadian maps off when I was trying to figure it out but it didn't make any difference.

Would it be due to the fact that it came loaded with Topo Canada? Does that mean it only has a Canadian poi database for addresses, poi's, restaurants etc., why would it just not search around its current position?

So I have a 64st with V4.00 software in it. I live in Vancouver B.C. Canada, so I do a find search for restaurants and no problem, without any questions asked it thinks for a bit and then displays all the closest restaurants. So I now drive to Seattle, Washington and now I do a search for restaurants, now for some reason I have to enter province/ state???? why? It has a satellite fix, why cant it find restauants nearby? So anyway I enter Washington state and find restaurants, and after it thinks for a bit, now it displays restaurants in Calgary Alberta??? I tried it several times, even restarted it, same thing, same with looking up an address, what gives? Any ideas? I turned off all my Canadian maps and all the restaurants, addresses and poi's are well over a hundred Km/Mi away. Needless to say the people I was with were of course less than impressed by this. I almost threw it out the window.

Yes either is good and both almost have the same software but they are still a little different, and every one will tell you which one is best based on what they seem to like. The 64 is really the higher performance unit, more money and a little bigger screen maybe nicer for your geocaching, but the Etrex is the one I like for hiking because its smaller and has better battery life,if you can find a place and take a look at both if you can, thing is most places that sell them have kids selling them that know nothing about them, but at least you can see them. Good luck.

Thanks, good to know, I thought I saw an Etrex at 16 hrs.I am guessing that those specified times are all full daylight screen on, with no back light or battery saver mode turned on, not sure about which receiver settings they are taken at such as, glonass or wass, though.

I have both units, I would use the 64S for caching and due to its size and 25 HR battery life always use my 30 for hiking trips, it pans slower, but when viewing the map while just hiking, you wont see any problems, as said above, different screen an physical sizes, and button configurations, the weight difference isn't much. Glad I have both, don't have a favourite one. The newer Etrex is now down to 16 Hr battery life, maybe they have a faster cpu now, guess we will have to wait for the reviews to find out. Accuracy and reception is the same in my opinion. The 64 has a banner menu and battery saver mode too, maybe the new etrex might also have that, who knows.

Ok, I stand corrected, if I look carefully I can see my track way off in the corner, but only after I zoom way in. I would of expected to see it in the middle of the screen.

Same update is available for 62 series and Etrex. It seems to have at least one bug. Unless I did something wrong, when you chose to view the map where your track was recorded, it shows an area on the map a considerable distance from where the track was recorded, not even close. Obviously not tested.

The ribbon page is not eye candy, it allows you to quickly scroll to any screen/page, forward or backward. I like using it. I think you would find it more useful if you have more screen/pages to scroll through as it makes shifting to the screen you want faster than going through each screen. Set the delay to fast, slow delay seems too slow.