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My OR 300 is way off as well. Did my usual test out and back walk (everything from open sky to light tree cover) and best accuracy reported was 18m. That appeared correct as there were major deviations between the outbound and inbound recorded tracks. Took along my trusty 76csx and accuracy was normally 2-3m and the out and back tracks laid directly on top of each other. It's very frustrating having my Oregon now for well over a year, multiple sw and fw upgrades and my 76csx ALWAYS kicks it a** for accuracy.

Actually I did let it cook over a few short hikes in the last few days. Methinks it's more than "baked" enough :-)

No, didn't try that on this walk, but did try on earlier walks and didn't seem any better. However, over the next few days will try the same trail without WAAS and post the results, although I'm not expecting much....unfortunately.

Well...glad many of you are having luck with the new firmware. I, however, am not. I put aside the Orgeon for some time due to it's horrible accuracy and tracklogs. Went back to my trusty 76csx. Excited to see the new beta software with new gps firmware. However on loading it and trying it out a few times I'm having horrible results. Below is my test out and back trail. Note how the tracklogs veer from each other by as much as 55meters. The trail goes from wide open sky (on roads) to very light tree cover on a wide trail. I had WAAS turned on, but never got a lock. In fact the GPS could "see" many birds, but at best only locked onto 5. GPS accuracy was reported as best at 11 meters (for only a second) with the average being 25-30 meters, which from the horrible tracklog is probably right. Data sent to Garmin. Very, very frustrated...to me the Oregon is useless. Oregon 300 out and back trail with V3.12beta

I'm with you on that one Betaman. When I got my Oregon it was around 2.20 and I had read that the accuracy (especially for slow walking/hiking tracklogs) wasn't very good. But having a very good, but tired, 76csx I stupidly thought that they would fix it soon in firmware. Well that was 80-ish firmware releases ago and while sometime the tracklogs may be slightly better it's still no where near as good as my 76csx or from what I read the Delorme. Frustrating to say the least.

Sorry Mtn. Hermit, but I now have to totally disagree and as one who owns both I may have a slight advantage. :-) Pixel resolution doesn't mean crap if the GPS isn't accurate. Hell I've had my Oregon be off by over 500 feet....that can easily put you on a completely different side of a ridge when hiking. In fact that EXACT instance happened to me when hiking with both GPS units while testing one of the many software versions of the Oregon. The Oregon led me to the right side of a ridge (which went nowhere) and the 76csx took me the correct (left) way. This error in slow hiking/walking is well documented in the Oregon. Totally agree that it has a much nicer screen, but if I am trusting my well being to something guiding me out of a bad situation there is no comparison between the 76 and the Oregon. If I want a big "screen" I'll just take a printed topo map and a compass. I want accuracy...especially under tree cover when landmarks are not as easy. You can bet I hope they get the Oregon to be as accurate as the 76, but it isn't there right now. rd.

Hey Hairymare, Yep applied all Oregon updates except for this last one 2.99 beta as there seems to be some pretty serious issues. Some updates helped the low/slow speed accuracy, but even at it's best it was no where near as accurate as the 76csx. It certainly sucks to "upgrade" your gps and actually go backwards in accuracy and stability. Good luck! rd

Just checked...no new software as of now. May 13 (for my 855) is still that last date.

Hey Hairymare, Well it just so happens that I have both. From what you are describing I believe the 76csx is going to be a better solution. The Oregon is really nice to use and I find the screen fine, not great but fine. However, it still is nowhere near as good as my 76csx in tracklog accuracy and maintaining a lock in tree cover. Just like you I do a lot of hiking and bushwacking and live in the mountains of British Columbia. I'll map trails or routes in the summer and then use the gps to guide me in the winter for hiking. As of right now I would not trust the Oregon to navigate me and routinely see errors of 10 feet (no big deal) to sometimes hundreds of feet. I'm not sure if Garmin is ever going to get the Oregon chipset to work as well as the 76csx especially in slow (walking/hiking) speed accuracy. Heck if I used my Oregon a few times last winter I could have walked right off of a cliff. If caching is going to be your new passion then the Oregon may be fine...I don't cache but many do successfully with the Oregon. Hope that helps. rd

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible. Upgraded to 2.98 and did a short out and back hike. GPS locked onto all birds and indicated good signal strength. However accuracy was never better than 20 meters and on my out and back track the tracklog consistently showed differences of 20+ meters. Made me think we had reverted to 2.85 (which I personally think was the worst). It's great Garmin is consistently upgrading the software, but it's getting VERY worrisome that they cannot seem to dial in the accuracy and that every time lately they release an update they seem to introduce some other major bug. Note that the trail was either wide open sky or light tree cover. File sent to Garmin Beta. Also, due to the "drift" or the unit thinking I'm still moving it makes the use of the compass while standing still useless. It's still nowhere near as good as my 76csx...glad I "upgraded" :-(

First decent walk with 2.96. Not so good. It took over 20 minutes to get a lock (this was after letting it sit outside for some time yesterday to rebuild it's almanac). After it did get a lock it was with minimal satellites and accuracy was never better than 90 feet. After some time it did get a good lock of about 8 birds (constellation was good with birds nicely spread out), and indicated good accuracy, however while watching the trip computer the speed jumped all over the place. We were walking at a steady pace and while walking the speed would constantly jump from 0.0kmh to as high as 12kmh and anywhere in between. Not sure if there is still an issue with bird 01, but it was a part of the constellation, however the gps never locked onto 01. Results sent to Garmin.

Today I had some significant problems with the new upgrade. I mapped the same out and back trail multiple times now. Under clear skies the new f/w was doing pretty good. However today we had light cloud cover and the track produced was mapped in a totally different area with over 100 foot differences on the out and back track. The satellite page indicated a strong signals with the birds in a nice SW to NE line. However GPS positional error was never shown as being better that 40 feet? WAAS was turned on, but never locked. Results sent to Garmin Beta. Still not anywhere near as consistent as my 76csx.

Today I had some significant problems with the new upgrade. I mapped the same out and back trail multiple times now. Under clear skies the new f/w was doing pretty good. However today we had light cloud cover and the track produced was mapped in a totally different area with over 100 foot differences on the out and back track. The satellite page indicated a strong signals with the birds in a nice SW to NE line. However GPS positional error was never shown as being better that 40 feet? WAAS was turned on, but never locked. Results sent to Garmin Beta. Still not anywhere near as consistent as my 76csx.

Did another out and back trail today and the tracklog was again much better than 2.86. However even under clear sky areas I could not get any WAAS lock. I'll try some more, but WAAS appears to be a no go for consistent guidance.

Well so far so good. I was one of the ones having HORRIBLE results with 2.86. Errors of over 500 feet. Today I used my same test walk that I have used previously (comparing the Oregon to my 76cst). First result was very positive. GPS accuracy was never less than 4 metres (about 14 feet) and the tracklog on the out and back trail showed a maximum deviation of about 20 feet. Much much better. The other major improvement was WAAS. With 2.86 even in open sky I could only get a couple of birds to lock on, today I had 8 of 9 birds with WAAS lock in open sky. This is a very preliminary test so will rerun over the next week and test WAAS in more real world (light tree to heavy tree cover) environment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hey Yogazoo, Perhaps it is regional, but even under relatively open sky I'm having troubles (and forget WAAS altogether even tho' my 76csx locks on no problems). However, I also think it may be speed related. Even though I've reverted to V2.85 I still get the errors (although not nearly as bad). When I'm on a slow hike or snow shoe I seem to get the majority of drift errors, however twice now I've used the unit cross country skiing and noticed the tracklogs to be much better. Very similar terrain the only real difference is that I'm moving much faster skiing. Perhaps going slower it's allowing more of the reflected signals to "corrupt" the position calculation???? Anyhow my 2 cents worth. Looking forward to the next revision...like you I think the new chipset f/w is not fully flushed out yet. rd.

Here's the post with the screen shots. On this day I walked this short walk with the 76csx in one hand and the Oregon with V2.86 in the other hand. As you can see from the map underneath the first part of the walk is on roads with clear sky view (both units showed strong signals and minimal positional error), the remainder is very very light tree cover. Neither unit on WAAS. 76csx Oregon V2.86 The trail is out and back and the error on the Oregon is over 500 feet. I was able to reproduce this multiple times with V2.86. With V2.85 better, but still pretty bad. I hope it gets better. In conversing with Garmin they have not indicated that it is a problem just with my unit and from seeing many of the other posts I'm sure it isn't. cheers, rd.

Hey Spashy, There was always a minimum of 5 strong signals (and usually 3-4 more weaker signals). They were well spread out. I just posted a screen capture of my results on Flickr on a day when I walked one trail with the 76csx in one hand and the Oregon in the other. Unfortunately Flickr will take a day or two before I can link to the photos, but as soon as I can I'll repost here. As a side note the results I've had with V2.85 have been much better (still way worse than the 76csx, but better). Keep watching for the posted screen captures. cheers, rd.

Sorry Splashy, It doesn't work. I used the Oregon to map a couple of trails that I know. I then used those exact same track logs to hike the trail now letting the Oregon guide me (remember these were tracklogs that were created on the Oregon). If I followed the tracklogs it had me going all over the place...many times hundreds of feet off of the trail. This is further evidenced by the fact that on an out and back trail, where the tracklog should look like one trail, the tracklog would show differences of over 500 feet on the Oregon. Again these were tracklogs only created on the Oregon. If I use the Oregon to map a trail in the summer, then snowshoe it in the winter and it's "deviation" takes me well off the trail it could lead to big trouble here in the mountains. Imagine hiking and mapping a trail in one direction then using the GPS to guide me along the trail at a different time in the reverse direction...large guidance errors could be catastrophic. As a final note I loaded the tracklogs that the Oregon created into my 76csx and then used the 76csx to guide me. Once again I was all over the place. The only conclusion left was that the tracklog created by the Oregon was in error. cheers, rd.

Hi Splashy, These are trails I've hiked for years and the map for them comes directly from the track log of the 76csx. I know the track from the 76csx is correct because I can follow it directly on the unit and it matches almost (within a few feet) exactly with the trail. These are not canyons. I live in the mountains, but there is intermittent tree cover (very seldom heavy tree cover). Now when I load these same saved tracks into the Oregon and hike these same trails the errors are obvious. If I follow the track I have loaded on the Oregon it can veer me off of the known trail by hundreds of feet. If I followed it blindly (and who would) it would have twice walked me off of a large cliff into a mountain river. So the error has nothing to do with Mapsource but directly a difference in the two units. When following the track in the 76csx it guides me correctly, when using the Oregon it guides me incorrectly. This tells me that the lat/long "accuracy" of the Oregon is off and/or drifts easily. cheers, rd

As well for me in BC. Haven't tried it yet in a car, but hiking or walking is very erratic. I have been testing it further with a bunch of hiking tracks that I recorded over the years on my 76csx and many times the Oregon will take me WAY off track. It actually seems the slower I go the worse it is.

Hi Jetskier, Well glad to hear some are getting good results with their Oregon. When you test your tracklog can you please try to test in "real world" environment...ya' know in and out of some tree cover. Out and back tracks are great to see the deviation in tracks. I wish I thought this problem was me, but my 76csx consistently works and tracks correctly. A 500 foot error can be quite "challenging" when looking for a track snow shoeing in the mountains. cheers, rd.

Yep did that. Set up for walking and to not lock on roads. The error is very obvious as if I just stand still for a few minutes you can see the position marker move in large swings. Sometimes over 100 feet just standing there. rd.

Hi Yogazoo, Nope, but I'm close. Just north of you in Whistler, British Columbia. Let's hope at some point we can use our Oregons. cheers, rd.

I just purchased an Oregon 300 to replace my GPS Map 76csx. So far a complete mistake as the Oregon is very inaccurate. I hiked a short road/trail with my GPS MAP 76Csx, the Oregon wtih V2.85 and V2.86 software. At no time did either unit have WAAS turned on (mostly due to the fact that the Oregon won't obtain WAAS signals). The trail is mostly open sky with very minimal tree cover. At all times the signal strength was very high with the Oregon indicating minimal positional deviation. With the GPS Map 76csx the out and back trail almost appears as one line (as it should). On V2.85 the errors vary from minimal to over 100 feet. With 2.86 however the errors are consistently hundreds of feet and peak at over 500 feet multiple times! As it sits right now the Oregon is an expensive paper weight. I use my GPS for remote hiking and snow shoeing. Right now I wouldn't trust the Oregon to get me out my front door let alone safely back from a hike. I have sent the files to Garmin Oregon Beta. I'd post the files here but I can't get them to paste into the post. I have a real fear that this chip has an inherent problem and will never be as accurate as the SIRF chipset in my GPS Map76. For this much money technology shouldn't go backwards. cheers, rd.