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badfish9

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    Garmin or Magellan?

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    Again, thanks very to everyone that has chimed in. You input has been real helpful.

     

    Couple things. I am leaning toward the Explorist 500LE for the price. Having color isn't mandatory for me but it will be nice.

    -I have been getting conflicting info on this. I think the 500 LE has an internal compass. The Magellan web site says it has several screens and one of those it lists is the compass screen. That means I can look at it to see which way is north, right?

    From the web page: "Four navigation screens - Map, Compass, Locator and Satellite Status deliver easy-to-use information"

    -The one from Costco comes with Topo for free but I will probably buy the DirectRoute software myself as well. This might be a silly question but can you have both on one GPS unit? It's not like an operating system on a computer is it? I would imagine you can use both and they will be separate in the menus, correct?

     

    Again, the driving directions thing would be cool, but I don't plan on using that feature much. It isn't a priority. However it would be nice to have the ability to look up a map of where I am at the time. Sort of a hand-held Mapquest.

     

    $200 is what I would like to cap out what my family will be spending on this. I will handle the maps or whatever myself.

     

    MtSpaz - Thanks for the Costco link. If I get it, that is where it will come from.

    irchriscdk & geognerd - I think it might use the "proprietary" battery but it also has an adapter that will take AAA batteries.

    gpsblake, media601, irchriscdk - We are pretty good with electronics on the canoe. It will stay around my neck, in a float bag or be caribeaner-ed to the seat on a lanyard.

    embra & Red90 - The $200 is for the unit someone else will be buying for me. I will handle getting the extra software. Also, I have a few SD cards kicking around.

    avpas - What do you like better about that Garmin?

    Glrii – I called Magellan tech support and got through to some in about 5 minutes. However that someone was in India and hard as hell to understand. I called Garmin and a recording told me the wait time would be over 30 minutes.

    Vagabond – Thanks for the battery test.

     

    Everyone—thanks so much for your help, insight and kindness. I really appreciate it and will keep you updated on what I get!

    Garmin or Magellan?

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    Hey all!

     

    I have been lurking here for a while and finally decided to ask some questions. Part of the reason I want to start Geocacheing is because I want a GPS unit anyway. I was wondering you could please give me some advice.

     

    Here is what I am going to do with a GPS:

    1. Some geocacheing. Maybe a few times a year.

    2. Hiking/paddling/camping/canoeing. This will be my biggest use of this unit.

    3. The very occasional use for driving. Maybe just while on a road trip or going somewhere in an area I don't know well. I know I will be getting a unit whose primary function is not road navigation, so some of the features may suffer. (However, I would like the ability to load roadmaps on my GPS unit. Sometimes we get into a canoe and just paddle until we can't get any further. We then call our pick up person from our cell phone to come pick us up and need to tell them what roads we are near. It would better to know for sure rather than flagging down cars to ask or knocking on farmer's doors!)

     

    Okay, so here are the features I was looking at getting:

    *I need some road mapping capabilities.

    *I need topo abilities.

    *I need to be able to load details maps of areas I will be going for the above.

    *Obvioulsy, some sort of PC connection.

    *The unit should be less than $200 as this will be a gift and I don't want my fam to have to spend to much $$$.

     

    While I know I want those things, I don't know the features that would be important to geocaching. Can you pelase help me? Do you have any insight on which may be the best model? Here are the ones I have been researching:

    Magellan Explorist 210

    Magellan Explorist 400

    Magellan Explorist 500 (Usually over $200 but sometimes on sale.)

    Garmin eTrex Legend

    Garmin eTrex Vista

    Garmin eTrex Venture Cx (doubtful, too expensive.)

     

    Have any experience with any of these?

     

    Sorry to unload so much in my first post, I have been lurking for a while. I have absorbed some things but was hoping to not hint at which way I am leaning to see what you guys recomend and to see if I learned as much as I think (hope) I have.

     

    Thanks in advance for your help!

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