alanfreed

You simply want to look for units that have the SIRF III chip... that's what makes the difference. The Garmin 60Cx, CSx, etc., use these newer chips, and that's what makes the difference in reception. I'd imagine that any unit that uses the SIRF chip will yield outstanding results compared to ones that don't. The difference is absolutely remarkable, as others have noted.

Pros: You can upload the entire mapset for all of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico on the 2GB card. (It takes about 3 hours to upload 'em all). Cons: ?? None that I can think of!

Heh... that's why I said, "For example..." No, the D200 isn't for the average soccer mom, etc. It's a more serious camera for the more serious photographer. But a quick Google search will show you a number of other cameras that have this capability. I just did a quick search, and came upon this item that will attach to a variety of Sony cameras. I'm a pretty serious photographer, and I'm looking forward to the day when I can keep a GPS attached to it. It'll be nice to have coordinates embedded into each shot. Technology is really amazing nowadays.

How 'bout the best of both worlds... You may or may not be aware that there are several camera models that are actually GPS compatible. For example, a Nikon D200 with the appropriate cables will allow you to attach your GPS unit to the camera, and when you shoot, it'll record your coordinates into the .jpg (or RAW) file data! Nearly all digital cameras record "EXIF" data when you shoot. This information includes the make of camera, your shutter speed, whether or not the flash fired, and on and on. With a GPS attached to a compatible camera, you can also record the location data. This information doesn't just "show up" as you're regularly viewing the image, but most imaging programs can extract that data that's embedded in the file. Neat, eh?

Jerome... I mean Bus36... is correct. You can find those adapters many places, and they're nowhere near the $60 for the other one. I think I got mine at Wal-Mart. I also have a Legend, and it has always worked perfectly well with this adapter.

I stumbled on this book while researching an upcoming trip to Rickett's Glen in northeastern PA, and thought I'd pass it along: "Pennsylvania Waterfalls: A Guide for Hikers and Photographers" by Scott E. Brown The book has great information about numerous waterfalls, along with tips for photographing them (and getting to them). What I found to be a really nice feature is that the author includes GPS coordinates for each of the falls, too! No, I don't know the guy, I don't get a kickback from the book, yadda yadda... but thought some of you might be interested in it if you like waterfalls/photography like I do.

This could be a long shot, but isn't there a little write-protect tab on the microSD cards somewhere? Could that be set in a position that isn't allowing the card to be written?

So I headed down there today, purely out of curiosity (I'm actually not even near being ready to plunk down money for a new unit at this point, but I'd definitely like one of these eventually). I asked the guy behind the counter if they had them, and he showed me that they did indeed have many of them in stock. Without me even saying anything about the $449 price, he started going into a long blithering spiel about how that's the price that ALL authorized Garmin dealers have to charge, and that if you find it cheaper elsewhere it's "because the unit is stolen or something." So apparently when I bought my 60CS on Amazon, I got a stolen unit, and all of the other online deals are bogus and you're all buying stolen goods

I'm not 100% positive here, but I would strongly doubt that they'll be interchangeable. The Legend is a smaller size and a little different shape than a 60CX, so the mounts aren't going to be designed the same. I have an older Legend (which looks to be the same size as a Legend CX) as well as a 60CS, and I'm sure the mounts I have for each of them would not work for both units. The Legend mount has a thing that slides down to click into place with a special battery backing, and the 60CS has a screw-on circular mount (also used for the belt clip) that is used for the windshield mount. So, long story short, I imagine you're going to have to buy different mounts for each.

Very cool... I'll have to check them out. They're not even far from home!

Turns out we do have one! I've never been there, but I see we have one nearby. Thanks!

I'm curious to know where you can walk into a store and buy a Garmin 60CSx? It seems like pretty much the only place to buy them is online. I've been to numerous stores here in the Pittsburgh area (Dick's, Gander Mountain, Best Buy, etc.), but never see one on the shelf...? I'm surprised that, as popular a unit as they are, I've never seen one in an actual brick & mortar store.

Not all that likely, honestly! When I'm back in town, I rarely have enough time to find the easy ones, let alone monsters like that one!

You were able to read my writing? You must be a pharmacist!

Wow -- I was pleasantly surprised to see to replies from fellow Punxsutawney-ites! I'll have to try that new one along the Shadow Trail sometime soon (assuming that's the one Peachy is talking about). I was just up that way the other day, but I rarely have enough time to do much caching when I'm back home!

I've never tooted my own horn for hitting a milestone, but I've never hit 1,000 before... soooo "t-o-o-t!"

...never mind... I see my question was already answered!

Ehhh... not gonna work. I haven't figured out my own schedule yet, so I doubt that you guys can! That is, in the event that my name happened to be Alan and I was the cause of this thread in the first place. Wildchld97... feel free to set up a new cache, and I'll be glad to abstain from hunting it down. I wouldn't have done so in the past had I known I was upsetting you by doing so. By adding an FTF prize, in all honesty that makes me all the more interested and challenged to try to be first (although I'm not certain whether I even knew that there was such a prize in these caches to begin with). I'll admit that I enjoy FTF missions. I think that everyone has various aspects of Geocaching that appeal to them... my wife enjoys cleverly hidden micros, while I would prefer to do a nice hike with my daughter, for example. The FTF hunt is just another aspect of the game, which to me adds an exciting dimension to the sport. I'm actually very happy that I get excited when a new cache pops up in my area. To me, that means that my enthusiasm for caching is just as high as it was a few years ago when this was all new to me. My 8-year-old also finds the FTF hunt very exciting. I find the FTF hunt to be particularly exciting because it makes the cache more difficult. I'll be finding the cache hidden exactly as the cache owner had intended, for one thing... and I won't have any hints from previous logs to help me out. And I can hunt it with a good bit of confidence that the cache hasn't been muggled after sitting around unfound for a number of weeks. Anyhow... I'm sorry that your caches just happened to be a matter of a couple short miles from home, and that I raced out to get 'em. I'll steer clear of yours when they pop up in the future.

Just buy the version without the GPS receiver... I don't believe you'd be getting anything extra at all by buying it. Hook 'er up to the 60CS, and you'll be on your way! I have found that Streets & Trips crashes fairly frequently while navigating with the GPS, but maybe that's just my own problem. It'll work really well for a while, and then crash for no apparent reason. Just thought I'd add that.

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, Streets & Trips gives you two different format options for the coordinates, neither of which are the default for the Geocaching site. Hmmmm actually if you go into tools then options.....you have the choice to change a bunch of different inputs. I have Decimal Degrees and N/S/E/W checked on mine. Have had no problems at all. I export these to a pocket pc and they have been dead on accurate. Jayman11

If you're really just looking to use it for caching purposes, you can buy a used one quite cheaply on eBay and get quite a few caches on it. I bought a Palm Zire 21 for $50-ish, and it'll hold about 3,000 caches on it. This unit has 8MB of user memory. I just got a new Palm TX which has 100MB (also at a much steeper price tag) and I shall never have to worry about filling up that space with caches

Are you talking about City Navigator... or Mapsource? I'm just a little confuzzled. I've been anxiously awaiting a release date for version 8 of City Navigator...

I can't help myself from getting this mental image of Osama bin Laden being the FTF for a cache in this town: LOG: "Since I have Bethleham on my 'notify' list, I promptly received e-mail notification of this cache this morning. I emerged from my cave and immediately set forth to West Virginia via a convey of camels. Several of my companions thought I was crazy, but I really thought we would have a good chance to be the FTF for this baby! When we arrived in town, we had a brief confrontation with Mayor Daniel, but he eventually ran for the hills. The cache was delightful. We took a set of smiley stickers, a glow stick, and a deck of playing cards, and left behind two grenades."

With GSAK you can import your waypoints using the "GPS -> RECEIVE WAYPOINTS" tool. Then export a Microsoft Streets & Trips file. Then you can import the data in S&T. I do it all the time... it's a fun little feature!

There's no reason the Legend wouldn't work perfectly fine... the only question is in your parents' ability to use it properly.