Garmin etrex...should i buy

[linkguider]

Hi there,

 

I've been doing geocaching for about a week and a bit. i was going to go out and buy a gps unit...the garmin etrex...It's quite a basic unit....and only about 129.00 CDN (add on taxes)which isn't bad. Has anyone else purchased this product...and can give me any tips or hints about it. I'm gonna see if i can buy it tomorrow. Thanks!

[+ThePropers]

Are you talking the basic yellow etrex?

 

If so, I'd recommend going one level up to the eTrex Legend. The Yellow doesn't come with the cable for connecting it to the computer, so by the time you add on the cost of that, you could get the Legend (which comes with the cable) for a few dollars more.

[+Chuy!]

With the current rebates, you can get a Venture Cx for $150 U.S. Not sure how much Canadian that is, but you get a lot, color screen, faster processor, removable memory card, and auto-routing capability with optional mapping software. It don't come with a USB cable or memory card.

[+jackrock]

With the current rebates, you can get a Venture Cx for $150 U.S. Not sure how much Canadian that is, but you get a lot, color screen, faster processor, removable memory card, and auto-routing capability with optional mapping software. It don't come with a USB cable or memory card.

 

I agree. I looked at several and decided the price/features mix of the Venture Cx was well worth it. I don't regret it at all. I would not have been happy with the screen on the etrex basic model, the mapping is very helpful, and the memory card is great.

[+gpsblake]

I used the yellow for quite a while and it always got me to the geocache site so accuracy isn't an issue and mine doesn't even have WAAS. If you don't mind entering the coordinates manually for each cache, it will work & you will have fun with it. But one time I typoed a set of coordinates and nearly got myself stuck in a swamp thinking the geocache was in a swamp (my dumb fault). It's a sturdy little unit but with no bells & whistles. I've dropped mine many times and it still works after 4 plus years. A lot of geocachers started off with this unit with good success.

 

I still use my Yellow unit for geocaching when I am riding my bicycle to the caches while leaving my Legend-C on the bike so it doesn't mess up my bicycling statistics.

 

But I also agree with the others that you probably will want to be able to communicate the GPS with your computer. You can buy the serial cable for the Yellow. But to be honest, by the time you combine the cost of the Yellow with the cost of the Cable, you can probably buy a Etrex Legend B&W for the same price.

 

The way I used to enter coordinates for the Yellow is to print out all the lat/long of my caches, enter the first cache you are going to find... then when you find it, enter the 2nd set of coordinates then go to that cache. Putting in 10 or 20 sets of coordinates manually in one setting really gets to you quick. If you enter one at a time, it only takes about a minute.

 

What others said about the mapping, it will be helpful, but only really only if you spend close to another $100 on mapping software. The basemap that the Venture Cx and all other GPS'rs come with is very, very basic without any detail except for Us highways, major state highways and interstates. I don't think that detail for Canada would be any better. In America, you'll have to fork out about $300 American for a VentureCx + SD card + USB cable + mapping software. The Etrex yellow is under $100 American.

[+munro290]

You should be able to get onr for 100$ or a little less Canadian,just look around a little.

[+Train_Man]

I'd ATLEAST get a Legend because the yellow doesn't even have a BASEMAP. It has no mapping features at all!

 

I once had a legend and it was great until it broke getting crushed.

[linkguider]

Thanks for the tips everyone...u gave me some useful ones that I didnt know about. First off I havent bought the GPS...and yeah it was gonna be the yellow one. But I think I still need to do some more research on it. For example, I have no idea what basemaps are....and I didnt realize that I should have a usb cable to hook up from my computer to the gps....by the way...what is the purpose of that? I've been doing all my geocaching without a gps and just going by the clues that are given, and the directions that are on the site...which to my advantage has worked out so far. However, I hid a cache the other day, and I didnt have the correct coordinates as I dont own a gps, so, I bummed them off another cache for the time being...well, it obviously didnt work....they reviewed it and said "no coordinates no cache" So, maybe I could just go and buy the gps system the yellow one, to get the coordinates for this cache the one im hiding....and than return it to the store....LOL how many of us have done that before...well, not with gps's but u know....Anyhow I eventually want to go around the world doing geocaching, I'm a traveller already so, this is something to my advantage.

 

Sincere thanks!