jthompso53 Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 I am totally new to this and have not yet purchased a GPS. I am borrowing a Garmin Quest. I downloaded the manual but it seems it is more suited to road navigation. Anyone ever used one for Geocaching? Know how to enter lat. and long. or waypoints? Quote Link to comment
TeamCypherX Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 The Quest does work for Geocaching, although it's not the best at it. You can enter coords by holding OK until it saves a point and then editing the coords. I used my Quest for caching before I bought a 60C and it worked, but if you want a good, multipurpose GPS, I suggest getting something like the Vista Cx, 60C(S)x or something that can be used for auto nav. and caching. Quote Link to comment
jthompso53 Posted October 24, 2006 Author Share Posted October 24, 2006 The Quest does work for Geocaching, although it's not the best at it. You can enter coords by holding OK until it saves a point and then editing the coords. I used my Quest for caching before I bought a 60C and it worked, but if you want a good, multipurpose GPS, I suggest getting something like the Vista Cx, 60C(S)x or something that can be used for auto nav. and caching. Thanks. After you gave me the info I looked up how to do it in the manual. I am going to try it out this afternoon. Quote Link to comment
+Sputnik 57 Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 I got my directionally challenged daughter a quest for Christmas to find her way around in Houston. The voice prompts are great in the car. She and her husband use it for caching all the time. I would agree that it is probably better suited for car use, but they have found lots of caches with it. Quote Link to comment
+rifkindsss Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 A friend told me about this question, and I had to chime in! sorry for the long post! In my humble opinion, the Garmin Quest has the best price/value ratio of any Garmin GPS for Geocaching. Why? Well, let's start by the hardware: - smaller (in volume and almost in dimensions) than any eTrex or 60, yet has a screen the size of the 60 series. Face only shows buttons and display (unlike eTrex that has the antenna on top). Quest: Unit : 4.5"W x 2.2"H x .9"D Display: 2.2"W x 1.5"H, 256-color, transflective TFT (160 x 240 pixels) eTrex: Unit : 2.2"W x 4.2"H x 1.2"D Display: (1.3"W x 1.7"H; transflective TFT; (176x220 pixels) 60 Unit : 2.4" W x 6.1" H x 1.3" D Display: 1.5" W x 2.2" H, transflective TFT (160 x 240 pixels) - includes car craddle and built-in battery that lasts up to 20 hours. includes wall charger to use at home (used it twice in two years). - includes maps - has voice prompts when on craddle - has IPX7 specs. - contains enough memory to (115MB in EUA, 253 MB in Europe) so that it does not need expansion cards (though they would be nice!). Hardware "problems": - no NMEA interface - no SIRFIII - looks more fragile than eTrex or 60. Probably is, but never tested! - no SIRFIII - Best suited for right-handed: GPS in hand, middle fingers on the back, thumb operating the buttons. - no ribbon attachment - battery not replaceable (20 hours usage, should last for 500 full charges or ~10 years. That's the typical Li-Ion expected life). As for the software: - Mapsource is included as is City Navigator. No extra software to buy. - Firmware is ok, with enough tracking and off-road support. - Contains "Geocaching" and "Geocaching Found" icons. - Can be loaded with custom maps, that can be activated individually or in groups. I have loaded our Quest with Topo maps for Portugal, around 2000 geocaches, 8192 landmarks and other assorted POIs (in POI only maps). Software problems: - There's only one big track, with 10000 points. Can't save individual tracks in unit. The bottom line: The Quest satellite reception is quite good, comparable to any non-SirfIII GPS. But, SirfIII is really something else! If Garmin launched a Quest 3, featuring the SirfIII chipset, I would buy it, even if all else was the same. The 60 series is quite good, but simply too large! I carry my Quest with me at all times. It easily fits any pocket, wherever I go. The eTrex is cheaper, but the Quest is really worth the extra money. Recently, I looked for a GPS for my father. I was going for the 60CSx, but it was too much of an hassle to use (even if its firmware is quite richer than the Quest). I ended up buying another Quest. Typical caching trip: 1 load GPX in MapSource, upload to GPS. 2 place GPS in car craddle 3 route to cache. Drive. 4 take GPS out of craddle. Route off-road to cache. Enjoy the site! 5 Log cache. Hide it. Open box in GPS. 6 Go to 2 and repeat! Have fun! Nuno Pedrosa Rifkindsss Quote Link to comment
appletree Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I completely agree with the above post. The Quest is great for Geocaching. Add a small, amplified external antenna and you will never think about reception issues, especially if you keep the antenna in an exposed location like on your hat or shoulder. Another important plus, the Quest is the only GPSR that is well suited to both in car and out of car use. Without voice prompts, any GPSR adds driving risks as you must divert your vision from the road to the screen in order to know what the instruction is that the chimes signify. Better than nothing, but just not good enough. The Quest is not perfect, especially as a hand-held unit, but it is definitely good enough for both uses, to say nothing of the remarkably low price (about $310). Quote Link to comment
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