New GPS for somebody who's been out of the loop

[+Seattle Seekers]

I've been out of the geocaching loop for about two years now. I've still got my magellan meridian gold version gps. I'm sure that it's probably completely obsolete by now so any ideas on what type of gps I should replace it with would be appreciated. I can afford to spend around $250 or so. Please post your preferences here and describe your favorite features and it's price range. Thanks so much.

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OK.... Thanks to everybody who replied. I think I will stick with what I've got then. So I've got a new question. Instead of a new GPS, what are your opinions on Palm Pilot's for storing geocache info. Are they all that great to have and if so, what model would you get if your budget is in the $250 range. I'm planning a trip to California in August and it would be nice to have a palm pilot or something instead of a huge stack of printouts.

Edited March 16, 2007 by Seattle Seekers

[+sbell111]

A Garmin Venture CX will cost you about $180. This color unit will give turn-by-turn directions (when used with appropriate mapping software. It will also allow you to add as many caches as you wish as points of inteest on a micro SD card.

[+Red90]

A Meridian Gold is a great unit. No point replacing it unless there are some features that you really need.

[+Renegade Knight]

A Meridian Gold is a great unit. No point replacing it unless there are some features that you really need.

 

Ditto.

 

If you did upgrade I'd stick with Magellan since you are already familier with their menu's and features, and I'm saying that as a Garmin fan.

[+Team Dubbin]

Yup there is no reason to replace what you already have.

[+embra]

Here's what newer units offer--you'd have to decide if anything is worth the cost:

• slightly, but not significantly more sensitive reception
  
• Geocache data in the GPS (terrain, difficulty, etc.) but not enough to replace a PDA or paper printout
  
• Color displays with better resolution
  
• Built-in USB connectivity
  

There might be one or two other things I'm overlooking, but if so they're pretty minor. Your Meridian was a rather advanced unit when it came out, so it's not so far behind now. It still runs the same software as the new Explorists do. With the SD card, you can expand memory as much as you need and take advantage of USB connectivity in a card reader.

 

I upgraded from my Platinum to an Explorist because I craved color...but that was just me.

[+Jhwk]

I still have (and use) my merriplat on every caching adventure. The plat gets me to the cache (autoroute) and my eXplorist goes with me to the container. I see absolutely no reason to plunk down $$$ when you have a perfectly good GPSr now - unless you just want to.

[+Seattle Seekers]

Due to everybody's replies, I modified my question in my origional post.

[+Miragee]

I've been out of the geocaching loop for about two years now. I've still got my magellan meridian gold version gps. I'm sure that it's probably completely obsolete by now so any ideas on what type of gps I should replace it with would be appreciated. I can afford to spend around $250 or so. Please post your preferences here and describe your favorite features and it's price range. Thanks so much.

---------------------------

 

OK.... Thanks to everybody who replied. I think I will stick with what I've got then. So I've got a new question. Instead of a new GPS, what are your opinions on Palm Pilot's for storing geocache info. Are they all that great to have and if so, what model would you get if your budget is in the $250 range. I'm planning a trip to California in August and it would be nice to have a palm pilot or something instead of a huge stack of printouts.

I wouldn't invest that much money in a Palm for Geocaching. They can get dropped and broken, or rained on, or . . .

 

I have a Palm M500 with a 32 MB card and a hard case. I've had it for more than five years and have been using it for Geocaching for more than two years now. It works great and the screen is easy to read, even in bright sunlight. Some of the color screens are very hard to read in the sun.

 

You can get one of those on eBay for around $30. Then invest in a hard case. It is easy to drop a Palm when you are juggling it and a walking stick and your GPSr. I use Cachemate, which costs only $8.00 to register. There are other options, but that program works very well. On some recent road trips, I had more than 2000 caches in different databases in my Palm.

 

A friend has a Palm Zire 72 that is a bit faster than my Palm M500. That is a nice unit and can be purchased on eBay for less than $100.

[+media601]

Instead of a new GPS, what are your opinions on Palm Pilot's for storing geocache info. Are they all that great to have...

 

In a word, YES! Paperless caching rocks!

 

...what model would you get if your budget is in the $250 range.

 

I can't really answer that because my budget is more in the $25.00-$30.00 range.

I use a PalmVx I got on eBay for about $30.00 shipped. I think they are even cheaper now. Palm III will work just as well--just a bit cheaper and chunkier. Either way make sure you get the charger cradle and serial cable with it. (Oh right, you need a serial port on your computer.) Cachemate for Palm works like a charm and was $8.00 when I got it, not sure what it is now.

 

Note: a Palm PILOT will not work with cachemate--you need Palm version 3.0 or higher, I think.

[+Renegade Knight]

Palm, Pocket PC. Either way, there is no substitute for screen real estate if you are going to be using maps on the thing.

 

If you are not going to be using maps you can get by with a smaller screen and that opens up more options.