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1st gps unit


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Wanting to know if anyone is or has used a garmin foretrex 201. My girlfriend and I are wanting to start geocaching and I am considering this unit. I am looking at it because I also hunt and need both hands for my gun at times. ( Especialllllllly if a big ole bear is bearin' down on me..) Any help would be very grateful.

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Welcome to the Forums! :D

 

A friend used one of those for a long time and entered all the coordinates for several hundred caches by hand. In fact, the buttons eventually needed to be replaced by Garmin since they wore out . . . She has since upgraded to the Legend HCx for the High Sensitivity receiver, and the data card on which you can put maps, and Points of Interest (POIs).

 

That Foretrex is very accurate and works great for pinpointing cache locations.

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I have a Forerunner 301 which uses the same GPS receiver as the Foretrex 201. It gets very poor reception in trees and hilly area. I personally would highly recommend against it and suggest something with a high sensitivity receiver. As for hunting, I doubt you would need to keep the GPS in your hand continually as you would for geocaching. Just keep it in a pocket and pull it out for reference from time to time.

 

--Bill

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I have a 201 and like it a lot.

 

Note that you can use a cable to up/download waypoints.

 

It does have normal reception which will suffer under tree canopies and similar. My 201 was $70 NIB off eBay. If you hunt under canopies or similar it really might be worth ponying up for one of the new writstwatch formfactor High-Sensitivity receivers like the 205/305/405.

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I have a 201 and like it a lot.

 

Note that you can use a cable to up/download waypoints.

 

It does have normal reception which will suffer under tree canopies and similar. My 201 was $70 NIB off eBay. If you hunt under canopies or similar it really might be worth ponying up for one of the new writstwatch formfactor High-Sensitivity receivers like the 205/305/405.

 

They only make the Forerunner in the 205/305/405 configurations, and not the Foretrex. The Forerunner series does not the "Navigation Page" that the Foretrex series has. I would assume that would be useful for geocaching. Chalk one up to Garmin's marketing department, as that would be an easy bit of software to enable on the Forerunners...

 

--Bill

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I have a 201 and like it a lot.

 

Note that you can use a cable to up/download waypoints.

 

It does have normal reception which will suffer under tree canopies and similar. My 201 was $70 NIB off eBay. If you hunt under canopies or similar it really might be worth ponying up for one of the new writstwatch formfactor High-Sensitivity receivers like the 205/305/405.

 

They only make the Forerunner in the 205/305/405 configurations, and not the Foretrex. The Forerunner series does not the "Navigation Page" that the Foretrex series has. I would assume that would be useful for geocaching. Chalk one up to Garmin's marketing department, as that would be an easy bit of software to enable on the Forerunners...

 

--Bill

Thanks all. Guess I still have a litttle more homework to do.

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I think the Forerunner "05" series (205, 305, etc.) has a much better chip than the old "01" series (201, 301, etc.).

I have a Forerunner 305 and have no problem acquiring satellites from inside my house. It never loses the signal when outside in heavy pine trees.

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Depending on your budget, I'd suggest either the Legend or the Vista. In either case, get the 'H' model with the high-sensitivity chipset. You will also need a set of Garmin Topo maps to go with the unit.

 

If you can afford a higher-end unit, I'd suggest the Garmin GPSmap 60 CSx, or the new Colorado series.

 

Hope that helps!

Edited by imajeep
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