In need of GPS (newbie husband/wife cachers)

[randyjennymiller]

Hello everyone! We are new to geocaching!! In fact, all we've done is read the website, and locate the nearest five caches on geocaching.com!

 

We have NO IDEA what kind of GPS to get. Maybe we can explain how we will be searching, and then you can suggest the best GPS for us?

 

We have a laptop and can use it to search for a location site if needed, but we'd love to have something in the car (in color).

 

We were hoping to only spend $200-$250. Any suggestions?

 

Ebay links would be great! OR....if you want you sell an old unit.

[QuigleyJones]

I would go with the LegendHCx, its perfect for caching though you'll need to buy road maps if you want them.

[randyjennymiller]

I priced this and $181 is not bad. But this won't work without buying road maps? I was hoping to not spend more than $200 for the entire kit and kaboodle....

 

Thanks for any help...

[Denali89102]

Hello everyone! We are new to geocaching!! In fact, all we've done is read the website, and locate the nearest five caches on geocaching.com!

 

We have NO IDEA what kind of GPS to get. Maybe we can explain how we will be searching, and then you can suggest the best GPS for us?

 

We have a laptop and can use it to search for a location site if needed, but we'd love to have something in the car (in color).

 

We were hoping to only spend $200-$250. Any suggestions?

 

Ebay links would be great! OR....if you want you sell an old unit.

Hi R&J,

We're at almost precisely the same point as you are. Our friends from OR (geocachiker) introduced us to geocaching when they visited us in January and we found two caches. Shortly thereafter I bought Microsoft Streets & Trips with a Holux GR-213 receiver for our laptop. That works well while we're in the car and as long as the laptop battery holds out but it is a little cumbersome.

 

Anyway, after spending (investing) innumerable hours researching and reading I have just about decided to get a TomTom ONE 3rd Edition here;

 

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207668047

 

At less than $100 bucks it looks like a better than good starting point/unit. I did a search here in the Forum for 'TomTom ONE' and found several posts wherein others spoke well about using this unit for both traveling and geocaching.

 

I said, 'I have just about decided' on purpose because I want to see if I get any feedback, PRO or CON, from other, more experienced, geocachers/forum members. As you might have noticed the rebate offer includes purchases through 5/18 but I don't want to wait too long 'cause I don't know how many units they have available.

 

Hope this helps.

 

D&L

[Neos2]

I priced this and $181 is not bad. But this won't work without buying road maps? I was hoping to not spend more than $200 for the entire kit and kaboodle....

 

Thanks for any help...

The Legend HCx will "work" without additional maps--in fact, we did our first several hundred caches with eTrex Legends and no additional maps. The base maps will take you to the caches. You will be able to use it for basic driving--but not autorouting (not without the city navigation maps. Even the topo maps don't do autorouting in the US).

 

You can add the city maps later if you want to use the gps to do autorouting for the car.

You may want to add topo maps later as well--if you do a lot of caching in remote places. I have topo maps loaded on my 60 CSx, but only rarely switch over to them--I almost always use the city maps.

 

Laptop gps receivers are OK for driving, but not very handy for caches that are a quarter mile down the trail--or even 100 feet down the trail. It's darn clunky to drag your laptop down a weedy path. And if the map your laptop uses is one geared only for driving, they aren't very useful on the trail--at least not without doing some tweaking. Those stop-gap fixes can get annoying. It's better to just buy an inexpensive handheld and use the maps to figure out how to get there. Almost any gps will work for that---the Legends are cheap now--the ones with the "H" designation have more sensitive chipsets in them, so they get a better signal.

 

I can't think of a less expensive way (than the HCx) to get a good handheld that will also work in the car. You might consider getting both something to use with your laptop and an inexpensive handheld--but if you invest that much, you might as well go ahead and get a Garmin 60CSx and the maps (which in my opinion is the best unit out there right now). Of course, that is about double your price range right now.

 

As for using the tomtom...well this thread alone would scare me off. Did you find one that made it sound more user friendly?

Edited May 6, 2008 by Neos2

[+Dgwphotos]

Hello everyone! We are new to geocaching!! In fact, all we've done is read the website, and locate the nearest five caches on geocaching.com!

 

We have NO IDEA what kind of GPS to get. Maybe we can explain how we will be searching, and then you can suggest the best GPS for us?

 

We have a laptop and can use it to search for a location site if needed, but we'd love to have something in the car (in color).

 

We were hoping to only spend $200-$250. Any suggestions?

 

Ebay links would be great! OR....if you want you sell an old unit.

Hi R&J,

We're at almost precisely the same point as you are. Our friends from OR (geocachiker) introduced us to geocaching when they visited us in January and we found two caches. Shortly thereafter I bought Microsoft Streets & Trips with a Holux GR-213 receiver for our laptop. That works well while we're in the car and as long as the laptop battery holds out but it is a little cumbersome.

 

Anyway, after spending (investing) innumerable hours researching and reading I have just about decided to get a TomTom ONE 3rd Edition here;

 

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207668047

 

At less than $100 bucks it looks like a better than good starting point/unit. I did a search here in the Forum for 'TomTom ONE' and found several posts wherein others spoke well about using this unit for both traveling and geocaching.

 

I said, 'I have just about decided' on purpose because I want to see if I get any feedback, PRO or CON, from other, more experienced, geocachers/forum members. As you might have noticed the rebate offer includes purchases through 5/18 but I don't want to wait too long 'cause I don't know how many units they have available.

 

Hope this helps.

 

D&L

I wouln't use an auto GPS for geocaching. I don't think they are designed to be water resistant.

 

I have a Magellan eXplorist 200 that I am selling for 100$ plus shipping.

[+Mr. Cachefinder]

I would reccomend the Garmin eTrex Legend or Garmin eTrex Venture cx. The legend is a good starting unit and will serve you well. The Venture cx is the next step up. It has a color screen, Geocaching mode, usb connectivity for easy cache downloads and is under $200. Both will work without road maps.

[+ethanbl]

Hi, I have a Magellan eXplorist 500le. I used it for 6 months, and then I recived another unit for my birthday. I would be willing to sell it to you (w/ 1 gig SD card) for $210.00.

[+imajeep]

Look on the Garmin web site. They have a promotional bundle of the Vista HCx and US topo maps for the unit for 259. i think the retailer is Dick's.

 

You might want topo (terrain) maps, instead of road maps. Some people think the eTrex units are too small to really do auto navigation. If you plan to do any hiking, definitely fo with topos.

Edited May 7, 2008 by imajeep

[+T-Hunters3]

I have a Legend HCx and have been very happy with it. You can find it for under $185 shipped. As for maps, you may not have to spend more than about $25 for a memory card and some download time by visiting this thread: Free maps

 

Sure it involves a little computer time and there is no autorouting, but they are FREE! You need to check on your state, but if you read through the whole thread, more than one source/link is mentioned.

 

 

Hello everyone! We are new to geocaching!! In fact, all we've done is read the website, and locate the nearest five caches on geocaching.com!

 

We have NO IDEA what kind of GPS to get. Maybe we can explain how we will be searching, and then you can suggest the best GPS for us?

 

We have a laptop and can use it to search for a location site if needed, but we'd love to have something in the car (in color).

 

We were hoping to only spend $200-$250. Any suggestions?

 

Ebay links would be great! OR....if you want you sell an old unit.