Which way do I go?

[+Boyscout64]

I currently own a Magellan Exporist 210 and am thinking of switching over to a Garmin Etrex Legen HCx. I am new to Geocaching and would appreciate your opinions.

[-Oz-]

What do you want the GPSr to do?

 

The Legend HCx is a great unit and you will most likely love it. Good signal, expandable memory, etc.

[+benjamin921]

Server locked up Quad Post - sorry.

Edited August 10, 2008 by benjamin921

[+benjamin921]

Server locked up Quad Post - sorry.

Edited August 10, 2008 by benjamin921

[+benjamin921]

Server locked up Quad Post - sorry.

 

Someone please delete these. I would if I could but we can't.

Edited August 10, 2008 by benjamin921

[+benjamin921]

Might want to wait on the DeLorme PN-40. Looks very promising. Take a look at a review. One nice aspect is that it will come with the mapping.

 

http://www.gpsreview.net/delorme-pn-40/

[+Boyscout64]

Might want to wait on the DeLorme PN-40. Looks very promising. Take a look at a review. One nice aspect is that it will come with the mapping.

 

http://www.gpsreview.net/delorme-pn-40/

 

Does Garmin have a method of loading geocaches on like Magellan does?

[+Miragee]

It is easier to load caches into a Garmin than into a Magellan. You can load up to 1000 at one time, and if you get the HCx, you can load thousands more waypoints as Points of Interest using Garmin's POI Loader.

[+TrailGators]

I currently own a Magellan Exporist 210 and am thinking of switching over to a Garmin Etrex Legen HCx. I am new to Geocaching and would appreciate your opinions.

That's a nice GPS. I think you will enjoy it for years.

[+Boyscout64]

I currently own a Magellan Exporist 210 and am thinking of switching over to a Garmin Etrex Legen HCx. I am new to Geocaching and would appreciate your opinions.

That's a nice GPS. I think you will enjoy it for years.

 

Thanks for the input.

[+benjamin921]

Might want to wait on the DeLorme PN-40. Looks very promising. Take a look at a review. One nice aspect is that it will come with the mapping.

 

http://www.gpsreview.net/delorme-pn-40/

 

Does Garmin have a method of loading geocaches on like Magellan does?

The DeLorme does. With the included software, you can down load your .gpx into Topo and then into the PN-40. The PN series holds up to 1000 waypoints which is sufficient for most, not all but most of us.

[+Harriet the Spy]

I would definitely go with a Garmin. Besides being good units, Garmin is known for their EXCELLENT customer service. Garmin's call center for customer service and technical support is in the USA and not outsourced overseas. Which means when you call them, you can clearly communicate your needs. I recently sent back my Garmin Colorado, I had dropped it in a puddle and somehow water got into it. I decided to email customer service instead of calling them on the phone. I got the same level of great service via email as I have in the past over the phone. They sent me back a brand new in the box Colorado, I am so happy! I have owned 4 Garmin's and one spare Magellan. Although there was some glitches with the Colorado in the beginning they have communicated and done their best to fix things, and they offer updates regularly for their products that aren't discontinued.

 

I own a Garmin IQUE and they still supported it for many years after it was discontinued.

 

My Magellan 210 didn't get turned on when the waas satelites were rearranged (or something like that) so my Magellan 210 does not get WAAS. Calling customer service was a JOKE! There are no updates so I can get waas, basically I am now the owner of a gps that is consistently 50-100 feet off. Thats the way its going to be forever.

 

When you spend a bunch of cache on a unit, you want to be taken care of when problems come up.

[+Boyscout64]

I would definitely go with a Garmin. Besides being good units, Garmin is known for their EXCELLENT customer service. Garmin's call center for customer service and technical support is in the USA and not outsourced overseas. Which means when you call them, you can clearly communicate your needs. I recently sent back my Garmin Colorado, I had dropped it in a puddle and somehow water got into it. I decided to email customer service instead of calling them on the phone. I got the same level of great service via email as I have in the past over the phone. They sent me back a brand new in the box Colorado, I am so happy! I have owned 4 Garmin's and one spare Magellan. Although there was some glitches with the Colorado in the beginning they have communicated and done their best to fix things, and they offer updates regularly for their products that aren't discontinued.

 

I own a Garmin IQUE and they still supported it for many years after it was discontinued.

 

My Magellan 210 didn't get turned on when the waas satelites were rearranged (or something like that) so my Magellan 210 does not get WAAS. Calling customer service was a JOKE! There are no updates so I can get waas, basically I am now the owner of a gps that is consistently 50-100 feet off. Thats the way its going to be forever.

 

When you spend a bunch of cache on a unit, you want to be taken care of when problems come up.

 

Thanks Harriet, I ordered my Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and it should be here anyday now. I was using my Explorist 210 yesterday and went under some light tree coverage and the 210 went nuts. Needless to say I didnt find the cache. From what I hear the high sensitivity antenna in the HCx will have no problems with that.

[+Boyscout64]

Im sorry -Oz- I didnt answer your question. I just want a GPSr that doesnt go nuts or fink out on me under tree coverage. I do like the Magellan Geocache manager to load caches into the GPSr though..what does Garmin use?

[+Miragee]

Garmin has Mapsource Trip and Waypoint Manager for loading the caches, however I have not used that program. I use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) to handle all the data from Pocket Queries, which you can get as a Premium Member.

 

I filter for the distance around a cache that is my centerpoint for the day and send 900 caches to my Vista HCx in a few seconds. After that, I Export a .pdb file for Cachemate on my Palm for caching "paperless." From GSAK I can also Export .gpx or .gdb files to use in Google Earth or in Mapsource Topo or City Navigator maps.

 

From GSAK I also Export .gpx files for Garmin's POI Loader for sending Custom POIs to the card on the GPSr.

[+Night Stalker]

I use easygps to load my caches. It doesn't do anything special. You can't modify your GPX files. All it does is load the files into your GPS. It is called EASY gps because it is just that.