GPS - HEADACHE

[+WHO DAT LDY]

I have been researchign and researching like crazy for a good geocaching GPS this is ALL it would be used for but I do need it to be pretty accurate as I am not the best at hide and seek and patience level is not the greatest ............ I would be looking over my head for muggles constantly and paranoia would ge to me LOL!

 

Problem#2 budget I would like to stay around the $150 range if possible so I had decided I am getting the venture HC but then I read if you don't have an electronic compass there are big downsides........ Then apparently the High Sensitivity is very important. How important is the MB and the geocahing mode. I need + and - to the following...

 

Garmin ETREX:

VENTURE HC

SUMMIT HC

VISTA HCX (ABOVE PRICE RANGE BUT WORTH HOLDING OFF FOR)

VISTA CX

VENTURE CX

VISTA C

RHINO 110?

 

DELORME PN20

 

I have looked into megagps.com and tigergps.com and ebay .......... I must say Dicks sporting goods has a good deal on the Venture HC incase anyone is getting this one.

[Matt7591]

Garmin ETREX - Never used. Get the H if you go this route. Kinda spartan and would fun in its own right.

VENTURE HC - Stellar deal. No memory card slot for more maps!

SUMMIT HC - I started with a Vista with compass and barom but now have a Legend HCX with neither compass nor barom. Don't miss at all. I now use a Brunton compass. Extremely accurate, not finicky and very cool. $10 rather than the additional what, $60 for the built in compass?

VISTA HCX - See my comments on hcx.

VISTA CX - My first. Loved it. Too slow to start and hard to use in trees or in steep terrain. Get an H series. You'll thank me for this.

VENTURE CX - See CX above.

VISTA C - Why bother...

RHINO 110 - Rhino what?

DELORME PN20 - What's a Delorme?

 

Bottom line, get the Venture HC if you don't want to expand very much in the future or the Legend HCX if you do plan to add maps or want the possibility.

 

BTW, part of the sport of it is that GPS' are not inherently incredibly accurate. While I get a smaller circle of accuracy consistently with the H vs the non-H, the GPS will usually be off by 10 feet and not unusually 20-30 feet, unless you can hold for a minute to get a better read. This is where the compass is handy. When about 500 feet away, shoot the compass the direction the gps says the target is. Visualize that location. Go to 200 feet. Shoot it again. Go to 100 feet, shoot again. As you point these directions, you'll be able to accurately estimate the general area. Bear in mind the gps will have the same margins of error, but with more iterations, the readings will point more conclusively. If nothing else, it's fun to do :-)

Edited August 24, 2008 by Matt7591

[ao318]

Hello,

 

I have a 60csx and my two daughters each have the venture CX. It is pretty accurate in getting them to the caches. We don't cache in many areas that need the high sensitivity receiver for them, they are 12 and 9 years old. If there is any problem with reception, we confirm on my GPS and again we have had no problems with theirs. My 60csx has the electronic compass, I use it on and off and have not yet determined if I like it or not. The Venture CX does not have the electronic compass and again they have made many finds with their GPS. I was able to get 2 of them at a very reasonable price, just under $100.00 each new.

 

If I were to get another one as a base model just for geocaching I would choose the venture HC. It has 24 mb of built in memory which will give you the ability to add some maps and has the high sensitivity receiver and it is in color. It also comes with the cable to transfer information from the computer to unit where the venture CX does not and you will have to purchase a cable unless you already own some type of USB to Mini USB cable like one for a camera or a cell phone.

 

When checking out some of the products look to see what comes in the box. Sometimes it is very basic and sometimes it has a lot. If it is basic you might have added costs that you weren't expecting. Another thing to remember when purchasing an item is to buy it from reputable seller that has an actual receipt like Amazon.com or someone else so that you will have the one year warranty from Garmin. If you buy from ebay, garmin will not honor the warranty because they want you to buy from authorized reseller. There are some sellers on ebay that are authorized sellers and will give you an actual store receipt but you must read through all the mumbo jumbo on their page listing to see that or you can email the seller to see if they can send you a receipt.

 

As you can see from my posting I also did a lot of research before purchasing my devices. Hope this helps.

Edited August 24, 2008 by ao318

[northerner11]

We just bought the Garmin eTrex Legend for $230 from Best Buy and it works just fine. We tried geocaching today for the first time with it and found our first one after searching for 6 of them. We could not find any of the others so I wonder if they were all muggled (or we are just not sure what we are doing yet).

[+briansnat]

We just bought the Garmin eTrex Legend for $230 from Best Buy and it works just fine. We tried geocaching today for the first time with it and found our first one after searching for 6 of them. We could not find any of the others so I wonder if they were all muggled (or we are just not sure what we are doing yet).

 

I hope that was the Legend HCX for that price and not the Legend or they really took you to the cleaners. You shouldn't pay more than $110 for a Legend. Also don't rely too much on your GPS when you get near the cache. The cache could 50+ feet from where your GPS says it is.

 

To the OP, I'd say the Venture HC or Legend HCX would be good choices. The Rhino is nice if you have someone else who has a Rhino. You can broadcast your position and the other person can see you on his map and you can see him on yours. Good for skiing, hunting and similar activities where participants may split up. It's only useful though if everybody has a Rhino.

 

I don't know much about DeLorme. Never used one, but I've heard good and bad about them. Bad is that they are very slow.

[+team140]

I've had my first experience with a Delorme PN-20 this weekend and it wasn't good. We had three GPS units in the truck - A Garmin 60Csx, a Magellan Meridian Platinum and the Delorme PN-20.

 

Things I noticed:

The Delorme, even after getting a full satellite lock would randomly show we were moving about 3MPH after sitting in one spot for several minutes.

The Delorme screen refresh was very slow on just basic TOPO maps. Not THAT big of a deal, but still a pain.

Route calculation on the Delorme was excruciatingly slow. Routing from one cache to another about 7 miles away took just a couple of seconds on the Garmin 60Csx, but the Delorme finally calculated the route about five minutes later.

The maps are way more expensive than they need to be. Depending on which type of map you want to download, for an area roughly one city block would be anywhere from $0.50 to $3.00.

 

I've got two eTrex models at my disposal as well. A basic eTrex H and an eTrex Legend. The legend allows for downloadable maps, but the marine navigation aides are VERY hard to see and the eTrex H is only approved for the Amish