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LOOKING FOR A NEW GPS


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OK i am lloking for a new gps unit to use for geocaching. HAD a megallen eXplorist 500 intill it got stolen out of my truck along as with other things :blink: . but now i am in a need of a unit and am looking to buy a new one.

have look around on ebay. But havent found one that i really like yet.

 

So can someone help me out and suggest a new gps unit for me to buy. look at the new garmins and the new megallens. but dont know what i want to go with.

 

p.s

 

i loved the 500 unit but would like something newer. i know i can still get one off of ebay.

 

:anibad:

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You don't mention a budget so here goes:

 

Low end - Garmin Venture HC for about $115. Color Screen, USB, some map memory, long battery life, high sensitivity, Geocaching mode.

 

Mid Range - Garmin Legend HCX for about $170. Adds autorouting, expandable memory and more waypoints.

 

Mid High - Garmin 60CSx - about $300. Long considered the best Geocaching GPS available. Adds better antenna, electronc compass and altimeter, larger screen, front buttons.

 

High End - Garmin Colorado and Oregon Lines. Both have full paperless geocaching memory, hi-res screen, easy to learn. The Oregon also has a touchscreen interface - $400 +

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You don't mention a budget so here goes:

 

Low end - Garmin Venture HC for about $115. Color Screen, USB, some map memory, long battery life, high sensitivity, Geocaching mode.

 

Mid Range - Garmin Legend HCX for about $170. Adds autorouting, expandable memory and more waypoints.

 

Mid High - Garmin 60CSx - about $300. Long considered the best Geocaching GPS available. Adds better antenna, electronc compass and altimeter, larger screen, front buttons.

 

High End - Garmin Colorado and Oregon Lines. Both have full paperless geocaching memory, hi-res screen, easy to learn. The Oregon also has a touchscreen interface - $400 +

 

well my budget is up to about $400 give or take a little

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Your consideration ought to include the Delorme PN-40, which I expect to be released within the next two weeks. The package includes topo map software that has autorouting capabiliy.

 

If you're on a budget, the older PN-20 provides great value, if you've got a little patience for the slower processor.

Following up on the DeLorme PN-40, it provides the better antenna, electronc compass and altimeter, front buttons, similar to the Garmin 60CSx. Addtionally, it supports truly paperless geocaching out of the box, nothing else required (no GSAK, Cachemate nor a PDA).

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I bought my refurbed PN-20 about 4 months ago and love it. I use it for caching, hiking and biking. You WILL NOT be dissapointed with either the 20 or the 40 (assuming the 40 is the same as the 20 just faster). PN-20 can be slow refreshing screens but for the things I use it for, it is great.

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I'm just going to save myself some time and quote myself from a post I just made (if the same question keeps poppong up, I figure I can use the same response!):

 

If all you want it for is geocaching, then a Garmin etrex Legend HCx or Vista HCx would be good and cheap, but the you can get the Delorme Earthmate PN-20 for about the same price as the Legend HCx (I've had both, got them each for about $180 shipped), and the Vista is about $50 more, I think, but it has an electronic compass and barometric altimeter, which the Legend and PN-20 are missing. They both work fine for geocahing without those, though. Now, if turn-by-turn navigation is something you want to do with your handheld, then all of these can do that, but for the Garmins, you need to buy extra software for about $90, while the PN-20 can do that right out of the box. But it has a slower redraw speed, making it kinda so-so for that. Now if you wait for the PN-40 (I sold my PN-20 so I can buy a PN-40 pretty soon), which has a dual processor for way faster redraw speeds, plus an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. I want to use this for navigation on my motorcycle too, though, so the faster redraw is something I want, especially with the aerial imagery. But the PN-40 is going to be $400 ($500 if you want the PN-40se with 8GB of internal memory instead of the 1GB the base PN-40 has), which is right at the top of your price range. So in summary:

 

Garmin etrex Legend HCx - ~$180 shipped, auto-routing capable, but needs more software purchased. No electronic compass or barometric altimeter.

 

Garmin etrex Vista HCx - ~$230 shipped, auto-routing capable, but needs more software purchased. Has electronic compass and barometric altimeter.

 

DeLorme Earthmate PN-20 - ~$180 shipped (refurb) or ~$260 shipped (new), auto-routing capable right out of the box. No electronic compass or barometric altimeter. Can display aerial imagery.

 

DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 - ~$410 shipped, auto-routing capable right out of the box. Has electronic compass and barometric altimeter. Can display aerial imagery.

 

All great units, I've been very happy with my Legend HCx and the DeLorme PN-20, so don't read too much into my having sold my PN-20 after just 5 finds, I just liked it enough to want the PN40, the aerial imagery stuff is cool!

 

And, yeah, forgot about the paperless caching the DeLorme can do, I'm really missing that when I go out with the Garmin now.

Edited by HondaH8er
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so the deloeme can do paperless what about the Oregon or the Colorado can they do this too and what is the pro and cons of the 3 units does any one know???????????

 

can some one answer this for me please.

AFAIK, those two Garmin models support paperless geocaching. Regarding their relative pros and cons, I can't address that as I have no direct, hands-on experience with either.

 

If you search this forum, you'll find a good mix between the pros and cons. However, one thing that sticks with me regarding the Oregon is that some have had issues with the visibilty in sunlight due to the characteristics inherent to the touch screen. Some advise buying those at REI where there is a return policy if one is not satisfied.

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I bought my refurbed PN-20 about 4 months ago and love it. I use it for caching, hiking and biking. You WILL NOT be dissapointed with either the 20 or the 40 (assuming the 40 is the same as the 20 just faster). PN-20 can be slow refreshing screens but for the things I use it for, it is great.

 

I have 2 PN-20's. Ebay refurbs. Just like new with all paper work and warranty.

JM2cents :blink:

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I'll put a plug in for any of the garmin hc models. Probably the best value out there for a GPS. If you want lots of other bells and whistles (yeah they are nice) you may need to look elsewhere - but for a sensative accurate gps, hard to beat for the bucks.

I love my eTrex Legend HCx to pieces but I have to say that any of the HC models cannot do paperless caching. They allow a short name and uselessly small number of characters for the description. They can differentiate between caches and regular waypoints and you can mark caches as found. But to use one of these you really need to get a cheap Palm with something like CacheMate to carry the cache information.

 

...ken...

Edited by Ken in Regina
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I'm just going to save myself some time and quote myself from a post I just made (if the same question keeps poppong up, I figure I can use the same response!):

 

If all you want it for is geocaching, then a Garmin etrex Legend HCx or Vista HCx would be good and cheap, but the you can get the Delorme Earthmate PN-20 for about the same price as the Legend HCx (I've had both, got them each for about $180 shipped), and the Vista is about $50 more, I think, but it has an electronic compass and barometric altimeter, which the Legend and PN-20 are missing. They both work fine for geocahing without those, though. Now, if turn-by-turn navigation is something you want to do with your handheld, then all of these can do that, but for the Garmins, you need to buy extra software for about $90, while the PN-20 can do that right out of the box. But it has a slower redraw speed, making it kinda so-so for that. Now if you wait for the PN-40 (I sold my PN-20 so I can buy a PN-40 pretty soon), which has a dual processor for way faster redraw speeds, plus an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. I want to use this for navigation on my motorcycle too, though, so the faster redraw is something I want, especially with the aerial imagery. But the PN-40 is going to be $400 ($500 if you want the PN-40se with 8GB of internal memory instead of the 1GB the base PN-40 has), which is right at the top of your price range. So in summary:

 

Garmin etrex Legend HCx - ~$180 shipped, auto-routing capable, but needs more software purchased. No electronic compass or barometric altimeter.

 

Garmin etrex Vista HCx - ~$230 shipped, auto-routing capable, but needs more software purchased. Has electronic compass and barometric altimeter.

 

DeLorme Earthmate PN-20 - ~$180 shipped (refurb) or ~$260 shipped (new), auto-routing capable right out of the box. No electronic compass or barometric altimeter. Can display aerial imagery.

 

DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 - ~$410 shipped, auto-routing capable right out of the box. Has electronic compass and barometric altimeter. Can display aerial imagery.

 

All great units, I've been very happy with my Legend HCx and the DeLorme PN-20, so don't read too much into my having sold my PN-20 after just 5 finds, I just liked it enough to want the PN40, the aerial imagery stuff is cool!

 

And, yeah, forgot about the paperless caching the DeLorme can do, I'm really missing that when I go out with the Garmin now.

 

PN-40's screen is very small. That's, unfortunately, the fly in the ointment. A small screen limits the area you can see around you unless you zoom out. That makes everything too small to see unless you've got the eyes of a 20 year old. I've got a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx. The screen is significantly larger than the PN-40, but on the borderline of being too small itself.

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The 60Csx screen is indeed a bit bigger than the PNs, but an aerial photo or sat image on the PN looks better than it does on the Garmin. I use both of those units and upload my own maps and images to both.

 

The only thing you can see on the Garmin screen is a topo or street map. It doesn't accept sat or aerial photos so there's no way to compare this to the PNs. The maps on the 60CSx are pretty readable but on the border of being too small to be very useful. If you shrink the screen about 20%, you've got the screen size of the PNs. I believe that would be too small for me to find very useful. It's too bad, because the whole Delorme package looks great, but the screen size is absurdly small.

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Alan :

Can the images on the Garmin be georeferenced?

 

Norm

 

Absolutely. I put a couple of screen shots on the Yahoo 60Csx group with an aerial plus a track I recorded on it along a coast road to check the georeferencing. It is a 30cm resolution colour aerial of reefs I am working on. Redraw isn't up to vehicle speeds but like the PN-20 I use them for either kayaking or walking on mapping projects.

 

I tried to add a link to the shot on Flikr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10187454@N00/3017033957/

Edited by reef mapper
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The 60Csx screen is indeed a bit bigger than the PNs, but an aerial photo or sat image on the PN looks better than it does on the Garmin. I use both of those units and upload my own maps and images to both.

 

The only thing you can see on the Garmin screen is a topo or street map. It doesn't accept sat or aerial photos so there's no way to compare this to the PNs. The maps on the 60CSx are pretty readable but on the border of being too small to be very useful. If you shrink the screen about 20%, you've got the screen size of the PNs. I believe that would be too small for me to find very useful. It's too bad, because the whole Delorme package looks great, but the screen size is absurdly small.

 

Right - it isn't a direct comparison because one is designed for rasters and the other isn't. That doesn't mean I don't routinely use 60cm Digital Globe, 1m pan-sharpened Ikonos and airphotos on the Garmin. Of course a bigger screen would be great but the PN with high res images is an absolute boon in my field work.

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PN-40's screen is very small. That's, unfortunately, the fly in the ointment. A small screen limits the area you can see around you unless you zoom out. That makes everything too small to see unless you've got the eyes of a 20 year old. ..........

Thanks for bringing that to my attention as I was not aware of that issue.

 

In light of this newly imparted wisdom, I'll be returning the PN-40 that I've been Beta testing immediately. I was hallucinating, after all. I'll apologize to DeLorme for sending them test results based on the observations made with my 69 year old eyes.

Edited by Team CowboyPapa
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^^^^ "Tennis anyone?" ^^^^

;^)

 

Norm

 

P. S. :

@ TCP :

Got those new bi-focals, and an SE booked.

Actually, Norm, you have guessed a lot better than you can imagine. Befitting my age, I've had bi-focals for twenty five years now, or more. However, if you are a tennis player, too, you can appreciate that bi-focals, although they are aptly suited for PN-40s, they are not a good choice for tennis. Consequently, I use mono-focals (distance) for tennis and I have noticed recently that my vision was better without them than with them on.

So I just had an eye exam several weeks ago, got the prescription filled and new glasses, mono, picked up Friday.

 

Very nice now for "Tennis anyone", but I'll still have to use my old bi-focals on my 69 year old eyes for geocaching with my PN-40.

 

Oh yeah, if you click on my profile, my team members there are my grandchildren. :D

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^^^^ "Tennis anyone?" ^^^^

;^)

 

Norm

 

P. S. :

@ TCP :

Got those new bi-focals, and an SE booked.

Actually, Norm, you have guessed a lot better than you can imagine. Befitting my age, I've had bi-focals for twenty five years now, or more. However, if you are a tennis player, too, you can appreciate that bi-focals, although they are aptly suited for PN-40s, they are not a good choice for tennis. Consequently, I use mono-focals (distance) for tennis and I have noticed recently that my vision was better without them than with them on.

So I just had an eye exam several weeks ago, got the prescription filled and new glasses, mono, picked up Friday.

 

Very nice now for "Tennis anyone", but I'll still have to use my old bi-focals on my 69 year old eyes for geocaching with my PN-40.

 

Oh yeah, if you click on my profile, my team members there are my grandchildren. :D

'Twern't no guess, I was alluding to a previous discourse we shared.

The "Team 'D'" can thank You, Embra, Buz, John, Tom and several others that aren't surfacing off the 'ol

50+ year old hard drive (or would that be data cards), for helping pilot me from the sirens.

 

Norm

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