spacejam1 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Since my nuvi doesn't work well I decided to find a good decent gps on ebay and have found many. Now is the question, is a etrex alright for GC? I am on a tight budget but I want something that I can at least start with. Then maybe move up to something better. I have my eye on a Etrex, and Geko. Which do you people is better? Quote Link to comment
Neos2 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 The plain Garmin eTrex (yellow) and the geko have a compass to point you in the right direction. The eTrex Legend (the blue one) has a basic map in it. I find even a basic map to be helpful. I used an eTrex Legend for the first couple of years we cached. We never added additional maps to the unit. We found over 600 geocaches that way. We did have trouble with the gps losing it's signal in deep woods; there were (obviously) workarounds. Later we got fancier gps units and more maps and we were thrilled. We went caching one day and ran into an out of town cacher using a little yellow-green geko. It was so cute, it fit in his shirt pocket with room to spare. We cached together that day. He used that little geko (and good common sense and what he had seen on the maps on the Internet) to find just about as many caches 'first' as we did that day. So, you can find geocaches with the least elaborate gps units...but I would be careful not to pay too much for one of them. You can probably pick up a used eTrex Legend for around $60. If you pay much more than that, you might as well save your money a bit longer and get something a little better. Quote Link to comment
spacejam1 Posted December 30, 2008 Author Share Posted December 30, 2008 The plain Garmin eTrex (yellow) and the geko have a compass to point you in the right direction. The eTrex Legend (the blue one) has a basic map in it. I find even a basic map to be helpful. I used an eTrex Legend for the first couple of years we cached. We never added additional maps to the unit. We found over 600 geocaches that way. We did have trouble with the gps losing it's signal in deep woods; there were (obviously) workarounds. Later we got fancier gps units and more maps and we were thrilled. We went caching one day and ran into an out of town cacher using a little yellow-green geko. It was so cute, it fit in his shirt pocket with room to spare. We cached together that day. He used that little geko (and good common sense and what he had seen on the maps on the Internet) to find just about as many caches 'first' as we did that day. So, you can find geocaches with the least elaborate gps units...but I would be careful not to pay too much for one of them. You can probably pick up a used eTrex Legend for around $60. If you pay much more than that, you might as well save your money a bit longer and get something a little better. Just looked at the blue Etrex legend and it said in the description that it wasn't good for caching. humm. So many decisions! I don't want to pay too much, got to stay in budget, yet I do want something I CAN use for caching. But if you say you used to the Legend than I"ll trust that. Putting my bid on ebay right now! lol Quote Link to comment
Neos2 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Just looked at the blue Etrex legend and it said in the description that it wasn't good for caching. humm. So many decisions! I don't want to pay too much, got to stay in budget, yet I do want something I CAN use for caching. But if you say you used to the Legend than I"ll trust that. Putting my bid on ebay right now! lol By today's standards, it isn't. All it has is a base map (it will take more maps, but it has so little memory it isn't worth buying them for it) It has a compass, but not an electronic one, so you have to be moving at about 3mph for it to work. It doesn't have a high-sensitivity receiver, so it loses it's signal fairly easily. It is just a good basic unit. It will show you how to get to the cache from either the navigation screen or the compass page. It even beeps when you are getting close (and you can change that distance). Be sure to watch the garage sale forums here too. There are often deals to be had after people get an upgraded unit and sell off their old one. Truth be told, you can find a geocache with any gps, it's just easier and more pleasant with some of them. Quote Link to comment
spacejam1 Posted December 30, 2008 Author Share Posted December 30, 2008 Venture or Legend, which is best? Quote Link to comment
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