vols1118 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I was introduced to geocaching over the past weekend. I joined the site and was amazed by the large amount of caches in my area. I'm looking at purchasing a GPS. My budget is only $150 and I want something fairly easy to use. What GPS do you recommend? Thanks! Quote Link to comment
+Chrysalides Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I was introduced to geocaching over the past weekend. I joined the site and was amazed by the large amount of caches in my area. I'm looking at purchasing a GPS. My budget is only $150 and I want something fairly easy to use. What GPS do you recommend? Thanks! The Garmin eTrex Venture HC that I use does not have a lot of bells and whistles, but works great for geocaching. It has a high sensitivity receiver, USB, color screen, "geocaching mode", decent battery life, and takes AA batteries. Together with a case and NiMH batteries it'll still come in below $150. I bought mine for $115 but Amazon has since raised the price to $130. Quote Link to comment
+rmgps Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I was introduced to geocaching over the past weekend. I joined the site and was amazed by the large amount of caches in my area. I'm looking at purchasing a GPS. My budget is only $150 and I want something fairly easy to use. What GPS do you recommend? Thanks! The Garmin eTrex Venture HC that I use does not have a lot of bells and whistles, but works great for geocaching. It has a high sensitivity receiver, USB, color screen, "geocaching mode", decent battery life, and takes AA batteries. Together with a case and NiMH batteries it'll still come in below $150. I bought mine for $115 but Amazon has since raised the price to $130. Check out the Delorme PN-20 at www.delorme.com. It is a little more money that you stated you wanted to spend, but you will be glad you spent the extra if you can. It comes with Delorme's Topo 7 map package and is a great little unit. You will be glad you got the map program and the extra functionality. Quote Link to comment
+Redwoods Mtn Biker Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I second the vote for a Venture HC. Quote Link to comment
kchunks Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 You might try to keep your eye out for a Garmin Legend HCx. I have seen them for about $170 (cuurently the cheapest I see is $190- Costco has a sweet deal right now but it is $200- unit with about $150 of add ons). Slightly over your budget but with a 25 hour battery life (as opposed to 14 hours with the Venture or Summit HC) you might ultimately save money. Quote Link to comment
vols1118 Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 Does the Venture HC have the option for me to send the info from geocaching.com to the gps? Quote Link to comment
+Chrysalides Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Does the Venture HC have the option for me to send the info from geocaching.com to the gps? Your choices are : 1. Use the "Send to GPS" button on the cache page. Last time I did this, I think all you get is the cache ID (GCxxxx) and coordinates. 2. As a premium member, download the GPX (from a pocket query or directly off the page), and transfer to GPS using GSAK or some other software. The Venture HC has 14 characters for waypoint name and 30 (or so) characters for the description. 3. Use some other software (sorry, no experience here, so can't elaborate) with either GPX or LOC files. 4. Write your own - Garmin provides SDK for communicating with the GPSr with an API. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I agree with the Venture HC. It's ideal for a beginner and good enough that it won't be outgrown in 6 months. It was $108 on Walmart.com recently. Haven't checked in a while though. Quote Link to comment
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