New here, going to try it tomorrow or Friday

[bloomautomatic]

Hey folks. Tomorrow or Friday, weather permitting, I'm going to take the kids out and try to find a few caches near our house. Kids are 9 & 3, so I figure it'll be a good way to get them out in the woods and keep their attention. Only thing is, I don't have a real GPS. I know the area near our house pretty well, so I think we'll be able to get very close without it. If they show an interest in it, then I'll make an investment in some equipment.

 

On the GPS, my phone can use verizons VZ Navigator. It's a samsung SCH-A930. After speaking to their rep today, they tell me it's only good for street addresses, not coordinates. Does anyone have any experience w/ that app? It's $10/month, which is ok to get my feet wet, but if we get into it, I'd buy a regular GPSr.

 

Vince

Edited July 2, 2009 by bloomautomatic

[+Jeep4two]

Hey folks. Tomorrow or Friday, weather permitting, I'm going to take the kids out and try to find a few caches near our house. Kids are 9 & 3, so I figure it'll be a good way to get them out in the woods and keep their attention. Only thing is, I don't have a real GPS. I know the area near our house pretty well, so I think we'll be able to get very close without it. If they show an interest in it, then I'll make an investment in some equipment.

 

On the GPS, my phone can use verizons VZ Navigator. It's a samsung SCH-A930. After speaking to their rep today, they tell me it's only good for street addresses, not coordinates. Does anyone have any experience w/ that app? It's $10/month, which is ok to get my feet wet, but if we get into it, I'd buy a regular GPSr.

 

Vince

 

I'm not familiar with that application however I would suspect that it probably won't be sufficient.

 

If you are looking to just get your feet wet you could consider something like a used eTrex (any mode with an H in the model name) or even the Geomate.Jr. The Geomate is $70 or so, and used GPS units like the eTrex H or any one of many other used high sensitivity models can be had for well under $100.

 

Then if you decide you want to upgrade you can likely get most of your investment on that starter back on eBay or here in the Garage Sale forum after upgrading.

 

There are some Nuvi models that accept coordinates that others might be able to recommend to get you started on the cheap as well. These are designed for in car navigation but can do the trick as a starter.

 

Others may have some better suggestions.

 

Have you checked your local pawn shops?

[+flask]

 

Have you checked your local pawn shops?

 

they need a GPS, not a guitar, wedding ring or firearm.

[+ngrrfan]

they need a GPS, not a guitar, wedding ring or firearm.

Obviously you haven't been into a pawn shop lately. They have more things than what you stated.

[+Jeep4two]

they need a GPS, not a guitar, wedding ring or firearm.

Obviously you haven't been into a pawn shop lately. They have more things than what you stated.

 

Wel - maybe in more urban areas your list of pawn shop inventory is exhaustive. However where I'm at you would be surprised what you might find.

 

I've seen stories of a number of cachers picking up GPSrs at pawn shops and significant savings.

[bloomautomatic]

The point is moot because there are no pawn shops around us. We're out in the sticks!

 

Best chance of getting cheap stuff around here is Craigslist, which I've been watching.

 

I figured the phone based GPS wouldn't work...it's never that easy!

 

It rained last night, so I probably won't take the kids out through the woods today. If it dries up a bit, maybe we'll go later or wait for tomorrow. Yeah, I know we're not hardcore like some people are...at least not yet.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

Vince

[+briansnat]

Also keep an eye on the GPS Garage Sale forum here

[+niraD]

I figured the phone based GPS wouldn't work...it's never that easy!

I've used the GPS receiver built into my phone. And there are geocaching applications for some phones. I use GeoBeagle on my G1 (Android).

[knowschad]

Be a bit cautious about pawn shops, Craigslist, and so on (used GPS's in general) though. Many of the older models used serial port technology for communicating with the computer. Very few modern computers have serial ports any more. Modern units use USB as the connection.

 

You may not even worry about that at first, since you can manually input the coordinates as well, but if you find that you really enjoy caching, you will want something that will do bulk loads electronically.

[bloomautomatic]

Many of the older models used serial port technology for communicating with the computer. Very few modern computers have serial ports any more. Modern units use USB as the connection.

 

I have a laptop that still has a 3.5" floppy drive, so I can still roll w/ a serial port if need be!

 

We found our first cache today w/o a gps. I punched the coordinates into google maps and bing maps to get the aerial photos and found it from there. The cache is about 1/2 mile from our house, so it wasn't too difficult. here it is.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...81-a1a67342386b

 

The kids REALLY dug it, especially my niece since she was one who actually spotted it. Signed the log, took some trash out. There are two more in the area we'll be looking for this weekend. Will probably bite the bullet and get the GPS soon.

 

My phone only has the VZ navigator available on it.

 

Vince

[+DiamondDaveG]

Hey folks. Tomorrow or Friday, weather permitting, I'm going to take the kids out and try to find a few caches near our house. Kids are 9 & 3, so I figure it'll be a good way to get them out in the woods and keep their attention. Only thing is, I don't have a real GPS. I know the area near our house pretty well, so I think we'll be able to get very close without it. If they show an interest in it, then I'll make an investment in some equipment.

 

On the GPS, my phone can use verizons VZ Navigator. It's a samsung SCH-A930. After speaking to their rep today, they tell me it's only good for street addresses, not coordinates. Does anyone have any experience w/ that app? It's $10/month, which is ok to get my feet wet, but if we get into it, I'd buy a regular GPSr.

 

Vince

 

I have used VZ Navigator and it is a really great app for driving, but lacks quite a bit for caching. Yes, you can change screens and get coordinates for your location, but they only show 2 places after the decimal. You would need to convert the cache coordinates first also. If you are very familiar with the area and have an idea what kind/size/etc container you are hunting, you may make some finds but most likely will be frustrated.

 

Personally, I would keep the app and use it to get me to the parking area where I planned to cache then use a GPS of your choice to actually find the cache.