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Magellan sporttrak or Garmin 12xl? Either good for a child?


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I was looking for a hand held for my son. I'm still using my car gps at the moment and I would like for him to have one of his own that is a bit more durable. I see a couple listed that have never been used, or only used a few times. One is the Magellan sporttrak GPS another is the Garmin GPS 12xl , and the last is the Garmin Etrex Venture GPS . The last one is a 2002 model so I'm guessing it wouldn't be worth 75.00 (Cdn) the Garmin 12xl is now discontinued I see on their site. What about the magellan? Are any of these worth between 60-75 and child friendly?

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I would say the sportrak is good for a child. I would not pay $60 for it though. You can get those cheaper. Be aware that you might have to alter the firmware to get the sportrak to "see" WAAS sats. It is easy to do though. If you were considering a Sportrak I would rather have its big brother, the Meridian. I have them and like them a lot despite having an Oregon. They both have a good reputation.

 

If you are into downloading I know that the Magellan Topo maps for the Meridian and Sportrak are available.

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The Geomate Jr. is perfect for a kid. Mine loves it because he can be the 'leader'.

I have been looking at that one but I'm in Canada and they don't have caches for Canada yet from what I understand. I'd also have to order it in the US. Having to purchase an extra update kit for new caches isn't thrilling me either. But if it works great and is very kid friendly maybe it is worth the extra?

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The Geomate Jr. is perfect for a kid. Mine loves it because he can be the 'leader'.

I have been looking at that one but I'm in Canada and they don't have caches for Canada yet from what I understand. I'd also have to order it in the US. Having to purchase an extra update kit for new caches isn't thrilling me either. But if it works great and is very kid friendly maybe it is worth the extra?

 

Hint... You may want to get in touch with Landsharkz (http://www.landsharkz.ca) No promises, but they could have some interesting info for you with respect to the Geomate.jr and Canadian caches.

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I was looking for a hand held for my son. I'm still using my car gps at the moment and I would like for him to have one of his own that is a bit more durable. I see a couple listed that have never been used, or only used a few times. One is the Magellan sporttrak GPS another is the Garmin GPS 12xl , and the last is the Garmin Etrex Venture GPS . The last one is a 2002 model so I'm guessing it wouldn't be worth 75.00 (Cdn) the Garmin 12xl is now discontinued I see on their site. What about the magellan? Are any of these worth between 60-75 and child friendly?

 

Indeed the Sportrak will not see the WAAS satellites because the firmware has them pointing to the older ones and Magellan never provided an update. However, I am unaware of a fix. There are many people with both Sportraks and Meridians that would love to know of an easy fix.

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