Oregon, iPhone and Vista HCx

[+Kentish Maids]

Vista HCx was my first GPS. I have been using it for about a year now along with my iPhone. I use my iPhone for reading descriptions of caches, recent logs, hint if needed and to submit field notes. The latter is important to me especially when doing a lot of caches in one day. I love submitting logs whilst out in the field rather than doing them back at home. Today, I even received an email from the owner of the series of caches whilst I was still out in the field!

 

The Vista HCx is a great GPS. I find it very easy to use.

 

I recently purchased the Oregon 500t. Why? Because I want better maps. I wanted to see exactly where caches are on the footpaths rather than using a real map and guessing. I bought the GARMIN GB Discoverer 150K Map Card for this. Haven't tried it out in the field yet as it only arrived today after I got back from a series of caches. However, what I have seen so far I am not too impressed with the GARMIN GB Discoverer 150K Map Card . It is very slow to load each section. (The topo map that comes with the 500t is much faster but doesn't show footpaths)

 

I can write field notes on the Oregon but I find it slow going and I have to wait until I get home to connect the device to my computer to upload. It is far quicker to type on the iPhone and it uploads straight away.

 

My Vista HCx never agrees with the Oregon regarding distance to cache. Even the trip computer on both differred. I will need to study them both more. Maybe I am not using the Oregon right?

 

For me, the iPhone is an important tool for my geocaching. I could have stayed quite happily using my trusty Vista HCx. My Oregon, well it is early days yet, I love it but is it worth the money? Only time will tell. I have only had it two days and only found 27 caches with it.

[+burtsbodgers]

The I Phone is great but only works where you have reception.

the 550 t is expensive but then you have a camera built in.

the discoverer maps are in my opinion great but take a little getting use too.

set you zoom level to 150' walk to the cache and then zoom in closer at gz for the actual hunt.

bare with it until you get the hang of it.

I use the field notes, and then log at home and embellish the log with more memorable details of that cache. i personally like to write a fuller log.

Also play around with the different profiles, these help a lot

[+Matthew 7:7 Too]

I have used a Vista HCX for a year and a half, but decided to replace it with an Oregon 400t when the rubber handgrip became loose and gungy.

 

The Oregon shows a much poorer accuracy reading than the Vista, but actual direction finding seems just as good so I think this is just a more pessimistic (or realistic?) algorithm inside it.

 

I found the European TOPO maps had less detail than the TOPO GB in the Vista, so added the TOPO GB map to the Oregon as well (Garmin give you a licence to load it on 2 Garmins). I also have the 1:50000 OS GB map (Northern England & Midlands) but if you try to zoom right in on this when approaching the cache, the map becomes too pixallated to be useful. So I have set up 2 geocaching profiles. The first uses the OS GB map to guide me into the right location with its excellent coverage of footpaths etc. Then I switch to the second and use the TOPO GB map or compass to close in on GZ before hunting around for the cache.

 

I only have one map enabled at a time to minimise processor overload, but zooming in on the OS GB map can still take an appreciable time before the map is redrawn. I don't have any problems when following the trail however.

 

Make sure that you have updated the Oregon software to the latest versions, there have been some big improvements in the last few months which may not have been loaded when your Oregon left the warehouse!

 

(And after replacing my Vista I had a moan at Garmin and had it replaced for free, so now my wife and I can use both of them!!)

 

Chris

 

PS: See the Oregon Wiki for details of how to add several maps to the Oregon and its SD card.