Best GPS for £100

[+HookwayFamily]

Whats the best for the budget??....opinions on a postcard please.... ( I currently use an iphone 3gs)

Edited March 1, 2010 by HookwayFamily

[+Bambography]

I recently bought my Scouts the Etrex H for around the £70 mark. They are perfectly adequate and leave you a few pennies to buy some TB's!

Edited February 28, 2010 by Bambography

[hothayley2000]

I agree with the above post. I have a Garmin Etrex H and it was under £100 and perfectly fine. Very robust and user friendly. You should have change from £100 easily so bug yourself some travel bugs to set free . Sorry but a girl loves to shop and spend money ha ha .

[GerritS]

Etrex again, after lots of bidding I bought my first Etrex for £45 on ebay. It took a few weeks bidding on every one that came up but got one in the end.

 

Also a friend started with second hand Garmin IQUE PDA Ebay for £35 pounds. You can debate the Pros and cons but that started her off on a budget. Its now in the hands of another cacher and still going strong.

[+Moote]

Garmin Etrex

[+Graculus]

What they said - Etrex H is an excellent GPS. But.... if your budget goes a wee bit further - Amazon are doing the Etrex Legend HCx for £133 and this has a USB interface so PC connection is easy (the Etrex H is a serial connection and you need to get a cable for it). The Legend has a color display and also supports maps and there are free maps available. With a simple PC connection you can download waypoints directly to the GPS from various free programs like EasyGPS.

 

Chris (MrB)

[+Munkeh]

Etrex H £68.40 on amazon

 

if you go the second hand route try and get one without the globe symbol on the front , that means its a H and will be more accurate, although the old etrx's are fine to use as well

[+t.a.folk]

Etrex H £68.40 on amazon

 

if you go the second hand route try and get one without the globe symbol on the front , that means its a H and will be more accurate, although the old etrx's are fine to use as well

 

We would also say to go for something with the magic "H", if possible .

 

We.ve now got G.P.S.'s with the "H" and haven't lost signal under trees since ( or when in our pockets)

but no idea what "H" is ?

[+Haggis Hunter]

I spent my first 5 years using a Garmin Geko 201 (£80) works the same as an Etrex but is a lot smaller. It uses AAA batteries which work well on rechargeable's. The Etrex H can be found here for £68.40. larger than the Geko, takes AA batteries and is a better deal for your budget.

If you decide to go Premium Membership and get Pocket Queries you will also need the Interface cable (£17.96) which fits both suggested GPS's. This will allow you to input up to 500 waypoints / caches onto your GPS.

[+The Blorenges]

We.ve now got G.P.S.'s with the "H" and haven't lost signal under trees since ( or when in our pockets)

but no idea what "H" is ?

The H indicates it has a newer, higher sensitivity GPS module inside. This means it can pick up more satellites and thus get a signal lock much faster. Also means better reception when the signal is not so good.

The 60 Cx series have a SiRF star III chipset while the Etrex H and Legend HCx have one from either STMicro or MediaTek. Does it matter which they have? Not really, the H is the important bit meaning it is a newer, faster GPS unit.

 

Chris (MrB)

[+Smurf]

on that buget, I would go for a second hand PDA of ebay (£40 - £50) and a bluetooth gps

 

Then run cachemate/beeline/whatever, and go paperless

[+HookwayFamily]

I was looking at some of the Etrex range and the legends did pop up as did the others suggested. Im not 100% sure Ill get one but I am becoming aware that all this caching is killing my iphone battery!! And I would prefer to carry to spare AA's and have 15 hours use out of them.

 

Id buy off ebay and try and get a bargain if poss.

 

(just found it here £125 inc free case : http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4943569/ar...cx-gps-for.html Bargain!)

Edited March 1, 2010 by HookwayFamily

[norsch]

on that buget, I would go for a second hand PDA of ebay (£40 - £50) and a bluetooth gps

 

Then run cachemate/beeline/whatever, and go paperless

I'll second that, but I personally would go for a PDA with built-in GPS possibly Pocket Loox N500 series

[+HookwayFamily]

Surely no better than an iphone 3gs though?

[+Smurf]

on that buget, I would go for a second hand PDA of ebay (£40 - £50) and a bluetooth gps

 

Then run cachemate/beeline/whatever, and go paperless

I'll second that, but I personally would go for a PDA with built-in GPS possibly Pocket Loox N500 series

 

My last PDA was a Loox N500 , with built in gps, the gps was dire, took forever to get a fix and lost it in any sort of tree cover

 

the newer N560 has i believe the star3 chipset same as an oregon etc,

[norsch]

on that buget, I would go for a second hand PDA of ebay (£40 - £50) and a bluetooth gps

 

Then run cachemate/beeline/whatever, and go paperless

I'll second that, but I personally would go for a PDA with built-in GPS possibly Pocket Loox N500 series

 

My last PDA was a Loox N500 , with built in gps, the gps was dire, took forever to get a fix and lost it in any sort of tree cover

 

the newer N560 has i believe the star3 chipset same as an oregon etc,

My last PDA was also a Loox N500 was fast to get a fix, but it was pretty rubbish with thick tree cover, from what I hear the N560 is a lot better. My PDA that I am now using is a Ipaq HW6915, no problems with tree cover and can't really comment on battery life except I recently had to charge it twice in about ten days as I had left navigation software and GPS running.

Total cost PDA with Tomtom software £40, 2500mah battery £11, caching software free.

[+Moote]

Surely no better than an iphone 3gs though?

I'm a great fan of the PDA, but I seriously think that it's only a backup / reference device and not a primary device, stick with getting a Garmin GPS.

[+The Blorenges]

Surely no better than an iphone 3gs though?

I have an iPhone 3GS too with the Geocaching application and also a GPS program - which lets it work like a 'normal' GPS and doesn't need a data connection. You can download waypoints etc to it. Battery life is dire I know. But the other problem I've found is how inaccurate it can be particularly when using it to record the location of a cache. It seems slow to update its position. Another problem with the iPhone is that it can use the mobile signal to triangulate its location if the GPS signal is not available or poor and that is very inaccurate.

So personally (and putting my Reviewer hat on for a moment) I wouldn't recommend it for placing caches. A 'normal' GPS is much better. As for PDA's. I also use a Mio P550 with built in GPS and it is considerably better than the iPhone GPS!

 

If you've got the budget then go for the Garmin, it will be worth it. Batteries will last all day (standard AA easy to replace in the field).

 

Chris (MrB)

[+HookwayFamily]

I do think I will end up treating myself....We are upto 17 finds so far this week with plenty more that we need to do. The whole family do seem to be enjoying it. To be fair to the iphone it leads us close enough that with aid of hints we find them.

 

Placing though was terrible and I had to amend the coords given by a finder that were far more accurate.

[+Smurf]

Surely no better than an iphone 3gs though?

I'm a great fan of the PDA, but I seriously think that it's only a backup / reference device and not a primary device, stick with getting a Garmin GPS.

 

My PDA has an 11 hour battery life, runs Beelinegps, memory map and tomtom, the bluetooth GPSr i use has the sirf star3 chipset (same as an oregon/colarado/etc), so in effect it is as good as any Garmin, exept for the fact that it isn't waterproof, which for me isn't a problem asd i dont cache in the rain (I dont like getting wet),

And the whole thing stands me at less than £50

 

I don't see any reason why it should be concidered a "back up" device (In fact I have just got rid of my Garmin as it wasn't being used at all)

Edited March 1, 2010 by Smurf

[+Jonovich]

My PDA has an 11 hour battery life....

 

What PDA is that? I love my old XDA II, but it's battery life is fairly poor. I could be very tempted with an 11 hour PDA!

 

I'm pretty sure the Oregon/Colorado no longer uses the SIRF 3 chipset by the way, not sure if anyone can confirm that?

 

Cheers,

 

J

Edited March 1, 2010 by Dakar4x4

[+The Blorenges]

I think it's a PDA that's not been invented yet

 

As far as I can find out the Oregon/Colorado/Dakota use either STMicro or MediaTek GPS chipsets. It's only the 60 series that use SirfStarIII.

 

Chris (MrB)

[+Smurf]

My PDA has an 11 hour battery life....

 

What PDA is that? I love my old XDA II, but it's battery life is fairly poor. I could be very tempted with an 11 hour PDA!

 

It's a humble ipaq 4150 with a 2500mAh extented battery (£6 from ebay), the standard 1000mAh battery gave me 5 hours

[+Jonovich]

My PDA has an 11 hour battery life....

 

What PDA is that? I love my old XDA II, but it's battery life is fairly poor. I could be very tempted with an 11 hour PDA!

 

It's a humble ipaq 4150 with a 2500mAh extented battery (£6 from ebay), the standard 1000mAh battery gave me 5 hours

 

Hmm.. Interesting... I tried an Ebay Hi-Cap battery for my XDA II and it was pants, offering little or no increase in run time over the standard, which was a little over three hours (Even with the phone function disabled). I may have to look into these HP's.

 

Thanks muchly.

 

Jon.

[+Yorkie30]

My pennies worth:

 

Buy an etrex H or another garmin (I like my legend) GPS, either new or second hand. Use this to find your 1st 100 or so caches.

 

Get fed up of carrying bits of paper so buy a 2nd hand PDA and download cachemate or other software.

 

Then catch the bug, keep looking at better GPS units until you have 3 or 4 and the PDA is then reducant due to you buying a £350 all signing and dancing GPS.

 

[+Jonovich]

My pennies worth:

 

Buy an etrex H or another garmin (I like my legend) GPS, either new or second hand. Use this to find your 1st 100 or so caches.

 

Get fed up of carrying bits of paper so buy a 2nd hand PDA and download cachemate or other software.

 

Then catch the bug, keep looking at better GPS units until you have 3 or 4 and the PDA is then reducant due to you buying a £350 all signing and dancing GPS.

 

 

Indeed, an Etrex is the way to go for sure.

 

Regarding paperless though, even with a Garmin 550 running with OS Discoverer maps I have the PDA running Memory map and Cachemate pretty much always in my other pocket. Pocket Navigator is such a joy to use, I've not found anything to better it.

 

J

[+Yorkie30]

My pennies worth:

 

Buy an etrex H or another garmin (I like my legend) GPS, either new or second hand. Use this to find your 1st 100 or so caches.

 

Get fed up of carrying bits of paper so buy a 2nd hand PDA and download cachemate or other software.

 

Then catch the bug, keep looking at better GPS units until you have 3 or 4 and the PDA is then reducant due to you buying a £350 all signing and dancing GPS.

 

 

Indeed, an Etrex is the way to go for sure.

 

Regarding paperless though, even with a Garmin 550 running with OS Discoverer maps I have the PDA running Memory map and Cachemate pretty much always in my other pocket. Pocket Navigator is such a joy to use, I've not found anything to better it.

 

J

 

I enjoy using Pocket Navigator too and also use cachemate. I do find that you need to protect the PDA from the elements much more then a GPS unit and the battery life can sometimes let me down on a full days caching. But other people are having the debate about battery life.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Yorkie30

[+currykev]

I was looking at some of the Etrex range and the legends did pop up as did the others suggested. Im not 100% sure Ill get one but I am becoming aware that all this caching is killing my iphone battery!! And I would prefer to carry to spare AA's and have 15 hours use out of them.

 

Id buy off ebay and try and get a bargain if poss.

 

(just found it here £125 inc free case : http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4943569/ar...cx-gps-for.html Bargain!)

 

Congratulations on going for an upgrade from the iPhone. (I have both)

With your new gps from pixmania (also check out handtec.co.uk too) you'll be a professional cacher with many a find in the future.

Future upgrades can wait until Xmas or a special Birthday.

Go find em.

[+HookwayFamily]

Congratulations on going for an upgrade from the iPhone. (I have both)

With your new gps from pixmania (also check out handtec.co.uk too) you'll be a professional cacher with many a find in the future.

Future upgrades can wait until Xmas or a special Birthday.

Go find em.

 

Yh TBH Id still take the iphone as well for logging and finding ones nearby as the Geocaching App is rather sweet but then can slap the coords in and away I go. And Im guessing that the Garmin doesn't give descriptions or hints either...lol

 

I dont know how to use the Garmin ones but Im assuming I can probably store a load that are in areas I intend to visit.

[+Yorkie30]

 

And Im guessing that the Garmin doesn't give descriptions or hints either...lol

 

I dont know how to use the Garmin ones but Im assuming I can probably store a load that are in areas I intend to visit.

 

If you are a premium member you can download pocket queries that will let you download up to 500 caches at a time. I.e can be the 500 caches closest to home.

 

Depending on the GPS you can download these to the unit maybe via a program like easygps or gsak. Etex H stores 500 i think. Some have more, the GPS units with a memory card can hold more.

 

The etrex will not give you hints or descriptions, just point you in the right direction and record where you have been. Some do allow you to tick the ones you have found and with the date and time.

 

For what its worth I have a Etrex GPS and a cheap pda loaded with cachemate, navmate and memory map pocket navigator.

I keep the PDA in my pocket away from the rain and the GPS around my neck.

 

I started with a basic yellow etrex and worked up over time.

[+ForsdykeFinders]

For a very simple GPS I have been using a Magellan 315 for years. They are not as modern looking as the Garmins etc but works great under tree cover and batteries last ages especially with 2900ma AAs. I am sure many will disagree but I always found it much better than the yellow Etrex and easily as accurate as my Mio PDA with the latest chipset. Most come with a data cable and you can upload caches pretty easily. They are waterproof (dropped mine in a river and it floated) and very tough.

They also come in a 320 model and also a later one which has maps (330). They also do an older Pioneer and 310 model which pretty much do the same stuff but I think dont have the ability to link to the computer so you have to load in the co-ords (no big deal really). I like the ability to easily switch between the lon/lat co-ords and the OS grid so you can also see very quickly where you are on an OS map if walking etc.

They are dead cheap on Ebay. Sometimes army surplus places have a bunch of them available as they were rumoured to have been used by the army.

[+Guanajuato]

I've used a PDA & Bluetooth for a few years with Geoscout. A bit too fragile really! Mine died over Christmas - whether it was the battery, the cold or the age I don't know.

 

There's a few programs available for mobile phones for storing cache details. i've been using TrekBuddy on a SonyEricsson C902 since Christmas - navigation and cache details (plus Maps if you get hold of Mobile Atlas Creator) . I tried Geoshrine, which has more readable cache detail presentation but could never get the navigation to wok.

 

Just got an Etrex Vista HCx from a fellow Nortwest Cacher who's upgraded to an Oregon. I've not used it in anger yet though.

[+HookwayFamily]

I've used a PDA & Bluetooth for a few years with Geoscout. A bit too fragile really! Mine died over Christmas - whether it was the battery, the cold or the age I don't know.

 

There's a few programs available for mobile phones for storing cache details. i've been using TrekBuddy on a SonyEricsson C902 since Christmas - navigation and cache details (plus Maps if you get hold of Mobile Atlas Creator) . I tried Geoshrine, which has more readable cache detail presentation but could never get the navigation to wok.

 

Just got an Etrex Vista HCx from a fellow Nortwest Cacher who's upgraded to an Oregon. I've not used it in anger yet though.

 

OK I ordered a Legend HCx, it will be here tomorrow so lets hope its worth the dosh over the iphone.

Edited March 4, 2010 by HookwayFamily

[+The Blorenges]

Good choice (even though I suggested it!). You won't be disappointed. May I suggest you have a look at the GPS page on my resource website as it explains the coordinate format to use and how to use the compass.

 

If you download EasyGPS (free) you can take the PQ you got, load it in and transfer it to the Legend and you are setup for a days caching!

 

Chris (MrB)

UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk