Explorist GC

[+moggith]

Hi all- getting into my caching now, and have been using my iphone so far-

have found 100 caches, and the iphone has been fine but has some bug bears-

 

eg battery life is rubbish, and it doesnt update your position quickly enough, and doesnt work if you havent got phone reception

 

however i do love the iphone for being paperless, having detailed maps and having all caches in a database

 

im thinking of getting a handheld gps, but want to go paperless and have detailed maps as with the iphone, and have a database of uk caches ,and dont have a fortune to spend-

 

i have read mixed reviews about the explorist GC, and cannot see them for sale anywhere in the uk.

 

can anyone tell me where to get one, or recommend another unit that can fulfill my needs that wont cost a fortune (maybe a used one would be a better option?) i would only be using the unit for caching

 

also what is the difference between a gps and a gpsr (sorry probably a stoopid noob question?)

Edited September 4, 2010 by moggith

[+geecmom]

Hi all- getting into my caching now, and have been using my iphone so far-

have found 100 caches, and the iphone has been fine but has some bug bears-

 

eg battery life is rubbish, and it doesnt update your position quickly enough, and doesnt work if you havent got phone reception

 

however i do love the iphone for being paperless, having detailed maps and having all caches in a database

 

im thinking of getting a handheld gps, but want to go paperless and have detailed maps as with the iphone, and have a database of uk caches ,and dont have a fortune to spend-

 

i have read mixed reviews about the explorist GC, and cannot see them for sale anywhere in the uk.

 

can anyone tell me where to get one, or recommend another unit that can fulfill my needs that wont cost a fortune (maybe a used one would be a better option?) i would only be using the unit for caching

 

also what is the difference between a gps and a gpsr (sorry probably a stoopid noob question?)

 

 

I am loving my explorist GC, but I don't know about using it in the UK, as far as the maps are concerned (I'm really new to this unit myself). It does have GREAT features and is easy to use.

 

I CAN answer your gps/gpsr question, though. A "GPSr" is a GPS receiver. A GPS is the same thing - it receives satellite signal but doesn't transmit. No difference, though I suppose that GPSr is technically the correct term.

[+cubbytoes]

I'm also new to caching and so far have been piggy-backing with my caching friends. I thought it time to pick one up for myself.

 

I chose a new explorist gc and I like it so far EXCEPT: I do not see a way to manually enter any coordinates. I particularly enjoy multi and puzzle caches and solve them in the field, but can't enter the new locations once solved. Unless someone else knows a way to do this, this is a big down side for me and I may return it. Otherwise, as a purely geocache device it seems very good.

 

Edit: I have figured out how to do the above although it wasn't intuitive. Someone on the forums here had the answer. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=254928

I'll hang onto this unit. It should do nicely. (Sorry, can't help with the where to buy. For me it was right off the store shelf.)

 

As an FYI, I have loaded caches from geocaching.com individually, and by pocket query, both worked easily, though I did get some repeated crashing of my Firefox browser.

Edited September 5, 2010 by cubbytoes

[+gpsblake]

I have an Explorist GC and was browsing around the UK on it, and it only had a few major highways. At this time, there is no way to add maps to the unit, but it wouldn't surprise me in the future if someone doesn't figure a way around this. So it's really a non-mapping unit as far as the UK goes.

 

I can't think of an inexpensive UK unit that would have maps and paperless geocaching.

 

Could you use your iphone and a handheld GPS together? Meaning you load the caches on both, use the iphone for the maps and geocaching data, the use the GPS unit for the find. If so, perhaps you can get a Garmin Venture HC and load up on some free UK maps into the unit.

 

For a few years, people would use a cheap PDA and a handheld gps unit for geocaching.

 

Best wishes