Old GPS's never die

[OKHHduo]

Originally, I got a Garmin GPS 12 for use when I was on active duty in the Army in the late 90's. It has had no usage since I retired in 2007. Our friends John and Alma introduced us to GC and I decided to see if the "old reliable" was suitable or if I should buy one of the new ones. The GPS 12 worked great! It brought us to a 3 M radius of our first cache which we found...a 1.5/1.5. If you are new to GC and have an old GPS, give it a shot. Cheers, OKHHduo

[+PDOP's]

this thread will probably interest you Garmin GPS 12 Users Unite.(link). I bought a GPS12 in 2000 and used it for several years.

 

Here are the search results for 'GPS12' in this forum (link)

[+PDOP's]

forum hiccup

Edited October 17, 2011 by PDOP's

[7rxc]

Originally, I got a Garmin GPS 12 for use when I was on active duty in the Army in the late 90's. It has had no usage since I retired in 2007. Our friends John and Alma introduced us to GC and I decided to see if the "old reliable" was suitable or if I should buy one of the new ones. The GPS 12 worked great! It brought us to a 3 M radius of our first cache which we found...a 1.5/1.5. If you are new to GC and have an old GPS, give it a shot. Cheers, OKHHduo

Glad to see someone else likes/uses older devices... even if it is newer in relation to the 45xl which it was the replacement for.

Lots of people still use the 45 series as well as a few older ones. But they are a bit limited to what they can achieve of course.

Still reasonably good in open sky terrain and with some compass work to enhance the experience. Not much good in Canyons or Deep forests though. You have to watch the resolution (distance readout) mine only goes to 10 metre on the scale. You do have to be a bit more patient when searching a much larger area. I mostly use mine for non GC purposes, but it's good to do roughout work on approach and for teaching on... it's rugged, and has relatively few extra features... to lessen confusion. Makes a whole new game out of easy to find caches as well, I think it raises the difficulty level do to it's age... but that might be my age. I do have a map60cx as my current 'old' GPS, since I can not afford the latest models... but they would be obsolete to some right away anyhow. Interesting thing to note is that the 45xl cost me NEW more than the best current model does... I can get a map62 whatever for about half that! Sigh!

 

Doug 7rxc

[TheArabianHunter]

I have trimbl ensign I bought I think in 96

 

still working fine and accurate.

 

It is amazing that the unit is still being sold by e bay and other web based companies

 

All what it does is show the coordinates of your current position, and it shows a small arrow directed to a waypoint (which is sufficient for geocaching).

 

It takes a Morse code operator to enter a waypoint into this unit. It has a keypad with only 4 buttons.

Edited October 17, 2011 by TheArabianHunter

[+goldman88]

i have a magellam gps315 that i bought use. Found a manuel on web but i still can't figuer it out. help

[+fooleish]

Haha I've still got an old eTrex Venture (the green one) that I've cached with. Thing should be in a museum, though

[+ollave]

I have a Geko 201 (equivalent to original yellow Legend). On a good day (clear skies, no terrain features to cause problems) it's very close in performance to what I mostly use now: an Android phone with an external GPSr logger.

 

The older equipment loses in three main ways, I think:

 

1. as the conditions get harder (clouds, rain, tree cover) their relative lack of sensitivity hurts

2. paperless caching (especially when it's possible to ask "what caches are around me _now_?") is really nice

3. the older gear I'm familiar with wants a serial connection, and they're history (definitely history for Mac users): USB is in all ways superior. So that's limiting unless you already have the right cables and drivers to match so that you can download caches without typing the coordinates of each one.

 

The older equipment sometimes wins: I regularly drop gear. My Geko has never complained. My phone has had its back pop off (once) and needed a hard reboot (once). (Two previous phones only worked while held together with tape -- I'm hard on phones. One of several reasons I don't want an iPhone -- too expensive, and I'd destroy it.)

 

My Geko takes AAA batteries: my "smart" (it's not very) phone has a li-ion battery, but even with an external GPSr using Bluetooth it is essential to plug it into the car charger every moment possible or it won't last the day.

 

My only "terrain 5" cache was done with my Geko: there was water involved, and it's waterproof at least to some degree, so the smart phone, Bluetooth GPSr logger, cache bag, and, ah, a number of other items regularly considered essential for caching were left safely in the dry.

[rws]

My Garmin GPS III Plus still works good...

 

[TheArabianHunter]

rws

 

very beautifull gps . nice classic design.

 

how do you post the photo?

 

i tried, i get error message

 

thanks

[7rxc]

rws

 

very beautifull gps . nice classic design.

 

how do you post the photo?

 

i tried, i get error message

 

thanks

First a pic has to be in online storage site of some sort.... then use either cut and paste a quicklink type string or use the insert image tool and fill in the URL. There is a small circle with a ? in it that lists BB codes for the posting page as well. Look up top, the insert image tool is over to the left (picture icon).

 

Doug 7rxc

Edited October 20, 2011 by 7rxc

[TheArabianHunter]

Thanks Doug

[gitarmac]

I still have my first venture, or maybe it was a legend. I spontaneoiusly shut off so much it became useless. I put it away.

 

A few years later I saw an ad for an etrex and wondered if garmin would fix my old unit. THey did - for 75 bucks. Worked great. Only problem is it used a connection that was not on my new computer.

 

When I got the new units with the high sensitivity reciever I was sorry I tried to fix the old unit. THe new ones are much better.

 

That said, I still have my venturehc, sometimes I use it to mark things I don't want cluttering up my working gps, like road signs for the hunt club that need fixin'.

 

Now that I have an oregon and astro, my vista is my back up gps. I'm probably going to give the venture to a friend of mine.