+Chazbo1948 Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 Howdy Everybody... I've only been geocaching for a few weeks now. I've found some but not all. I purchased a Magellan eXplorist GC. I am getting frustrated when I'm on a track. While I'm walking at a steady pace the unit tracks pretty well. It's when I get to within 20ft. or so and slow down that the tracking arrow and compass only work intermittently. At this point I'm not sure which way to go. After moving back and forth I've gotten to within 3ft. only to eventually find the cache maybe 10-15ft. away from that spot. Is this common with handheld GPS units? Is 10-20ft. about average then you're on your own to find the cache? If you know of units that do a better job let me know. I'd like to keep the price under $150 if possible. Quote Link to comment
+kunarion Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 (edited) I've gotten to within 3ft. only to eventually find the cache maybe 10-15ft. away from that spot. Is this common with handheld GPS units? Is 10-20ft. about average then you're on your own to find the cache? That's perfectly normal for consumer-quality GPS receivers. Plus the hider's GPSr wasn't at zero either. So the idea is it gets you close enough. Now you look for hiding spots, and use info from the cache page. Edited August 5, 2013 by kunarion Quote Link to comment
+Socal ZukiCachers Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 (edited) Howdy Everybody... I've only been geocaching for a few weeks now. I've found some but not all. I purchased a Magellan eXplorist GC. I am getting frustrated when I'm on a track. While I'm walking at a steady pace the unit tracks pretty well. It's when I get to within 20ft. or so and slow down that the tracking arrow and compass only work intermittently. At this point I'm not sure which way to go. After moving back and forth I've gotten to within 3ft. only to eventually find the cache maybe 10-15ft. away from that spot. Is this common with handheld GPS units? Is 10-20ft. about average then you're on your own to find the cache? If you know of units that do a better job let me know. I'd like to keep the price under $150 if possible. Chazbo, The GC doesn't have an electric compass in it, so when you slow down the GPS can no longer track properly so the trick is to keep moving. I've been caching for a few years and found my first 1,000 finds with a GPS just like the GC and once you get used to it, it will work great for you. Your smart phone, on the other hand, has an electric Compass in it just like the higher end GPSrs like Magellans eX610 and eX710 and the higher end Garmin units. One of the tricks that I learned was to keep moving until the GPS said I was at GZ and I kept moving and made a circle back to see if it took me to the same place; by doing this I never had a problem with the unit freezing or jumping. I hope this helps, David Magellan Insider Edited August 5, 2013 by Socal ZukiCachers Quote Link to comment
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