New to the game, which one should i buy?

[Guest AtarisFan1084]

I want to start playing the game, but i am not sure which GPS I should buy. I was wondering what you all thought, and any and all opinions are welcome. How important is having a built in compass, and what do you think a goog GPS will cost? If you need this piece of info, I live in St. Louis MO. Thanks again

[Guest AtarisFan1084]

And I forgot to add, how hard are the GPS to use. Can you pick them up pretty quick? Thanks

[Guest Toejam]

I actually just joined this forum a few days ago not knowing anything about GPS units. There is a lot of good info and comparisons on this board, so if you scroll down and set the screen to "Show topics for the last 30+ days" you should be able to find everything you need.

 

I ended up buying a Garmin GPSMAP 76 yesterday. It seems to be the unit of choice (depending upon what you want to do) for most people.

 

Cost is more a factor of what you want and what you can spend. The cheaper units are in the $100 neighborhood and the more expensive ones are $300+.

 

I've only used a buddies GPS once, but they do look fairly simple to learn and operate.

[Guest kellytklp]

I to am quite new to the hobby. (From ST Louis too) My wife and I decided on the MAP76 becuase it seemed to be spoken well of on the various boards. (It looked cool too) In any case we have been very happy with the unit, I get reception in my house and havent had any problems. Took it to FLorida last weekand used the mapping feature the whole way down.

 

We feel as though we made a good choice

[Guest k2dave]

Without knowing too much about what you need it for I will give the following suggestions.

 

If you plan to use it mainly in thich woods or have a need to maintain a lock in mild to thick woods get one that doesn't have the patch antenna (I think it's called a quadrifier antenna = the one you want). The patch antenna is just not as good.

 

If your needs require you to have a lock in most condititions you will want the option of adding an external antenna.

 

Basemaps are good for driving but almost useless for hiking. Consider the cost of the software in the price of the gps.

 

One unit that I have and love is the iii+. Is is an older unit but should be a little cheaper due to it's age. It seems to do it all from my experence (although I've only used this one) and from post on the board. It's biggest advantage is it seems to hold a lock better then most units w/o an external antenna.

 

You may want to check out units with WAAS depending where you plan to use it. WAAS can be really nice as it reduced the error roughly a in half (so your search AREA will be 1/4ed). There are some drawbacks to WAAS namely the 2 waas sats are low on the southern horizon and more dificult to lock to the further north you go. and because they are low - tree cover can easilly knock them out (or so i've heard). If the waas signal bounces to your reciever instead of 'line of site' your WAAS reading could be less accurate then a non WAAS reading. Also IIRC WAAS drains batts faster.

 

Fortunatly most of not all WAAS units will let you turn off WAAS if needed (poor WAAS lock, accuracy not needed, or want to conserve batts).

 

If you are considering a WAAS unit ask on this board if WAAS is good in the areas you want to use the unit.

[Guest bdixson]

I'm also new to Geocashing, I spent a couple weeks lurking in the forums, lots of good info. I purchased a Magellan Map 330 for several reasons, 1) the quadrifilar antenna, from what I've read it seems to hold satellites better in heavy tree cover than the patch antennas. I did my first geocache hunt today through the forest with moderate tree cover, had several Sats with strong signals and the Map 330 got me within 3 feet of the cashe (results may very). 2) If you want street level mapping the 330x comes with the MapSend CD. Garmin requires an extra $90 to $140 for their MapSource CD. Bought my Map 330x (includes MapSend CD and vehicle mounting bracket) at etronics.com $249 great buy. From what I've read in the forums the Garmins are very popular GPSRs, I almost bought an eTrex Legend, but I wanted street level mapping and was on a budget. I don't think you can go wrong with either Magellan or Garmin. As far as a built in compass, buy a $10 compass at the sporting goods store, they don't run on batteries. As far as how difficult they are to use, my experience on my first cashe hunt was it took me about a half hour walking around until I got the hang of it then the light went on, I tracked it right to the spot, had a blast. My advise is to spend some time in the forums, and check out joe.mehaffey.com (sorry haven't figured out how to insert links yet) and you'll soon figure out what you need and don't need.

[Guest Geoffrey]

Just type in http://www.joe.mehaffey.com and it becomes a link.