Need Help At This Gps Stuff

[snailman]

Greetings to all!!!! I am very new to the gps world and need your help.I will be using mine for geo-caching mainly.Havn't bought one yet because I can't decide on basic (Garmin etrix) or up a little to Garmin Vista.A friend of mine says her husbands etrix doesn't work in the woods.Is this possible? Thats where I will be most of the time.Your help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.Thanks to all .Snailman

[+Doc-Dean]

I recommend you check out the

GPS Units and Software forums

 

 

Edited November 22, 2003 by Doc-Dean

[+Tiwica]

I had my eTrex ($99) for a year before I discovered geocaching. It just sat gathering dust. Not Now!! I have really only searched in the woods and it works fine. It works so well I went and bought another one for my 21 yo son who goes out with me occasionally. The majority of my finds have been with heavy tree cover and 90% of the time it's withing 30 ft. I've had the same results as most other cachers. You'll find out you need to develop other skills and senses that help the GPSr help you find the cache. What I'm talking about is that you'll develop and eye and a gut sense. I've had my eTrex null out, look down and there's the cache, but then other times you can stand on the cache and it tells you it's 30-100 feet away. The worst I've had was when standing at a given coordinate the GPSr told me it was .11 miles away. So my advise to you would be to go for the eTrex. You can always upgrade as your needs develop. And if you do upgrade you always have the eTrex as back-up if something goes wrong.

Edited November 22, 2003 by Tiwica

[+JMBella]

My Magellan Sport Track hasn't let me down yet. Seems to grab sats even in relatively thick tree cover.

[+Damenace]

I cache frequently with Roadstr and he owns a Garmin Etrex and I own the Meridian Platinum. There are many times that we can be in thick tree cover and I have a hard time finding the cache based on the co-ordinates and Roadstr will walk right to it with his Etrex. Point being is that the Etrex works fine in thick cover. I have to admit for a $250.00 differance in price I am very impressed by what the Garmin Etrex has to offer for the price you pay.

 

Damenace

[cutsandbruises]

I new to this too. I bought a Extrex Legend and have used it on sunny days, cloudy days and in heavy tree cover and I have had no problem finding any caches. I have always been with in 0-10 feet of the posted coordinates. I chose the Legend because it came with a cable so I can down load the sites right on to my GPS. A real nice feature to have. It cost $179 dollars and was well worth the extra bucks. Just remember that these GPS's run on batteries. Always carry an extra set with you.

[+briansnat]

The eTrex works just fine in the woods. People who tell you they don't are full of baloney, or not using it correctly. Consider the Legend. It's about halfway between the basic yellow and the Vista in price. It has mapping, but not as much memory. The Legend doesn't have the compass, or altimeter either, but I don't think those features are worth the extra $150. But if you have the money and want the extra memory and like the idea of the compass and altimeter in the unit, the Vista is an excellent choice.

Edited November 22, 2003 by briansnat

[+JFDavis (Orion 6)]

I've got an etrex, an etrex legend, and a gpsmap76s. The only problem areas I've discovered are downtown and in rugged mountain areas. Both areas exhibit the same problem-narrow or small views of the sky. Heavy concentrations of steel also reflects signals, occasionally 'jumping' hundreds of miles from correct. A few steps in any direction giving more open sky fixes both problems.

[+GOT GPS?]

Look at the Price range. $199+

The ones with mapping will help you know how far you are from certain places.

 

Look for a GPS with future expansion in mind, that can take memory cards, or external antenna's.

 

Basically any GPS you get should work.

It is best to learn on a basic unit without all the extra's, then get into mapping, and using a data cable for downloading waypoints to the GPS.

[cool_and_the_gang]

Before I invested the $ in my Magellan SportTrak I borrowed an older Garmin (I can't recall the model) to try the sport out. The SportTrak has proved to be much more reliable than the Garmin ever was in the woods. I posted a similar thread a while back about this and learned that the Quadhelix antenna is better for the woods.

 

Perhaps Briansnat is right and I was using the Garmin unit improperly. But my untested observation and experience indictates some accuracy in the QuadHelix claims.

 

Read up on the different models and the features of each one. Good luck with your research.

[+briansnat]

Before I invested the $ in my Magellan SportTrak I borrowed an older Garmin (I can't recall the model) to try the sport out. The SportTrak has proved to be much more reliable than the Garmin ever was in the woods.

 

I don't think comparing a brand new SporTrak with an older, and possibly obsolete Garmin is a fair comparison.

Edited November 23, 2003 by briansnat

[+RJFerret]

The Quadhelix theory doesn't bear out in reality.

 

I've been caching side-by-side a Garmin quadhelix user vs. my $70 eBay eTrex one day, they couldn't get sat lock under the foliage while I was fine.

 

At an event cache we ran, there was a GPS-verified benchmark. The ONLY gps that hit ground zero was someone else's basic eTrex.

 

Everyone else's, Garmin AND Magellan, were sprinkled around, WAAS or not.

 

Moral of the story, get the one you want based on the features, they all work quite fine.

 

Enjoy,

 

Randy

 

PS: As the line goes, "A man w/a gps knows where he is, a man with two is lost."

[+Bozz]

I have the eTrex Legend as mentioned in this post, and it is pretty awesome! If you have any idea that you will want to do any mapping with it, spring the $179 and get this model or better (Vista). The basic Yellow one is fine, but just to Navigate, not map.

 

Bozz

[3bearz]

We are also newbies, but have found 6 out of 6 (including one 4-part multi) with our basic etrex. Usu. gets us within a few feet, and then you just have to ask yourself what looks like a good hiding place. Worst trouble we had was down in a deep ravine in dense tree cover. Still found it though. And the bright yellow is easy to spot when you start walking away from a cache without it!

[+Fritz_Monroe]

From 1 newbie to another. I chose the Magellan Sportrak Map as my first GPS. It was pretty much a toss up between that and the Garmin Etrek Legend. The final factors were that in talking to some folks, apparently the Sportrak allows you to display the name and not just the GC#. Also, I read the review found at http://www.gpsinformation.net/mgoldreview/...ak-pro-rev.html The Magellan rebate is icing on the cake.

 

Ended up getting this for $170 including shipping. Take off the $30 rebate and it's down to $140. Should have it wednesday.

 

F_M