First Cache Found!!! More eTrex Questions.

[Guest Growley]

Today the family got up early and we found our first cache!! The good news: We found the cache, the kids got some goodies and left some, we found our way out (without the search party), saw a deer and an eagle, AND everyone wants to do it again!! NOW THE BAD NEWS: We started on an old dirt road surrounded by tall trees but with a constant large opening to the sky. I took about 20 steps and immediately lost signal with my week-old eTrex Legend. The signal came back in about 3 minutes but this set the course for the entire hunt. I constantly would regain and lose signal in the woods (Yes, I read ALL the posts left about the eTrex AFTER I bought mine, of course). The Brunton Compass definately helped out. NOW THE QUESTION(S): 1. If the "compass" in the eTrex Legend is not accurate when standing still, how fast do you have to be moving for it to work accurately? I had to continually switch from sat. view to map view to get the correct bearing. What did I do wrong?

2. I am now shopping for a new GPS. The Legend got a chance to prove everyone wrong and although it would regain a fix in thick brush it could not hold it. Out of the box, will the GPSMAP 76 out-perform the Magellan 330? I am totally bummed at the eTrex performance and I'm not looking forward to the "large" GPSMAP 76 however I feel that a III+ is "too old of a model" to buy at this point. If you read this far. Thank you for your input.

[Guest arffer]

Congrats on finding your first cache!

 

The answer to your first question is aprx. 2 mph for the compas to work. Many GPSRs have added a feature to the compass that allows them to be used in a rudimentary manner while standing still; a small sun and/or moon symbol will show on the compass: line them up with the real sun and/or moon, and its showing you the directions.

 

I can't answer question 2 from a Garmin perspective. I purchased my Magellan 315 over a Gramin purely for the averging feature, and then discovered that it also gets great lock in heavy woods. Heaviest woods I've found yet still never had less than 4 locks. I wanted the averaging feature for hiding caches to avoid the need to take 7 readings at the cache with 100 yard walk-aways between each. After the first few hunts, I discovered what a great feature it is in the hunt too!

 

Good luck in your tree cover quest!

[Guest dmdeitz]

Congrats on your first find! We have 2 successful and one unsuccessful under out belt. that unsuccessful was with an etrex basic model and I've gotten 'weak signal' messages in my backyard when I had CLEAR sky above. and the 2nd find was with the etrex in the woods and I kept losing the signal on that too... that one was hard to find. And takes the fun out of it. THe first find was with a Magellan 310 and never got a weak signal from that one and the search was kinda easy... I now have a 315 (I wanted / need) the resolution of coordinates down to the thousandths...). WE'll see how this one works. Surprisingly, you can read great raves about the etrex (one guy said he gets signals INSIDE his house!) and every other model. And you can read negative reviews about the etrex and every other model. There is no clear concensus. But it SEEMS like the magellans have a bigger antenna since they have that shape onthe top. It could be hollow for all I know. ANd I Have my ham licence and this may be wrong anyway, but psychologically, I think - bigger antenna / better reception?! so I'm looking to find that unsuccessful cache with the 315...

[Guest k2dave]

I have the iii+ model and love it. That said I probally would go w/ another model just due to it's age and lack of mem (would take a long look at the V). The 111+ compass will give and accurate direction relative to track and north. track is not accurate when on winding trails or getting very close but using it rel to N will work standing still (you just need a real magnetic compass to find out where the real N is).

 

Does your model's compass screen display North along with the direction to the waypoint arrow - if so you just need a (mag) compass. rotate your gps so the the N lines up with magnetic N and the arrow points to the cache.

 

Also how are you holding your gps? are you constantly holding it or pocketing it for some of the trip. The orintation matters too (upright vs flat).

[Guest Growley]

Well, yesterday I went to the local West Marine store to "look at" a MAP 76. It was not as big as I thought it would be and it has some great features. You all know the rest of the story..I came home with the MAP 76. I am still bummed and confused about the eTrex. I can sit in multiple rooms in my house (including the living room with vaulted ceiling) and pull good signals. Walk onto the road and BAM! signal lost. Anyway, Im now packing a MAP 76 (etrex is in the closet) and we'll see what happens. Geocaching is the best thing to come along in a long time.

[Guest xanthari]

once, I then picked up a Magellan 315..turned it on..and bingo...we had a lock..I bought one right then. That was a couple years ago and I have had very little trouble with it in dense woods. In fact I can get a lock in most buildings with it. I love it. Thats my experiance with it, hope it helps you.

 

X.

[Guest Clanggedin]

I was un happy with the compass not working and how long it took for it to work when I began walking in the Magellan 300. I decided it would make geocaching alot more fun if I bought a eTrex Summit. To tell you the truth, I have never been happier with my purchase. I love being able to stand still and get an acurate compass reading.

 

I have never had a problem getting a signal with mny eTrex, unless I'm in the server room where I work. (too much electromagnetic interference). Return your legend and get a Summit.

 

BTW.. Congrats on your first find.

 

[This message has been edited by Clanggedin (edited 30 July 2001).]

[Guest BigDoggie]

Most people here seem to agree that having a separate compass is a better idea than relying on the directional indicator on the GPS. Right?

 

That was certainly the case with my first hunt. No compass, just the GPS. I was all over the place. I'll never go out without a compass again. If I can't find my old Scout cmopass, I'll just buy another.

[Guest makaio]

I have to side with Clang, although my eTrex is a Legend. I've owned it for about 3 months and have used it almost everyday. Even among the very tall trees here in Oregon, I've had no problems obtaining and keeping locks.

[Guest Big-Bird]

I had a really old Garmin 75 and bought the GPSMap76 as soon as it came out. And before I found this place. I get locks in the buildings and outside but loose it some in the dense woods. I got the ext. antenna Garmin makes for this and do not loose the signal anywhere in the woods period. I unplug the antenna and the birds go down in number and I loose signal sometimes but get it back right away. I am going to make a mount that I can velcro inside my hat for the ext. antenna and that should be the end of the story. I would like to see a GPS III plus side by side to my 76 just to see.

I'll wait and see what the GPS V is going to be like before getting another GPS.

I got down to less than 20 feet accuracy with the ext. antenna. Although I did'n plan on having cables sticking out of my head while running through the woods it seems to be the only easy cheap fix.

Rick.

[Guest gstrong1]

That's what I did Rick.I cut a small piece of 1/4" plexiglass to the same dimensions as the little magnetic plate that comes with the Garmin antenna.I drilled & countersunk holes to accommodate the 3mm screws & then put half the velcro on the plexiglass & the other half sewn on to the shoulder of one of my caching shirts.Didn't want to put velcro on the top (rounded) of the antenna to attach to the inside of my hat,cuz I thought that might hinder performance.Seems to work well & I can easily switch back & forth from velcro to magnetic to the suction cup windshield mount.The plexiglass set-up is very lightweight, and except for the excessive length of the antenna wire, you hardly know it's there. But when I don't feel like screwing around with it, I just take the III Plus on a hunt cuz even with the antenna set-up connected to the MAP76, the III Plus out of the box still functions trouble free & more accurate in the woods. .--Gimpy--

 

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Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

 

[This message has been edited by gstrong1 (edited 02 August 2001).]

[Guest gstrong1]

That's what I did Rick.I cut a small piece of 1/4" plexiglass to the same dimensions as the little magnetic plate that comes with the Garmin antenna.I drilled & countersunk holes to accommodate the 3mm screws & then put half the velcro on the plexiglass & the other half sewn on to the shoulder of one of my caching shirts.Didn't want to put velcro on the top (rounded) of the antenna to attach to the inside of my hat,cuz I thought that might hinder performance.Seems to work well & I can easily switch back & forth from velcro to magnetic to the suction cup windshield mount.The plexiglass set-up is very lightweight, and except for the excessive length of the antenna wire, you hardly know it's there. But when I don't feel like screwing around with it, I just take the III Plus on a hunt cuz even with the antenna set-up connected to the MAP76, the III Plus out of the box still functions trouble free & more accurate in the woods. .--Gimpy--

 

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Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

 

[This message has been edited by gstrong1 (edited 02 August 2001).]

[Guest HomeChicken]

I also have a week old eTrex Legend and bought it to take up to Sequoia National Park which is in the High Sierra's/Great western divide/Mt. Whitney area of California. We did some back woods hiking to some lakes (Heather/Emerald/Pear) and climbed about 2000 feet thought very tall trees and rocks all around and kept the eTrex Legend on top of my hat and also infront of me and we walked 5 miles and never lost a lock but on the way down around 4:30pm it was on and off lock about 50% of the time..I figure it has alot to do with the time of day and where the satellites are at a certain time. Also noticed while in the woods and our campsite that we never got a lock from horizon satellites only mostly overhead satellites. marking a waypoint in our campsite at lodgepole was always different up to 100Feet, Had to be all the tree cover and only three overhead birds at one time. With the base road map that comes with the unit the roads and waypoints seem pretty accurate for roads. We found two caches the same day I bought it and came within 20 feet of the actual hiding spot. I like the Legend and glad I got it instead of the yellow base model of eTrex series. It doesn't look clumsy + it's light and rugged. It comes with a map already loaded of highways and has 8 megs of memory built in for downloading more detailed maps which I need to do since I'm in construction and will never need to buy a Thomas guide again!

Very happy with purchase from Fry's @ $219

 

 

[This message has been edited by HomeChicken (edited 03 August 2001).]

[Guest CapnGadget]

Congrats with your first find! have found 3 now and really enjoying the sport...I agree with HomeChicken about my eTrex basic...I have been DENSE (solid canopy) brush and tree cover in mid afternoon here in Quebec and had a lock on 5 satellites...but have lost lock later on in the evening a couple times in equally dense woods...I can only surmise that satellite positioning has alot to do with it - for example the last time I lost lock in the woods I noticed on the "advance" view that the 5 satellites I was tracking were almost in a straight diagonal line...hard to triangulate when that happens LOL

CapnGadget

[Guest bob_renner]

quote:

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Originally posted by HomeChicken:

I also have a week old eTrex Legend ... Very happy with purchase from Fry's @ $129

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Is this price right? $129? Or was it $219?

 

Bob

[Guest HomeChicken]

Opps! your right it was a type-O

the price I picked it up was $219.. I guess I was always thinking I got a bargain!

I Edited my post above to read $219 Thanks for the heads up!

 

quote:

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Originally posted by bob_renner:

quote:

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Originally posted by HomeChicken:

I also have a week old eTrex Legend ... Very happy with purchase from Fry's @ $129

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Is this price right? $129? Or was it $219?

 

Bob

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