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Purchasing First Gps


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Hi

 

I'm getting ready to purchase my GPS. It will mostly be used for geocaching, so I'm not worried so much about road trips or whatnot. Currently I'm looking in the $150 range.

 

I've found some good deals on ebay and have been looking at the following units:

 

Garmin eTrex Legend

Magellan SportTrax Map

Magellan SporkTrax Pro

 

Also looked at the Geko but I've already been told that it's not much more than a compass?

 

Any advice?

 

(My mom and brother both have Garmin 60CS but that's a bit much for my purposes...I drive a scooter!)

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Myself, I do not care for the small GPS receivers such as the Garmin Geko and E-trex series. I would rather have something with a better antenna as in the larger Garmin models or any of the Magellan models. Having been a GPS buyer for several years I have used models with the patch antennas (Geko and e-trex models) and larger styles with quad-helix antenna, the Quad-helix antennas maintain a better lock. Myself I now use a Meridian gold and sport track map, I also have a sportrack color for back up.

 

As far as warranty service. Both Garmin and Magellan have a very fast turn around time, of course turn around time can very quite a bit depending n how busy they are. one thing I have noticed with Magellan, when they send your GPS back they icluded free stuff as in 12 volt cables or mounting brackects.

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Check out bizrate.com they'll give you side-by-side comparisons. I got mine from provantage.com (Cobra GPS500) for $105 plus $20 Fed-x overnight. (Retail price was $160.)

 

I like mine except for the annoying notification message that pops-up when you are within 75 to 50 feet of your waypoint.

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Check out bizrate.com they'll give you side-by-side comparisons. I got mine from provantage.com (Cobra GPS500) for $105 plus $20 Fed-x overnight. (Retail price was $160.)

 

I like mine except for the annoying notification message that pops-up when you are within 75 to 50 feet of your waypoint.

After reading some post re Cobra, good luck

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I would stay away from the Sportrak maps because of the cracking problems with the casing. Magellan has done nothing to fix this flaw in that model. Other than that it is a great model. Look on ebay for some good deals as well. I bought a Meridian Green for $124 used and a brand new Meridian Gold for $177. Good luck.

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I would stay away from the Sportrak maps because of the cracking problems with the casing. Magellan has done nothing to fix this flaw in that model. Other than that it is a great model. Look on ebay for some good deals as well. I bought a Meridian Green for $124 used and a brand new Meridian Gold for $177. Good luck.

You could just back the screws off manually once you get the unit. The only reason the casing is cracking is that Magellan set the standard torque rate on the screws too high. If you back them off a little before it cracks, you won't have to worry.

 

That still doesn't make up for the fact that its a major engineering flaw though. At least its user correctable though, unlike Garmin's problem units.

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I just got my first GPS like 2 weeks ago. I did quite a bit of shopping for units in stores were i could actually hold units next to each other and see the diffrences.

 

I settled on a Merdian Gold. large screen, easy to use buttons, and the aforementioned better antena etc.

 

Im a firm belever in you get what you pay for. If i had to do it again i would probibly get the platnum that has the internal magnetic compass which for me would come in handy. (the way i cache now) but short of that, i would get the Gold again.

 

my .02

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Hi

 

I'm getting ready to purchase my GPS. It will mostly be used for geocaching, so I'm not worried so much about road trips or whatnot. Currently I'm looking in the $150 range.

 

I've found some good deals on ebay and have been looking at the following units:

 

Garmin eTrex Legend

Magellan SportTrax Map

Magellan SporkTrax Pro

 

Also looked at the Geko but I've already been told that it's not much more than a compass?

 

Any advice?

 

(My mom and brother both have Garmin 60CS but that's a bit much for my purposes...I drive a scooter!)

Go with the Legend. It was my first GPS and I loved it! The legend is easy to use and I never had any trouble with mine.

 

Now I have a 60cs only because I wanted color maps and auto-routing.

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I'm getting ready to purchase my GPS. It will mostly be used for geocaching, so I'm not worried so much about road trips or whatnot. Currently I'm looking in the $150 range.

 

I've found some good deals on ebay and have been looking at the following units:

 

Garmin eTrex Legend

Magellan SportTrax Map

Magellan SporkTrax Pro

Consider the SporTrak Map. Right now, Costco has a package that includes the ST Map, MapSend Topo, and neoprene case for $200 minus a $50 rebate. The main drawback to the ST Map is that it only has 6MB of free memory, but since you only plan on using it for geocaching, the Topo map should be more than adequate and doesn't need as much memory as the more detailed city maps would.

 

I don't know if you have Costco where you live, but if you do, this is quite a deal. Shoot, the Topo map alone sells for $80-90 and the case for around $15. That puts the final cost of the ST Map at about $50. Not bad for a GPSr, huh? But hurry if you plan to get this one, because the rebate expires 30 Jun 2004 and many Costcos are already out of stock on this item.

 

tm

Edited by tubemonkey
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Merdian Gold :blink:

I had a legend for about 6 weeks and really thought it was great until I tried a Merdian Gold.

 

The Gold does lock onto the sats faster at start up and keeps locked onto them better then the Legend I had.

 

On my legend I could only lock onto the WAAS sats 30-40% of the time.

 

It seems like my Merdian is locked onto the WAAS sats atleast 90% of the time.

 

Most of the time I get a reading that shows with in 8-13 feet with the Gold.

 

I can't belive what a difference there has been between the Legend I had and the Gold I have now.

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You could just back the screws off manually once you get the unit. The only reason the casing is cracking is that Magellan set the standard torque rate on the screws too high. If you back them off a little before it cracks, you won't have to worry.

 

That still doesn't make up for the fact that its a major engineering flaw though. At least its user correctable though, unlike Garmin's problem units.

 

Hmmmm.....Don't know where you got this info from, but if that was the case, rather than having to repair all the cracking units, a smart move would have been to "untorque" all the newer units before shipment. As this appears to be a continuing problem, even on newer units, I would suspect it is a mold design problem where a bad cross-section design has allowed the natural molding shrinkage to put stress on the thinest parts....thus causing cracking. If it was a "screw tightening" problem, which is a manufacturing problem, not a design problem... it would have been fixed a year ago. If the mold/material design is defective...it just might be more cost effective to live with the returns than redesign/rework a very, very expensive multi-cavity mold .

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I started out with the Legend a couple of years ago. Used it mostly for geocachine and some road navigation. When I found the caches getting further away from my home I decided to upgrade to the 60c because of the autorouting, better screen, additional memory, etc. I NEVER had a problem with my Legend and the person that purchased it from me is going to be very happy with it. I never had serious issues locking on to satellites whether WAAS or not. I don't know anything about the other models you mentioned but I do know that each model will have their advantages. The Legends track record is pretty good in comparison with most units. No matter which unit you get there will be a learning curve in order to get the most out of it under the conditions that you use it.

Edited by nhnative
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I am new to the world of GPS and after quite a bit of research I purchased the Legend. It's been a few weeks now and I am very happy with my purchase. I don't have previous GPS experience to compare vs. the Legend. It does take a few minutes to warm up and get a lock, but not so long to cause a problem. I'm very happy with my purchase. ..... be even happier when I get my rebate check back!

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I would wait to see how the new Magellan Explorer series units are. They come out in July and should range between $100 to $200 retail, so mail order should be a good bit cheaper.

The mid and upper end models have mapping features, with the top end model also having a magnetic compass and altimetere.

 

I have a Spotrack Color and am satisfied with it for the price ($250 new at Vanns.com). I do wish it had removable memory, but otherwise it is a good unit. some people say the display is hard to read, but it looks fine to me. If I were looking to spen twice as much, I would check out the Garmin 60CS and 76CS.

I like color and would never go back to a black and white.

 

Bowfin

Edited by Bowfin
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You guys have been great. I appreciate all the advice. I ended up going with the Legend and it should be getting here Wednesday! I can't wait.

 

Aside to Chuteme, I'm *ALWAYS* nice to my mother. However I bet what will happen is she'll end up getting a better model than the one she has and give me hers right? *blink* *blink*

 

Hi Mom. :blink:

Just got a new Legend myself.

 

I also got the Mapsource software. AWESOME, I do alot of travelling and I like how I can get turn by turn directions into the Legend from my Laptop.

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I am just starting out and I am using the eTrex Legend. I find that on cloudy / overcast days the signal jumps. I would prefer one with the Quadrifilar helix

antenna, I think the Meridian Gold has that. Right now I am thiking about the Meridian Platinum because of the 3 axis compass.

 

Just my 2 cents, but I am new to geocaching and would prefer more accuracy as it cuts down on wantering the woods looking for the cache and more time to take in the sites as most caches I have visited are set in beautiful locations.

 

Larry

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By the time to get through this, you would have purchased your first one already...I started with an ETREX (YELLOW), decent, but no mapping features...I went down and bought via Ebay GARMIN GPS38 (8 Channel - bad), Sold it bought a Mag. GPS310. Great unit, Quadrifiler Antenna - FAST LOCk, but only two digits (SOLD), Now have a GPS315 (Mapping, UL/DL and 3 Digits, QUAD. ANT), and just got a SPORT MAP.

For about the same money, (paid $80 for ETREX), I bought SPORT TRAK MAP for $96.00 Superior unit, Mapping, UL/DL). If you plan to do any computer interfacing/mapping, then spend the extra and get the better units. Everyone likes Garmin Vistas. But I like the Magellans.

I fell in love with the Rocker switch on the Magellans. The Garmin ETREX series uses hard to use buttons. Your finger hurt after a while, while rocker is MUCH easier for use in the field, setting up Waypoints on the fly. Sure you can use computer input, but for field updates, Rocker is like using a mouse (smooth).

The higher prices Garmins uses the technology, too bad they had to dummy down the Garmins ETREX series.

If you want quick and dirty, try an ETREK, with computer upload/download cable. It gives you three digit accuracy, and can be found for $55-$80 bucks. Any more, and it is a waste. IMHO

Make sure it has 12 channels (Most modern ones do, and older ones have hard to read screens - i.e. 2000, GPS38's etc). Also, check out EASYGPS, and it gives a guide to which models support uploading of waypoints (not all do). My Magellan 310 only output data, did not allow inputting..only DGPS corrections.

 

Welcome to Geocaching!!

Hope that helps...

Computerdood

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Even though im a Garmin Person, the Sportrak Pro would be a better GPS than an eTrex Legend. It is more durable and receives signal better. I have an eTrex Vista and find the tracklog can be messy due to a poor signal. The eTrex was the only GPS that gave me problems on the same running route that I used other Garmins and Magellans on.

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