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Gps Recomendation - Geocaching And Street Use


kreat

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I'm not too familiar with all the products out there so I'm looking for some advice. I'd like to find a dual purpose unit that will allow to me do some geocaching as well as serve as a auto navigation unit.

 

I don't need a ton of fancy features like voice audio prompts but something that beeps will be nice. Are there any units out there that will do this? Things like the iQue are a little out of my price range at the moment so I'm looking for something a little scaled back from that.

 

Any suggestions welcome.

 

Thanks

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By far the cheapest solution is to get a PDA and use that for the mapping software.  You can get autorouting and voice navigation for the entire US for $100, plus the cost of the PDA, and have a useful piece of equipment besides.  All you need with this is a basic GPS.

...until you drop it in the creek or hit it against a rock for the first time. Then you gotta get a new PDA! I firmly believe that geocaching requires a durable and water-resistant device.

 

That said, the iQue 3600 can be had for about $400 - $450, and that includes City Select map software valued at about $110. So, that would leave you at spending no more than $290 on the GPSr itself which takes the 60 and 76 series out of the running.

 

So, that leaves the GPS V, Legend C or Vista C.

 

...Just my 2¢ :P

Edited by Neo_Geo
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I use Garmin 76s (not cs) ... it may be available used, MINE is not since it works great.

The 76S does NOT do AUTOROUTING.

 

I'd like to find a dual purpose unit that will allow to me do some geocaching as well as serve as a auto navigation unit.

Kreat specifically mentioned he wants autorouting.

Edited by Neo_Geo
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...until you drop it in the creek or hit it against a rock for the first time. Then you gotta get a new PDA! I firmly believe that geocaching requires a durable and water-resistant device.

That's why you keep the basic GPS for geocaching (which is really all you need); you can leave the PDA in the car (unless you've gone paperless as I have).

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I use my Magellan Meridian Gold for Geocaching as well as in my car driving. I like the larger screen on the Meridians. It makes it easy to see the map on the screen. I also had a Sportrak Map, and used it while driving as well. The screen size made it harder to use while driving. My suggestion is to get one with the largest screen possible and stay away from the smaller screens.

Dont know anything about the Garmins.

Good luck

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I have a magellan sportrak color and use it for both the features you mentioned. mine works great for both. but most new roads and blvd, and city loops are not in the magellan series mapping software. i'd say 99.5% roads are on the map. the only bad feature is the memory holds only 21mb of maps I live in nc and that whill only cover 3/4 of the state and part of sc. I guess it depends on how big the city is for memory consumption.

but over all not bad . definitely worth buying in my option.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/style_ima...p-964/icon1.gif

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I did a lot of research and checked the forums before I decided on the Garmin 60CS. It is fantastic, but i think I made a mistake. I figured I would use the compass, but so far have not. I would buy the 60C and save some money. These units are designed to work as auto-routing on road units like never lost except they beep using customizable sounds to let you know when you should turn. They also have special features just for geocachers including adding found caches to a calender so you can see when you found the cache when you are logging your finds. You can also add comments to the downloaded cache page if you are a premium member and are using the queries feature. I recently took a vacation in Glacier National park. I was able to download maps of the entire trip from southern Idaho to the Canadian border. This allowed me to see all the caches on my route as well as find restaurants, hotels and even the entrance into the park that I needed to get to my campground. The screen size is larger then the new Vista or Legend making it easier to see while you are driving. Can't go wrong with this unit. :( I also own a Magellan SporTrak Pro which is a great unit, but from my research I don't believe the SporTrak Color will do as when auto-routing.

Edited by Night Stalker
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I have the Meridian Platinum, but for geocaching and autorouting in general, the Meridian Gold, with a decent sized SD Card (64 MB for $28 at Wal-Mart) will work perfectly. I love the DirectRoute's autorouting capabilities - it is very easy to use. I just had a buddy find the Meridian Gold, brand new, at Wal-Mart, for $120.00 because they were making way for new product! You can't beat that deal. But, even at full price, you can get a Meridian Gold for $200 and the software will knock you back another $100 - so $330 alltogether - a hundred or more dollars less than any of the Garmin Autorouters - although they ARE nice. My buddy loves the Gold, and he started out with a Garmin Etrex legend and was hardcore Garmin until he got the Gold. If you want to experience these units first hand - go to a geocaching event and ask around and see if anyone will let you use theirs for a cache, just to get the feel - the Magellans are very user-friendly and easy to use. I would also reccomend the Sportrak Pro or Color, but without the removeable SD card, they are a little limited in map-holding capability. (I started with a Sportrak Map, went to the Sportrak Pro, and now the Meridian Platinum. Write me if you have any specific questions about the autorouting.

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I did a lot of research and checked the forums before I decided on the Garmin 60CS. It is fantastic, but i think I made a mistake. I figured I would use the compass, but so far have not...

How do you not use the compass? UNless I'm missing something, even if you don't use the compass rose, where ever the bearing arrow is pointing is based on the internal compass.

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Hi all,

I am new to GeoCaching and wanted to thank all who posted to this topic, it helped me sort out what GPS I wanted to buy for both Geocaching and some Autorouting. I decided on the Meridian Gold as I found it offered with the Streets & Destinations Canada CD and a 16MB SD card for $330 CDN at GPSZone.ca. That seemed a good price for an expandible unit. Now I just have to figure out how to use it :o

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