The good news for me is that my wife has expressed quite a bit of interest in geocaching. I'll have to get her a GPS as a present. :D
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The good news for me is that my wife has expressed quite a bit of interest in geocaching. I'll have to get her a GPS as a present. :D
What are some good GPS's I should look for? Not looking to spend an awful lot on this new hobby (yet ;) ).
Need more than this. I have seen GPS from about $100-$3000
A good one in the...
$400-$500 range is the Garmin Colorado
$300-$400 range is the Garmin 60 series
$100-$300 range is the Garmin Etrex
These are the only ones I am familiar with. If that doesnt help be more specific on a price and options you want your GPS to be able to do
the more you want to use the GPS for navigation the more you will need to spend. The cheaper units do not usually have map capacity. While they will keep track of where you go, they can not tell you where you need to go. For example, they may show the coordinates as a quarter mile to the right but the only way there is a road that takes you 2 miles away from the cache until it turns up another ravine and heads back.
If you want urban navigation plan on big bucks. I have a very basic etrax which I bought on ebay for $60. Works fine for geocaching with the navigational limitations taken into account.
Thanks. I've got a Timex Speed and Distance running watch with an associated Garmin GPS, but it doesn't do the waypoints or anything. In other words, I trust the Garmin brand. Thanks for that price breakdown.Quote:
Need more than this. I have seen GPS from about $100-$3000
A good one in the...
$400-$500 range is the Garmin Colorado
$300-$400 range is the Garmin 60 series
$100-$300 range is the Garmin Etrex
These are the only ones I am familiar with. If that doesnt help be more specific on a price and options you want your GPS to be able to do
I may start inexpensively and just see how it goes, then move up as necessary. Thanks guys.
I'll second Roadtorque's recommendation to decide what you want from a GPS, and then find the model that suits those goals.
The Garmin handheld models are nice for the money, and have gotten even nicer with time. I owned one of the earlies eTrex models from a few years ago (grayscale screen, slow position acquisition, lost signal easily), but replaced it about a year ago with one of the newer models (eTrex Vista HCx) and it has been just fantastic (color, good resolution, great battery life, fast acquisition, doesn't lose signal, etc). All of the eTrex models are pretty rugged too.
The drawback is the cost of expanded maps. They are more expensive than you might at first think. Garmin also limits maps that you buy to being used on only one GPS unit (no sharing if you own multiple devices). Expanded maps aren't necessary for the basic functions, but are nice to have for more advanced use (detailed road navigation, topographic detail, etc).
edited to add - I don't use my GPS for geocaching, only for navigation.
My wife and I just got into geocaching. We have 11 finds so far. It's a lot of fun.
A buddy and I have been out on a few caches around here over the past week. I'd like to get more into it with the family. I'm using the Garmin Legend. It's an entry level GPS and you'll need google maps to get you in the ball park usually, but once you're in the park it will point you in the right area. The rest is up to you, but that's the fun part isn't it?
I use the Garmin 60csx also. The things that attracted me to this unit was the more powerful antenna (works really well on the trail, under tree cover), has settings and modes for geocaching, expandable memory with the micrSD slot, and a color screen.
This thing can take some abuse and holds up well.