Geocaching

Ok, Drakino got me all interested in Geocaching this weekend at the meet - I've found a new use for TopoUSA.

Oh, and when I drove home yesterday, I stopped in a truck stop before getting on the highway to get some beverages. They had an electronics section and they had the very same Garmin GPS receiver - it was over $500. That sounded a bit high to me.

I kind of got interested in it too but not enough to pay $500 to get started. I hope they can be found cheaper than that elsewhere.

Tom told me he paid $300 for his brand new. That price is much more reasonable.

The cheapest GPS V I see on pricewatch is $459.

My own GPS receiver is a Magellan something which was $260 at Fry's. Has a display.

Laura, if you just need coordinates and compass directions, you can almost certainly find something for on the order of $99, maybe a bit less.

I don't remember, do you have a Palm device? I recently got my wife something for hers for $40.

Well after getting lost in the wilds of Oxford trying to get to Brookville I think a GPS would come in handy for other things just besides the geo-caching.

I guess Pricewatch isn't the best place to look for the GPS V. Amazon has it for $400 new, which means yolu can get it cheaper new and probably a good bit cheaper used.

Oh well.

Your mistake in Oxford was turning. The directions involved following 732 south, which we were already on when you turned left off of it.

I looked at the map on my laptop, guessed you were confused, and went straight

I'll blame it on my navigator He's not around today to defend himself.

I picked up my GPS V for $350 delivered off of ebay. They are going for more now for some reason. I think because they now include the entire US instead of just one region.

I kind of got interested in it too but not enough to pay $500 to get started

Hmm I guess I forgot to mention that the price at that place was probably marked up - way up - due to its location. All of the electronics in that store were way overpriced.

Well after getting lost in the wilds of Oxford trying to get to Brookville I think a GPS would come in handy for other things just besides the geo-caching.

I have a base-model Garmin eTrex that I got for $99 and I leave it in the car mostly but take it with me when traveling. The rubber edge on the unit has allowed me to jam it between dashboard and windshield in most rental cars I've had. Makes a nice compass (mostly), and what I have done is to set waypoints that I wanted to return to (like hotels, train stations) so that I could more easily indulge wandering/exploring on secondary roads. Plus, You can set your watch to it and it is handy for those "Are we really doing 186MPH?" moments.

Are we really doing 186MPH?" moments

Yeah I had a top speed of 143 MPH in the boat this weekend. While I dream it could ever go that fast, the 72.6 was more accurate...

$375 is what I found mine for, with overnight shipping and the one unlock code. It could probably be found for even lower now, as most of the single unlock code versions were on liquidation sale.

And remember, you don't need a GPS V for Geocaching. It works very well for it, but it's strong point is the street navigation. A simple handheld GPS works fine for Geocaching.

My bad. Still a good deal at $375. If I could get codes for all the data (which I think you said you can do now), I am very tempted to buy this.

www.geocaching.com

a place to start

Yeah I had a top speed of 143 MPH in the boat this weekend. While I dream it could ever go that fast, the 72.6 was more accurate...

Whew. Lucky thing. At 72.7 bit of fiberglass start coming off, don't they??

Well, we were actually doing 186, but *I* wasn't driving. I was having a beer and a sandwich in the dining car!

Well, we were actually doing 186, but *I* wasn't driving. I was having a beer and a sandwich in the dining car!

Oh I thought you were talking about the times when gets of of sync with the sats for a second and thinks you moved faster than you did...

And the fiberglass only comes off when you hit something at 70+, the boat should get to the high 70's once the water and air cool off. I love my boat... Can't catch many fish at 70+ but it sure is fun getting to where ever I'm going!!!

Thanks for the link! This seems like something I would love to get into although I dont have the money at the present time to purchase a GPS. I did, however, find a cache less than 5 miles from my house. I hope to adventure with this some more fairly soon.

There's a cache less than a mile from my house. Too bad the only useful way to walk there from here involves trespassing on railroad tracks (even if they are infrequently used)

Found out tonight my brother has a Garmin GPS that he never uses and that I'm welcomed to borrow it any time I want. Now I can go find some treasures.

There's a cache less than a mile from my house. Too bad the only useful way to walk there from here involves trespassing on railroad tracks
That's become a huge problem with geocaching. In Arizona the authorities have been finding archeological sites disturbed and even pillaged and finding geocaches on the site, which are off limits to the public. While it is a fun and interesting hobby, please respect private property while geocaching.

I just saw an ad last night in my Backpacker magazine for the Garmin Rino GPS - its an FRS & GMRS radio with GPS receiver (or a GPS receiver with built in FRS & GMRS radio, depending how you look at it)

I checked it out online - the good one has mapping for North and South America with cities, highways, street level, topomaps, etc etc and it can be had for less than $300.

If two users are using these radios with eachother, the location of user A will appear on user B's map on their Rino. That is sweet!

Oh, check the info out here.

Yeah, the "Deluxe" GPS-V includes all seven NA regions rather than just one.

One of the better buys I've found so far is the "Garmin eTrex Vista GPS", for C$542 (about US$345) at Mountain Equipment Co-op. Larger display, most of the same features, plus altimeter and "real" compass.

Still searching.. (curses to Drakino!)

Maybe some already do, but why cant they just incorporate a CF reader into GPS receivers so you can hold more map data and more details?

A GPS receiver made its way onto my birthday list. Hopefully, one will make its way into my hot little hands.

A GPS receiver made its way onto my birthday list

You have someone to give a list to? *sigh*

The Magellan brand line includes models that accept SD (Secure Digital) cards up to 128MB.

I've read through various user manuals, and the Garmin V seems to be the only small GPS unit that does auto-routing-of-driving-directions. The Garmin Vistas seem to lack this, as do all of the Magellans. But then, how useful is that anyway?

Cheers

very. =]

That's why i bought the V in the first place. It's awesome for geocaching... just road route to the cache which will drop you on the closest road, then switch to directional mode and start walking. I use it for trips and such all the time.

and the Garmin V seems to be the only small GPS unit that does auto-routing-of-driving-directions...But then, how useful is that anyway?

As Loren said, very. I've used mine to get to Geocaches all over the city, getting driving directions outside the city (it was VERY useful when I went to Quakecon), and it's also very useful for my motorcycle trips to see where I went.

I wish I had the unlock codes for the Ohio area for a better demo at the meet.

Well, actually, since he apparently caught my sinal virus, no further curses are necessary for the $800 hole in my wallet today .

I just ordered the Magellan Meridian Platinum GPS along with cables and MapSend data for Canada/USA, plus a 64MB SD card and USB reader for it.

Sigh.. geocaching is incredibly addictive..

I guess maybe us new addicts could meet and have a support group to talk about our addiction. I'll look for a place that has a high density of geocaches, of course.

I'm waiting to see if a GPS is given to me, if not, I have my eye on a few.

Yeah.. I'm busy right now uploading detailed street data to the SD card on my unit, to help me find my way to this eventual meet.

16MB of map data seems to cover all of Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec, which is pretty good. There's room on the 64MB card for three more areas of that size/detail as well.

Cheers

Give me advance notice so I can borrow one.

Maybe the next meet we won't get lost now

no further curses are necessary for the $800 hole in my wallet today

Oh, right, Canadian money. Now I don't feel so bad anyhow

Okay, words to the wise here..

I borrowed a friend's "Garmin eTrex Legend" mapping GPS unit for a couple of days. Loads of fun, but not terribly accurate for the final 20m (65') or so to the geocache. And maps of Canada basically suck except for downtown Toronto Montreal Ottawa or Vancouver.

The reason for the eTrex inaccuracies seems to be that the built-in antenna/receiver sucks. Under light tree cover, it picks up only 3-5 satellites, and loses WAAS too easily. Inside my living room, it gets zero satellites. On the front steps, it barely gets a lock on 4 satellites.

So, I didn't buy one of those. Instead, I got seduced by Magellan's claims of "7m accuracy" versus Garmin's "15m accuracy" numbers. Well, not really -- I went with Magellan for the expandable map memory capability.

But.. the accuracy claims turned out to be true, at least when comparing (unfairly?) the eTrex with the Magellan Meridian Platinum. This new beast locks solidly onto 8 satellites + WAAS from my living room. It gets 8-9 satellites from the front doorstep. And back at the same bloody geocache in the trees it was getting 9 satellites + WAAS, and I practically tripped over the same geocache box when it said "distance = 1m".

Wow!

Having no experience with any of this, it seems that the accuracy of a hunter's GPS receiver is moot if you don't know how accurate the cacher's GPS receiver was. Sounds like you got lucky with that one, but consider what might have happened if you'd placed it with the Garmin in hand.

Ugh.

Okay, other activities are definitely suffering now.

And you know what? I don't care!

Geo-Caching is a blast! (with a good accurate GPSr).

In case anyone else here is curious.. I'm also mlord at geocaching.com now. Had the unit for only six days, found 16 caches, placed two new (popular) ones already. Whew!

Cheers

looks like we need to take volunteers on maintaining Hijack