Help me recommend a GPSr for a newbie

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I got an email from a storyteller friend on Thanksgiving. Seems that somehow the topic of geocaches came up as they were stuffing the bird, and Tina AKA “Plasticpetunia” now, knew all about it because she knows me. They went out and found a cache while the bird baked.

She is part of a different team, a tandem storytelling team, and she wants to get a GPSr for her friend and telling partner for Christmas. Colleen is tech-impaired, (although Tina could help her) so she wanted to know if there is one that she could get for her that would be good for “fun and travel,” that is user friendly.

Any ideas?

[cheezehead]

Well, all I have ever used was Garmin products. But my first GPSr was a blue Etrex. If you look, you can find the yellow Etrexs for under 100 bucks. JMO.

[furfool]

My first and only GPSr has been the yellow Garmin etrex. It is about 7 years old and I have never had a problem with it. I have dropped it numerous times, even on concrete, and it keeps on going. I love the thing, but I have decided that it is time to up grade to one a bit more sophisticated. My wife ordered the Garmin map60cx. My son will get my old one and I told him that I reserve the right to use it as a back up if need be. I see the etrex on sale for about $89.00 and regular price at about $99.00.

[Team Deejay]

While my first GPS was a yellow etrex, and it is about as bulletproof as they come. The problem is that, because it is a serial interface, and doesn’t come with a cable, it probably isn’t the best choice for a technophobe. It also doesn’t use any sort of maps, so it is not usable for auto navigation. Basically, it is fine for a beginning geocacher (if you add a cable) who can handle a serial interface. It is probably the cheapest GPS out there that CAN download waypoints, but that does little good if the owner can’t get the serial interface to work.

My thoughts would be to move up a level to a mapping unit with a USB interface. For a Garmin, the cheapest would be an eTrex Venture HC, which has a color screen, USB interface, mapping capability, and the new high sensitivity chipset. The only negative is that it has 24 MB of map memory, but no capability to use a microSD card, but this is probably not important to a technophobe user. You can find one online for around $170.

[3 Hawks]

My first GPSr was a Blue eTrex Legend. Nothing fancy, but it usually got the job done. It is fairly inexpensive, nearly indestructible, bounces nicely down the road at 25 mph, and only looses reception in the very thickest of cover.

My new GPSr is an eTrex Vista HCx. Unlike the Vista HC, it has a micro SD slot so you can utilize all of the after market mapping software. The price on the HCx is around $280 to $350, so it might not be the best option for a beginner.

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