New to Geocaching

[LJ]

🙄 Our son is getting married on July 4th. Our gift to him and his bride is going to be a GPS and get them into geocaching. What would you recommend as the best hand held GPS to get for them? He has a blackberry so if necessary he could download from or to that. I don’t want them to have to deal with paper and writing down coordinates. Also do you have to get a mapping program? If so which is the best. Any help you can give would be appreciated.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

I can’t tell you what model would be best for them. All I can tel you is my opinion of what I’ve used.

I own a Magellan Meridian Color, which was discontinued last year. It’s accurate like no other, but it can be slow to react at times.

It gets reception where others can’t, and the compass is the best on the market.

The only problem I’ve ever really had with my Magellan is customer service. It’s the worst in the industry by a long shot. Maybe the worst customer service in any industry. If you ever need repairs, or even have a simple question to ask, it can take months to get an answer, if you get one at all.

If I ever have to replace my Magellan, I would most likely buy another one. I own a Garmin dash Mount that I love, and I’ve used many Garmin hand held models and really like them as well. The only reason I can see for not switching to a garmin, and I mean the ONLY reason, is the compass.

However, if you start with a Garmin, you will never notice the compass inadequacies. Garmin’s fit your hand better. They have a more colorful display (color screen models), they are smaller, and in my opinion are more aesthetically appealing.

One last thing, and this has come in handy a few times. the Magellan is durable as heck. I’ve dropped it on the rocks and from my bike more times than I can remember and it still works great. It also floats!

[SammyClaws]

As the owner of two Garmins, I can afirm that the compass is very annoying. However we, compensate by using the distance to cache method instead. The best part is watching GreendaleSRT4 do the calibration dance.

Other than that the units have worked very well. And the tech support is great. Only one of ours floats – not that we have had the chance to test it.

[cheezehead]

Ummm depending on what Garmin you get, you can turn the compass off.
Another thing to note. Garmin units are the only units that you can download directly to from GC.com…for now at least.

[CacheARRRS]

I also just turn off the compass on my Garmin… unless I need it to pull a compass heading or something and I don’t have my regular old compass with me…

[Buy_The_Tie]

@CacheARRRS wrote:

I also just turn off the compass on my Garmin… unless I need it to pull a compass heading or something and I don’t have my regular old compass with me…

Yup. Me too.

[Gusty Winds]

I didn’t buy my GPS to float or take compass readings with. Bobbers and compasses do a fine job on those counts. Comfort in the hand is probably the greatest issue in my opinion; although the Delorme PN20 is very comfortable, it sucks in use. Give me the old potato (Garmin Map 60C) for comfort, durability, accuracy and utility. Oh and last word: Garmin corporate HQ – Olath Kansas; Magellan corporate HQ – Paris, France… You do the math.

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[GetMeOutdoors]

I’m not really to up to date on techno-gps-stuff but I do know that caching with the blackberry as the GPS is kinda clumsy. However, the blackberry is perfect to go paperless with. See cacheberry (http://www.cacheberry.com/) . It’s kinda like having GSAK on the trail with you. You can even write your logs right there. This costs the $15 but saves you a ton in service charges from not having to go onlline all the time (assuming you have a decent signal in the woods!) Hope that helps 🙂

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