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Bragging About My Gpsr


Torry

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If you're still wondering about a good starter unit for geocaching I can definitely recommend the little yellow eTrex by Garmin. There are a lot of fancier units out there and it's not the greatest in the deep woods but it's a great place to start.

 

I've had mine for about a year and 3 months, I've got aver 175 finds with it, and the sucker is cheap and readily available and TOUGH.

 

How tough? I left mine on the roof of my cachemobile and drove off, It hit pavement a few minutes later a 45 MPH. I ripped up the rubber strap and have taped it together but the puppy still works.

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How tough? I left mine on the roof of my cachemobile and drove off, It hit pavement a few minutes later a 45 MPH. I ripped up the rubber strap and have taped it together but the puppy still works.

:bad::laughing::bad: Me too. I have had a Meridian Gold for 9 months, but found the yellow eTrex on sale for a VERY good deal so I got one. We had just finished an early supper and went caching. We got about .5 from the pizza place and I realized I had left my new toy on the roof of the car. At that same exact second, yep you guessed it; it flew off the roof at about 45mph. We stopped the car, and after searching for a bit, we found the little yellow guy STILL ON WITH SAT LOCK and just a minor scratch on the plastic case.

 

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, and his favorite toy of the year just broke, only a few hours old.

 

I am VERY impressed with the toughness of this unit.

:D

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I, too, have a "little yellow".  I have difficulty locking onto sats when under tree cover, and at the slightest bump, it turns itself off.  But, on the other hand, I have sixty finds with it.  And I'm happy with that!  :laughing:

you might want to check your batter contacts if it turns itself off as you say -

 

streatch the spring contacts a little for a tighter contact - put a little piece of foam in such a way as to keep the batteries from bouncing if you can - on the lid or whatever cover yours uses. If you have the flat spring type of contact for the common connection try a piece of open cell foam behind the contact.

Edited by CompuCash
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I have difficulty locking onto sats when under tree cover,

 

Turn your unit on well before you enter the woods. No GPS will easily find sats cold, under heavy tree cover.

 

Also be sure to hold it properly. For the eTrex to get a good signal, it must be held flat, face pointing the sky. You should be walking kind of like a waiter holding a tray. I've seen people carry them hanging from the laynard around their necks, or in their hand at their side, or clipped to their belt. The eTrex will not get a good signal when in these positions.

 

I owned a Legend and now have a Vista. The first month I had my Legend, I was very unhappy with it. Then I learned how to use it and now I rarely lose a lock even under the heaviest tree cover and the few times I do, I get it back within seconds.

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Thanks for the help, Briansnat, but that is exactly what I do. I have learned that wide open spaces, like a Wal-Mart parking lot, are the best places to turn it on. And I do hold it horizontally for the most part, though, if I am alone (which is not often), I do let it drop on its lanyard. It's hard to bushwhack with just one hand. :(

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I bought a Legend for my wife yesterday - arrives tomorrow -

 

great deal - $130. So I will learn about patch antennea vs my Magellan.

 

Check Amazon - Walmart had it for $137 - would have run down to the local store but called first - refused to honor there web price in the store - told 'em I'd buy it somewhere else.

 

Downloaded the manual - she studied on it last night - looks like a nice unit.

 

Does anyone have one of the new Magellan Explorist series units? Is the display really as bright and clear as the photo shows? The photo is really impressive. I wonder if they took the photo in dim or no light with the back light on?

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Does anyone have one of the new Magellan Explorist series units? Is the display really as bright and clear as the photo shows? The photo is really impressive. I wonder if they took the photo in dim or no light with the back light on?

I dont have one but I do know that they dont have a PC interface which makes it a bad choice for the serious geocacher.

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I've been thinking about looking for a Yellow E-trex to leave in the glovebox. Half the year 'Ol Rusty goes topless w/no secure place to store my Meridian. And I was, mostly, happy with my old Legand.

:lol: Best Buy here in NM has them for sale for $49.99 on clearance. I've had mine for a few years and it works well... never had one problem with it. Now, it has become my backup unit and the unit my kids hold while we look :mad:

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Does anyone have one of the new Magellan Explorist series units?  Is the display really as bright and clear as the photo shows?  The photo is really impressive.  I wonder if they took the photo in dim or no light with the back light on?

I have just recently become aware of geocaching and could not wait to try it out. Needed to get a GPS'r and I used a gift certifcate from Amazon to purchase the magellan explorist 100 for about $100. Although I have nothing else to compare it to, this unit seems to suffice quite well. I was in extreme tree cover on one occasion and it did not go offline. The accuracy in distance and mph when travelling in our cachemobile is uncanny, I could not believe it! The backlight does work extremely well in the dark, offering two levels of intensity which make the screen easy to view. Hope that helps and I hope I am posting this correctly..........my first time at this as well! Good Luck! :mad:

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I have had a little yellow for almost a year and a half now. I just learned about GeoCaching a couple of days ago, I am already having dreams about doing some cool hunting.

 

I bought my 'Little Yellow' at the PX here in Honduras for $120.00, and I used it when I was on the Search And Rescue (SAR) team. Just abouth the coolest 'Gadget' that I own.

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If anyone is interested. I bought 2 from Circuit City for $45.00 each. Best Buy has them for 49.99 on their website . Called CC and they said they would price match, all I had to do was print out the price from the BB website and just bring it to the store. Went to CC and not only did they match the price, they took an addtional 10% of the price.

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We have had our yellow e-trex for a year now. It has worked great despite mishandling by the kids and myself. It has made more than a couple of unexpected trips. Like "whoa!", out of the hand and to the bottom of the creek! We got it as a freebie from a buddy who got it free from another buddy. Can't complain about the cost of that!

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We got it as a freebie from a buddy who got it free from another buddy. Can't complain about the cost of that!

I also have a 'little yellow' and it has done me well. It started out as my 'ma' star of team tigger, gps. Well she has now a emap and I use 'little yellow' as my own. I have been caching for a bit over a year now and have over 350 finds with it. I do lose satilites everynow and then but I love my 'little yellow'.

sides 'little yellow' was a freebie for me. gotta love that.

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Does anyone have one of the new Magellan Explorist series units? Is the display really as bright and clear as the photo shows? The photo is really impressive. I wonder if they took the photo in dim or no light with the back light on?

I have the eXplorist 100 and it's a very nice little unit. The display is clear and clean, with adjustable contrast and a soothing amber backlight. It's tough and quite accurate too-- I'm very impressed so far with its performance.

 

As another poster mentioned, the largest drawback is that it has no computer interface for downloading waypoints-- however, I don't have any use for that myself, as I download waypoints by hand, and usually only a few at a time, so the lack of computer interface isn't an issue for me. But it will be for some. YMMV.

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I don't have the "little yellow" but got a better deal. I guess Garmin made some of the "yellow" with a camoflage cover on it. I set out to get the yellow and saw the camo version on clearance.

 

The yellow was suggested retail price of around $100 but the camo version was half off. The sales guy said it was the exact same functioning model but no one was buying the camo for fear of dropping them and not being able to find them. So I saved the 50 bucks, bought the camo and put a big yellow smiley face sticker on it.

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I don't have the "little yellow" but got a better deal. I guess Garmin made some of the "yellow" with a camoflage cover on it. I set out to get the yellow and saw the camo version on clearance.

 

The yellow was suggested retail price of around $100 but the camo version was half off. The sales guy said it was the exact same functioning model but no one was buying the camo for fear of dropping them and not being able to find them. So I saved the 50 bucks, bought the camo and put a big yellow smiley face sticker on it.

I think the camo actually has some additional functionality...or so I'm told. The not being able to find the GPS is a consideration. I once put my grey Vista down on grey rocks and it took me over an hour to find it. I can see that happening a lot with a camo GPS. It might be a good idea to get a small length of orange flagging tape and tie it to the laynard.

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It just warms the cockles of my heart ( and they were some mighty cold cockles) to hear from all the other fans of the little yeller feller. I get rather depressed at times hearing about the newest and bestest high-dollar toys the next guy always has or is getting.

 

Tell me more,

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We used a little yellow for our first 400. Now we will try our yellow and a blue when it comes. Yes, we will keep our great little yellow but we each want one to use and not have to follow along blind. We will just have to see how the bells and whistles add to it. I think yellow is the way to start.

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I've had the etrex yellow for a 1st gps a lil over 2 1/2 years ago, it always got me where I wanted to go, and if you get an interface cable, and mapsource metroguide you dont get the maps on it, but you can still get a guided route to where you want to go( the gps tells you when to turn). I just got rid of ole yellow last month, and got an etrex legend...got to love it,...it is just a yellow on steroids haha...but for a 1st GPS nothing beats the ease of use of yellow, every commands are to the point and easy to understand(4 buttons) -move up one, -move down one, -enter, -and page up.

 

So thumbs up for etrex yellow for being easy to use, really affordable, accurate, and reliable

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I too started out using the yellow eTrex. I've since upgraded to the Vista and love it too. However my Vista is far more senstive to heavy canopy and overhead interference. I never remember losing SAT signal as much with my yellow baby.

The basic eTrex is also a great tool for beginners and those that are tech-phobic. By placing a "practice cache" 200 or 300 feet from home she learned to enter coordinates and navigate in no time on her own. This technique works especially well when the "practice cache" has flowers or gifts.

In response to the unit turning off when dropped or jarred. My theory is that it is due to space between the battery cover and the battery compartment. A quick fix is to place a small piece of cardboard between the battery cover and batteries. This will keep the batteries from moving in the empty space. Since doing this on my Vista I've had no problems.

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I am new to GPSr and wanted to know what is the Little Yellow good for besides Geocaching?

I's okay as an all-around GPS. No maps but it'll keep track of your route. It'll work for hikers and fishers wishing to keep track of co-ords and locations. I've also used mine as a compass and to mark sites for my job as a delivery driver.

 

It also makes a handy paperweight and is a fascinating accessory to eveningwear.

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I often find myself saddened that I sold Old Yellow. It was my navigational friend for well over 500 hiking/backpacking miles. While I never located a geocache with it, I’m happy to say it led me to the most important cache at all once, my basecamp. Several years ago, I was solo peak bagging in early fall at a little over 13,000 feet when a big time storm hit. Despite the near zero visabiltiy, I was able to use the eTrex track to navigate perfectly back to my campsite during a storm that dumped almost a foot of snow during the time it took me to backtrack those 8 miles. Given the conditions and area I was in, that would have been quite difficult to do without the GPS in those conditions. I'm sure it would have taken me considerably longer without old Yellow, which would have been a bad thing considering how poorly prepared I was for the blizzard. (Sadly I very much Knew better, just got careless) To this day, I consider that tent and warm sleeping bag to be the best cache I ever found.

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Funny I should find a thread about this.

 

Visiting my family this Thankgiving, my grandmother had found an eTrex at a yardsale and gave it to me. I had no idea what it was at the time. It was very dirty, missing the glass over the screen, and actually had water inside of it. Needless to say, it wasn't working.

 

Having little else to do that morning, I cleaned it up a bit and put a hairdryer to it. A half hour and a fresh pair of batteries later, it worked great, and a geocacher was born. Having a pretty poor natural sense of direction, my eTrex goes everywhere with me, and any noteworthy or frequented site becomes a waypoint.

Edited by Toadslick
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Does anyone know what kind of cable/software I would need to download waypoints to the eTrex? Does it have a specific name? Do you know where they are available and about how much they cost? Thanks, Dave

easygps or GSAK (Geocaching swiss army knife) are both great software to use for waypoint management.

 

As for the cable, it's a garmin etrex data cable. Check ebay, there are always several on there for relatively little moeny.

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I've had mine for about a year and 3 months, I've got aver 175 finds with it, and the sucker is cheap and readily available and TOUGH.

I agree that they are tough little buggers and cost almost nothing nowadays.

 

Living in a wet climate (Vancouver) many days in tree covered areas when it is misty, drizzling, or just raining really are terrible for the little guy. Signal loss and then aquisition for a few seconds, only to find out it is logging coords for UTAH. :D WTF :D

 

I am new to geocaching but have had the yellow guy since it first came out and it is still kicking! I can hardly wait util I upgrade to a GPSMap60C. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :D

 

mrking

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Thanks for the help, Briansnat, but that is exactly what I do. I have learned that wide open spaces, like a Wal-Mart parking lot, are the best places to turn it on. And I do hold it horizontally for the most part, though, if I am alone (which is not often), I do let it drop on its lanyard. It's hard to bushwhack with just one hand. <_<

I have heard from the people I go out with, that GPS' don't like hard surfaces like pavement or stone.

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I bought a Legend for my wife yesterday - arrives tomorrow -

 

great deal - $130. So I will learn about patch antennea vs my Magellan.

 

Check Amazon - Walmart had it for $137 - would have run down to the local store but called first - refused to honor there web price in the store - told 'em I'd buy it somewhere else.

 

Downloaded the manual - she studied on it last night - looks like a nice unit.

 

Does anyone have one of the new Magellan Explorist series units? Is the display really as bright and clear as the photo shows? The photo is really impressive. I wonder if they took the photo in dim or no light with the back light on?

The Legend is up to $135 at amazon.com as of this afternoon, but that is still a lot cheaper than the $170 Circuit City wants. They didn't have any of the Etrex Yellows.

 

The Walmart up the street from where I live no longer carries GPS systems of any kind :rolleyes:

 

Ah well. I debated between the Yellow and the Legend... and a GPS Map 60c briefly. A lot of folks here seem really happy with their Yellows and Legends, so I think I will start off with a basic unit. After a lot of reading and research, I've decided to order the Etrex Legend becuase it has a few more bells and whistles on it. I'm finally going to order it this month as I should be getting my income tax refund in a few more days -- talk about incentive not to procrastinate on filing the old income tax eh?

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