Hi all again,

Thanks for your further replies. It certainly sounds like a very social fun sport, one we look forward to being a part of - hopefully bringing something to the sport as well as taking pleasure from it.

We've just been looking at upgrading the GPS to a Magellan Sport Trek (I think that's what it was called!) - if we trade-in our old 300, we get it for a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. Anyway question is, does anyone know what they're like? Any feedback on reliability etc? Is there much difference in accuracy looking for waypoints etc?

The Magellan Gold looked pretty sweet but for the extra memory we didn't think it worth the cost.

Thanks for your input.

Pandora & Tony

Hi guys, welcome to the sport!
Any GPS will do, there is virtually no difference in actual accuracy between a $300 eTrex and a $1000+ wizz-bang unit. It all depends on what features you want, like mapping, digital compass etc etc. These features are nice but by no means essential. Many cachers (us included) use a bottom of the range eTrex.

Regards
Dave

Maybe you should catch up with Alex.
He is an active cacher in SA (And Aust) and also runs a map shop ! (YES!!).

He retails Magellan & Garmin GPS's, and is a wealth of info. give him a try, I always say you should support those who support the sport.

http://www.cartographics.com.au

Depends on the dollars that you want to spend as to what GPS you decide on.
I have just read your first no find log....OH DEAR.
Try caching in the daylight first. I think it would help.

Hi Snifter
Thanks for the insight. Daytime might be better and believe me when I say the Lord & Master said more than Oh dear!
We were looking at the Sportrak Map at $479.00 with a trade-in that seemed to be reasonable to us. We've been trying to find some info on it on the net to compare with others. So if you know anything about this one any info would be good.
Wish us luck we're going out again today.
Tony & Pandora

Hi Tony,

I'll admit that I'm an eTrex fan, and haven't really used a Magellan before (even though I work for the company that designs and manufactures them!), but after playing with a friends new Magellan Meridian ($350 brand new on eBay (imported from the US)) the other night I can offer this comparison:

There were a few negative factors to the Magellan Meridian I picked up straight away.
The first is that it's HUGE compared to the Garmin eTrex, around twice the size. This in my opinion is a big negative. A larger size is heavier, more akward to use, and will look a bit suspect when you are doing extreme urban caching. The eTrex has the advantage of looking like a mobile phone and it fits almost completely in your hand, and many a cacher has pretended to make a phone call when people walk past!

The second negative point is that the Magellan does not have a hook for a carry strap. The eTrex has a hook on the bottom for a strap, and I use a thick shoe lace in a loop so that I can hang it around my neck when climbing over obstacles etc. This is just SO handy, I don't think I could live without it.

The third negative is that the buttons on the Magellan are not designed for true one hand operation like the eTrex with it's buttons on the side. Sure you can use the Magellan with one hand, but you have to kind of shuffle it around a bit to get your thumb in the right position - really annoying. Could be easy to drop when shuffling around like this too. It's certainly not designed for small hands.

The fourth negative was that when turned on it came up with a disclaimer, and you have to press "enter" to accept the disclaimer before a set time or it switches itself off! Geeze!

Did I find anything on the Magellan that was better than the eTrex?:

I did like the larger display which seemed to have a bit better contrast than the eTrex.
Being a more expensive unit it did have a few more fancy features. I liked being able to display both UTM and DDD.MMM.MM co-ords, very handy.

I didn't actually use it under geocaching conditions, so it wasn't a really fair comparison, but I found the Magellan had too many negatives already to recommend it over the eTrex for geocaching.
That's my initial thoughts anyway.

Sorry to all you Magellan fans out there, corrections invited!

Regards
EcoDave

Thanks for the plug, piggy. Briefly my thoughts:

At the very bottom of the market my pick would be the new Garmin Geko 201 over the eTrex(slightly less capable, more expensive), Magellen 310 (less capable) and Geko 101(no external power or computer capability).

At the lower mid range my clear choice would be Magellan SporTrak over Garmin 12(less features, near obsolete) and Garmin 72(slightly less features, bulky)

At the mid point I choose Meridian over Garmin 12XL & II+(less features both), Magellan SporTrak Map, (less map expansion potential). The Garmin eMap would win win here if it were waterproof and more robust.

At the higher end I favour the Meridian Platinum over Gold, SporTrak Pro, 76Map, 76MapS, GPS V and top of the line eTrex.

And up the top of the pile, the Garmin Street Pilot III just so you have someone to talk to when caching on your own!!!

On the subject of interface/button placement it is very much what you are used to. The transition from Mag 300 to SporTrak will be very smooth - moving from the 300 layout to an eTrex will be quite frustrating.

If you need further help ...(sponsors message coming up)... sales@cartographics.com.au

Cheers

Alex