Garmin GPS60
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Garmin GPS60

 
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Lodainn An Ear
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Joined: 15 Jan 2009
Posts: 93

PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 9:47 pm    Post subject: Garmin GPS60 Reply with quote

Hi,

My bluetooth GPS receiver has packed in. Crying or Very sad It's no longer connecting to my PDA. I had tried a number of caches with the PDA's built in GPS but it's rubbish if there is a tree within 50 feet - hence i need a replacement.

Having checked out the prices it seems a real good dedicated GPS is over £200 - beyond my budget.

| see my options as either buy a new bluetooth GPS receiver or go for a dedicated - rugged - GPS device.

I have my eye on a Garmin GPS60 but note these have no sort of mapping facility. Are they any good for Geocaching? Any other units for a similar price (around £120) you'd recommend?
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ayr_lad
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Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 13
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did a fair bit of investigation on this when I ended up going for an Garmin Oregon 200, which seems to have gone up by £60 since I bought it. Sad I was orginally debating between the Garmin Vista HCx and Legend HCx. The Legend does everything that the Vista does except Barometric altimiter and electronic compass, which I wouldnt use. You can get a less accurate height reading from the GPS satellites.

The legend has mapping capability and to the best of my knowledge you can use the excellent Talkytoaster maps http://sites.google.com/site/talkytoasteruk/ukmaps that I use on my oregon. This gives you Openstreemap roads and the SMC contours.

You can get it for £129 on Pixmania http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/792102/art/garmin/etrex-legend-hcx-gps-for.html?srcid=867

Hope this helps.

ayr_lad
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Lodainn An Ear
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Joined: 15 Jan 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks,

the legend looks pretty good... but the Oregon looks the dog's bits.

Might see how much cash is left after Xmas and go for that! where did you get it for cheaper?
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cooltshirt
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Joined: 03 Jan 2009
Posts: 71
Location: Auld Reekie

PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a Vista HCx with a 2gb card and use talkytoasters routable maps. It's perfect for me. It doesn't do 'whereigo' s but that doesn't concern me.
I haven't even got rechargeable batteries yet as it seems very economical on ordinary ones.
If you can wait until after new year there may be a sale but I notice that the prices hold up well on eBay.

good luck
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ayr_lad
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Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 13
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lodainn An Ear wrote:
thanks,

the legend looks pretty good... but the Oregon looks the dog's bits.

Might see how much cash is left after Xmas and go for that! where did you get it for cheaper?


I'd say if you can get the extra cash together, go for an Oregon, I love it! It does paperless geocaching as well, which helps the environment Very Happy . I sometimes carry paper Sad for some puzzle/offset caches due to their complexity, but I have done some without it. I got a bargain at the time from Amazon at £162! The prices fluctuated a lot when I was looking, so keep an eye on the market.

I did a quick search and the best price for the Oregon 200 is about £180 on Handtec http://www.handtec.co.uk/product.php/1377/garmin-oregon-200, I also noticed that the Dakota 10 is on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179131 for £160.99, not sure about the functionality, but it the little brother to the Oregon series.

Cheers ayr_lad
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Acronema
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Joined: 02 Jun 2008
Posts: 68
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am a long time user of the Vista HCx, primarily for botanical fieldwork in remote areas where I need the barometric altimeter, and the long battery life is a real advantage too. This unit is also very good for geocaching in the UK, especially with base maps loaded.

However, this is a quickly changing field with constant developments and it is difficult to keep pace. I must admit that I have not caught up with Oregons and I would like to know how their battery life is and if they have barometric altimeters too...are they are possible replacement to my trusty HCx?

With phone/handheld technologies now converging it will surely not be long before they include the high sensitivity antennae in dedicated GPSrs and their (assumingly) better averaging/decoding algorithms (and use of augmented systems?)? I know others on this forum are way more knowledgeable about the teckkie side of this so I would be interested in their comments.

My iPhone with inbuilt GPSr, electronic compass, always on internet connection (mobile broadband signal permitting) and GC.com app loaded is getting close to an ideal all-in-one real-time system for geocaching. Its great for paperless caching and the Palm tungstan I bought a year or so ago to run cachemate is now gathering dust in the drawer (does anyone want one?!)

Improvements in the iPhone's GPSr sensitivity will be needed to make my HCx redundent for homing in on GZ, and new versions of the GC app will need to include full support for multis (and other cache types that deviate from the standard single location - go find it caches).

I am sure that other similar systems will appear for Android phones not before too long, so I expect quite a few discussions on these as technologies develop.
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Lodainn An Ear
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Joined: 15 Jan 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

theres a GPS60 CS (not x) on gumtree that i was considering but after a bit of research i find that it does not have the high sensitivity sensor that those with X in their names have.

i guess the legend/vista hcx models might be the best bet if an Oregon cannot be sourced within my price range.
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Acronema
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Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Definitely go for a high sensitivity antenna as these are a major improvement over the earlier models.
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