G.P.S. question

[lonehunter]

Hey Dave ,
I know you do a lot with the G.P.S. CLUB , Geo-chasers ?
I'm thinking of upgrading my unit an old garmin 38 .
What are the clubs views on a good reliable one to get ?
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[davetclown]

Garmin Etrax is your minimum, it has trail, it has 500 memory numerical/alfabedical you can give each location a name... night light, compas.
[ul] [li]It dose not have map. [/li] [li]it dose not have a computer port to down load locations. so when cachin you have to enter each location by hand. if you are not a primeir memeber of the geocache.com site you cant down load to your gps unit any way. on the other hand you cant up load from the Etrax to your computer.[/li][/ul]
the newer ones have not only computer ports, but the more you spend the more you can get on the unit... you have to justify to your self the added feature cost of the more expencive units...

I dont know about the 38, if it is 2 place behind the desimal then you will be estadic with the newer one, it has 3 place behind the disimal, wich gets you a good 50-100 feet closer to your target...

the two place decimal unit you can miss your target on either side or both north west south or east... I have hunted with guys with those older modles, and they have come up well off the mark.

I have had the same unit since I have started, and it works better than some of the phone gps units on the market today... I have been out on the feild with guys back to back with each unit and on several hunts mine has come in closer on target...

the yellow garmin Etrax runs about $85, it is fairly easy on the batteries, so I use the dollar store double "A's" cold dose effect battery life so keep it in your pocket and pull it out when you need it.. or pack extra duracells...

the price has not come down on hand held gps units in the last 5 years, wich I find suprizing...

the garmin uses this code
N 42° 34.577 W 083° 34.162

there are other units that use this code
UTM: 17T E 289135 N 4716963

I like the garmin code, where as both codes will take you to the same place, you can copy and paist the garmin code in to google earth and it will take you to the location on google earth, and if you know the area your location is you can see how close your garmin and google earth is.. and if its real close you can almost see the out house on top the hill....

geocache.com has thier own web site and forum, but since we dont realy promote thier forum I cant realy send you there.. I can tell you if you sign up for a free membership there it will get you in to their forum...

you may want to ask the same question on our not nessisary fishing board..

maybe even on our boating board, lots of guys are using gps in their fish finders... and some still using hand heald units too...

I use mine for ice fishing, some days I am on the mark, other days I am off about 10-20 feet.. but close enough I can get back on the fish...
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