What GPS Receivers Are Available?

OK, so I need a receiver to be able to locate myself and to find a cache. What do I buy? How much will it cost? What does it need to be able to do?

The most important feature of a GPS for someone who intends to use it for Geocaching is that it be portable. You want a hand held GPS.

The three features you MUST have beyond that are:
You will need to be able to mark waypoints.
You will need to be able to navigate to a waypoint.
You will want to be able to upload the waypoints.

Even if you think you can live without the upload, you will change your mind on this. After entering waypoints and transposing numbers you will realize the computer is more accurate than you are. Any other feature is gravy. How much gravy you want or need is up to you. A GPS that does the bare minimum can be found for less than $100 on the internet. You can also spend over $1000 for some really robust features. That's a LOT of gravy.

What about GPS enabled phones? You might want a GPS enabled phone. Not many people are using these for Geocaching yet, so the jury is out on them. A couple of cell phone companies have Geocaching Navigator, a fee based service that allows you to display cache pages on your phone in addition to using the GPS. If you are someone who wants to be the first one to find a cache, you might want this option - you're always ready to go. However, you will pay and keep paying, eventually paying more than the cost of an entry level hand held GPS and a free account from Geocaching.com. This is your choice and if this option suits you, go for it.

Talk to people who own GPS units. Read the forums. Everyone has an opinion. Pay attention to the types of problems the owners of various units report. Take note of what units people are using. Ask someone who uses it for Geocaching. While a fisherman may have used one for years, they use it for a different purpose. Ask someone who has owned more than one GPS what they think. I've owned two different brands. I favor one brand heavily over the other, but I also realize my preference is not necessarily the best choice for people who are technically challenged. I need to keep this objective and not advocate one brand over another here, but if you ask me in person, I'll tell you my choice.

There are many brands available, but the two most popular brands are Garmin and Magellan. There are also Trimble, Lowrance and DeLorme among the better known brands. There are others as well, but I'm limiting this list to these five brands.

Why? Because well known, well used brands usually have a large pool of experts that can help you out with their usage. I recommend that you shop all of your options, but finding information on other brands will be more difficult.

What GPS receivers are used the most? The two types of receivers I see most often for Geocaching are the Garmin eTrex Legend and the Magellan Explorist. They are inexpensive and easily found in local electronics stores, marine shops, and on the internet. I see hikers using DeLorme units a lot. I see autos with TomToms.

Speaking of autos, a car based GPS will be of little to no value to you. It will get you to the parking lot. Period. Unless the cache is within 50 feet of the parking space, it will be useless beyond that.

Do your research is the best advice I can offer. That, and make sure the GPS you select allows you to do the three things I recommended above.