geocaching

smudger1946

Mornin All,

I'm thinking about taking up "GEOCACHING"
don't know much about it just the basic stuff, I understand it is best done with a hand held gps, as I need to change my mobile phone soon I thought it may be more economical to buy a go faster mob with a built in GPS?

I see a hand held GPS can be a Hundred quid and more, my thinking is a mob for a similar price with GPS built in would be good on PAYG.

Any advise would be helpful?

Smudge

DatabaseError

Hi, smudger.
I'm a geocacher, so probably have half a clue what you're on about

There's a big debate over dedicated GPS vs phone, but I use both and can hopefully make it simple, a handheld will generally have better accuracy under cover (deep valleys, tree cover..) but in an open environment they'll both give you the same. Even under the worst conditions a phone is usually good enough.
The big failings of a phone are battery life, with GPS on and an app running (I have an android and use neongeo which cost a couple of quid,and c:geo which is free) my phone will only last a few hours, not much use if you have an 8 mile walk ahead of you and you're relying on it to find your way back to the car (been there, done that ), but with a pocket full of spare batteries which you can get cheaply enough on ebay that problem is fixed, you have a gps in your pocket with access to great maps wherever you go (OS25k mapping is great ).
Another downside is one I've not had myself, but friends have. If I drop my GPS (etrex 30) in a stream I'll probably get my feet wet retrieving it, but the unit should be ok. iPhones don't fare quite so well. I carry the GPS on a lanyard around my neck in all weathers, from sunshine to raging blizzards without a care
So, I'd probably stick with the phone until you've found around 100 caches, by that time you'll know if you want to pay the £20 for premium membership of the site, and if it's worth a few quid investing in a handheld GPS

Are you the smudger that I remember from the CCL forum? If you are I suspect you might be local to Bradford and there are some great series around there

Tony

smudger1946

Smudger from down soufff.

Thanks for info I will give it some thought.

Smudger