Fantastic supplemental geocaching tool
I purchased two of these one for my kids and one for a friend.
THE GOOD
For my kids this is the perfect unit. We use the geocaching app on my Iphone as our main geocaching tool to get us into the vicinity and then the kids use their Geomate Jr to get them to the cache. My 6 year old can run into trees with it fall on it etc and it takes a licking and keeps on ticking (much better than him doing that with my iphone!) Because we have already been geocaching we were able to understand how to use this tool after a few button pushes. We did a side-by-side test with my iphone and the Geomate jr and the Geomate updated faster than my iphone and was more accurate under heavy tree cover conditions. Under normal conditions both the Iphone and Geomate Jr updated at similar times and had readings within 2 feet of each other.
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
This tool is billed as the Grab and Go geocaching tool so easy that it will encourage everyone to get in the game. Well not quite. If you aren't already very familiar with geocaching trying to figure out what these buttons mean will just be confusing. You will need to read a book or go on the [...] website before you'll understand what a GC code is or have any clue what those coordinates mean. After you do make a find you can only mark 20 caches as found. You need the update kit to mark up to 99 caches as found (though they represent that it will eventually be up to 1000 found). However these issues are not a big deal because after you buy the update kit and do some reading you're as good as gold.
NO MAPPING
But perhaps the biggest feature that is lacking that truly prevents this unit from being a true Grab and Go unit is the the lack of a mapping capability. For this reason this is best as a supplemental unit. Mapping is important in geocaching because trying to find a geocache by going 3.6 miles NNE is about impossible to drive to. Roads generally don't travel in the direction that your compass happens to be pointing. And by the time you take a road in that general direction the compass will be pointing .6 miles West. You could drive around like this all day. The Iphone app shows the map of the area and where the geocache is located on the map so that you can drive to the general vicinity and then get out and hunt. The work around for this lack of a mapping feature on the Geomate Jr. is to go to the geocaching.com website and print out the maps to the geocaches you want to seek. Of course this relegates you to only planned geocaching trips instead of geocaching on the go because you happen to have a few extra minutes like you can do with the Iphone.
SUMMARY
This is a great supplemental unit and a must have for kids in a family of geocachers. However unless and until they provide a mapping capability on the Geomate Jr. this is not a true Grab and go unit and may not be the best choice as a stand alone unit.More detail ...
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