Garmin eTrex Summit

I was introduced to a fascinating new hobby, Geocaching, by a review written by scalywitch in Ciao Café. Geocaching is basically a modern version of treasure hunting combined with orienteering that employs advanced technology to locate the cache. Scalywitch's review highlighted the need for a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS). I initially used my TomTom as a portable GPS to successfully find my first caches. Now completely hooked, I realised that to continue with the hobby I need a unit that was lighter in weight, more compact, waterproof (a number of caches are hidden by water and ... more

I won't delve deeply into the details of how GPS works. That would take ages and you might already know. But in case you don't - suffice to say that there's a bunch of satellites orbiting the earth. Each one sends out a time signal along with it's unique identifier. GPS devices know about each of the satellites and where they are in relation to each other so, by working out the time difference between each of the signals sent by each satellite, the GPS receiver can work out where on earth it is (literally!). With that out of the way I will try and explain why, after two years of owning a "bog ... more

I won't go into the details of how GPS works as there are a number of reviews round these parts that do a good job of explaining it. What i will do is explain why, after two years, I decided to upgrade my trusty old (bright yellow) garmin eTrex to a shiny new (silver) eTrex Summit. Garmin are well known for their GPSofferings, with the eTrex range being aimed squarely at people who enjoy the outdoors. The old yellow eTrex (review in the appropriate category) was, and indeed still is, at the bottom of the range. This is not to say it's a bad product, but after a few years of use, I started to ... more