I’ve Been Thunderstruck

Two climbers lost on Mt. Hood were rescued after they stumbled across a local geocache. The pair got lost in a whiteout while climbing on the mountain. They stumbled across a geocache as they attempted to find their way down, and rescuers were able to use the cache coordinates, along with other information, to help find the pair. It’s an amazing use of the information that comes along with geocaching!

There’s been quite a lot written lately about the Garmin Colorado series of GPS receivers lately. I decided to check out the product at their web site, and do a quick comparison of the high end Colorado, the 400t, against my 76CSx. Here are the results:

	400t	76CSx
Display Size	1.53″W x 2.55″H	1.6″W x 2.22″H
Display Resolution	240 x 400 pixels	160 x 240 pixels
Waterproof?	Yes - IPX7	Yes - IPX7
Floats?	No	Yes
High Sensitivity Receiver?	Yes	Yes
Waypoints/Favorites/Locations	1000	1000
Routes	50	50
Track Log	10,000 points, 20 saved tracks	10,000 points, 20 saved tracks
Built In Memory?	Yes	No
Data Card?	SD Card (not included)	128 microSD card (included)
Preloaded Maps?	Yes (topographic)	No
Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar units)?	Yes	No
Picture Viewer?	Yes	No

All else being equal (more or less), that sums it up. I do like that the 400t has internal memory, into which you can load maps, and that it accepts SD cards (I have more of those from my cameras than I do microSD cards). The picture viewer might be kinda cook for viewing hints or something. The fact that you can transfer info from similar units would seem to be beneficial only if you know somebody else who has one! And, since I use mine when I kayak, I certainly appreciate the fact that the 76CSx floats!

The 400t seems interesting, and I would like to get my hands on one to experience it myself. For the meantime, however, given the price of these things, I’ll stick with my trusty 76CSx. It’s helped me find my way more than once!

thun·der·struck  (thŭn’dər-strŭk’)
adj.   Affected with sudden astonishment or amazement.

This blog is about the things that astound and amaze me. Expect to see posts about the Internet, geocaching, GPS, storage, climate, software, travel, photography, outdoor recreation…whatever catches my eye that I think is worth writing about. Hopefully it’ll be fun for all.