I've had a Garmin GPS 12 for several years. It's pretty much bullet-proof and runs on AA batteries. It's not WAAS capable, but it is rugged and still in production (a major plus)!

My .02 You probably would be happier with a little bit higher model with a basemap and maybe some memory--you just can do so much more with them. My .02

So far as I've been able to tell playing with the Foretrex 101, there is no page that simply shows you your current coordinates. The way to do it is to hold the "Mark" button down for two seconds, which creates a temp waypoint that you can save or not.

I like the little thing, especially the way it straps on your arm. It picks up a 3D Differential Fix in no time flat, even in my car or house. I had fun driving around with it today.

I just glanced at the manual online , and I figured out how to do it.

I looked in the appendix, under "Data Field Options", and under "lat/long" it says "trip computer only".

So, you can display your current lat long on the Trip Computer page. Go there, and change one of the fields to "lat/long".

Not an easy decision to make.

I want a GPS too, I thought I wanted it for my backcountry fishing and hiking/snowshoeing trips, but I figured it would be nice to use the GPS on the road also.

In order to have a decent GPS for the road along with basic maps, the package gets much more expensive. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I was considering the Geko 201 (129$ CDN) but it uses AA batteries and has no maps at all. The Garmin eTrex Legend and Venture are nice units but i'm not quite ready to shell out 200$+ for a GPS without a real serious need.

I prefer buying 5$ camera bag pouches and small survival items with that 200$... lol

The Geko series all uses AAA's, I'm pretty sure.

http://gpsinformation.net is a very informative GPS users' site.

I really haven't felt the need for a computer interface despite being a computer guy. I've also been ok with mapless units. Even without a map, GPS's are great for finding your way back to someplace that you have a waypoint for.

Thanks for the info on changing the data fields. I hadn't even looked at the scroll bar on the side of that page. Now I have it set up like this:

Sunrise/Sunset (1/4 screen each)
Speed/Heading (1/4 screen each)
Location (1/2 screen)
Elevation (1/2 screen)
Time (Full Screen)

So I can see at any given time:

Sunrise/Sunset
Speed/Heading

or

Speed/Heading
Location

or

Location
Elevation

or

Time

I just wish the time on that screen displayed seconds and date, but seconds and date are available in the Waypoints screen (one button away).

Also, I stopped by the local West Marine today for something unrelated and discovered the Garmin GPSmap76 on sale for $199. Nice unit at a great price, but the interface is atrocious. For my current purposes, the Foretrex 101 is a better choice. Perhaps I'll pick up the GPSmap76 for my car...