GPS Review: Geomate.jr
The Geomate.jr is a great and easy to use Geocaching tool that works just like a GPS unit but is fully loaded with hundreds of thousands of caches that you can find.
Ease of Use, Performance: 20/25
Look & Feel: 22/25
Features 20/25
How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 82/100
Geocaching is a fun sport where you go out and find containers that others have hidden using GPS coordinates through a website called Geocaching.com. Using a GPS unit can be sort of hit and miss not with finding the containers but with loading coordinates and all that messing around with the GPS units themselves.
Now the people at Apisphere have created an easy way to find those Geocaches without any messing with the GPS units with the Geomate.jr. The Geomate.jr is a handheld GPS unit that has preloaded Geocaches that you can find by simply turning the unit on and checking for the closest caches near you.
The Geomate.jr uses regular GPS satellites to get coordinates in the usual way all GPS units do by triangulating the position of the unit using three or more satellites. Once you have found enough satellites the unit simply lists the closest caches in order of the position closest to the unit and not ones you have already found.
The Geomate.jr has three buttons on it, power, an arrow button and a page button for simple navigation and to tell the unit you have found a cache when you do. One button simply scrolls through pages on the unit like Geocaching, a code for the caches, compass and position in latitude and longitude and list of found Geocaches.
Using the Page button you can scroll through the various settings on each page like the list of Geocaches you have not found, the various pages on the compass and position and the found cache list. When you do get close to a cache the compass simply counts down in feet from miles until you are very close and then it’s up to you to find the cache that will be hidden near the end coordinates.
Caches are containers like ammo boxes but some can be as small as hidden key boxes or even small pill bottles for micro caches so finding them can be tough according to the difficulty rating of the cache. Once you find the cache you can go on the internet and log into Geocaching.com to log your visit to the cache according to the cache code on the Geomate.jr.
The Geomate.jr is an easy to use GPS unit that uses simple preloaded caches but some caches near you may not be preloaded, that’s why I would recommend purchasing the Update kit along with the Geomate.jr. I did not get a chance to try out the update kit as it was not yet ready for sales when I received my Geomate.jr for review but this would be the only way I would want to purchase a Geomate.jr.
The Geomate.jr is a great way to find Geocaches but it does also work as a regular GPS unit as long as you don’t mind having to flip through pages to get the full coordinates. When using the unit the latitude will be on one page and you have to continue to press the Page button to go to the next page of the coordinates.
Other than this all other functions work just as well as any less expensive GPS unit and you have the usual heading, latitude, longitude, and satellites signal listings that most other GPS units have. This unit does not have a memory that you can use to track your whereabouts or hikes but it does have a home location you can set such as your house to have a constant location set on the GPS unit.
The Geomate.jr is a fun and easy to use GPS unit that is preloaded with over 250,000 Geocaches all over the world but I would definitely want to purchase the update kit along with it.