My brand new Garmin 60CSx arrived this morning so I just had to christen it by finding it's first cache at lunchtime.

Much has been written about the accuracy of this SiRF III receiver "x" model so I decided to run a little test of my own at a cache with tree cover. With the help of The Haigies, we took five GPSrs: Garmin Emap, Garmin Etrex, Fortuna GPSmart (a SiRF II receiver), Magellan Sportrak Colour and the 60.

We watched the number of satellites locked on each GPSr and also the claimed accuracy. The variation from one to another was surprising, but we found following levels of performance under light tree cover:

The Emap was worst having a lock of 2-4 satellites, followed by Etrex with typical lock of 4-5 satellites, GPSmart with 6-8 satellites, Sportrak with 7-8 satellites and the 60CSx was best by a mile with an almost continuous full lock on all channels.

Once we got to the cache we spread them out and allowed them to settle. The 60 quickly arrived at it's final decision, claiming coordinates which were the average of the others.

Overall the 60 has really impressed me and I'm completely won over by it's performance.