jeepdelfuego

I don't read the cache description or hint until I've searched for at least five minutes.

12 pack of New Castle Bag of peanuts or almonds

I agree. The best place to start is with a price range. Then, what you will be using it mainly for. Hiking and Geocaching go hand in hand. But, some people may ride bicycles, fly hang gliders, parachute, kayaking, etc... I am a die hard Garmin loyalist. Yet, just looking at the Garmin models is daunting in itself. There's a zillion Nuvi's, Dakota's, Etrex, Rhino, and 60x series to just name a few. I think there are far too many models out there to choose from. Then, you have to look at the map detail that you are looking for. Topo, marine, or routing? So, we are all eagerly waiting to help you out. I'll most likely recommend a Garmin model. But, I know there are a lot of other good GPSr's out there made by Delorme, Magellan, and other manufacturers.

Since you are a premium member, create pocket queries with the gpx option selected. Each pocket query can have 1000 geocaches in it. Put a couple of these in the /garmin/gpx folder on either the unit, or the sd card. This will give you 2000 geocaches with the hints, descriptions, and last five logs. It's pretty cool. Oh, to see the hints, logs, etc..., select a geocache and select Go. Once you are navigating to a cache, go back to the menu and select geocaches to see the hints and logs. Go to the Garmin Oregon Wiki to see how the paperless geocaching works at http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/Geocaching. Caching with the Dakotas and Oregons is the same.

Great idea! I have the same trickle-down technology strategy here, but I don't usually initiate it with a loss/find event. But it's a great idea for all the recipients.

At the following link you can find the latest software for your unit. Install the USB and the unit drivers. Then, let us know if you continue having problems. Venture HC Software

You have to delete the gpx files that correspond to each cache, or load new pocket queries. These files can be found on the unit's /garmin/gpx folder, or the the /garmin/gpx folder on the micro sd card. The unit looks for gpx files in both of those places at startup.

One of my friends just told me to not keep any geocaches on my unit. Ugh, that's not an option. I can't believe nobody has had any issues with this. I really don't want to load less geocaches on my unit. Have you done the recent 3.52beta update? It's supposed to fix the POI hangup. Linky I like the 3.52 beta update, but it doesn't speed up my POI issue. Today I am going to take some maps off the unit to see if that works. If it doesn't, I will call Garmin on Monday. I have the marine maps, city navigator (full install), topo2008 (3/4 of U.S.), and a couple of other misc. maps loaded on the unit. I don't have them all enabled at the same time. I have different profiles set to view each map. I guess I am a bit too map crazy and geocache (4500+) happy.

One of my friends just told me to not keep any geocaches on my unit. Ugh, that's not an option. I can't believe nobody has had any issues with this. I really don't want to load less geocaches on my unit.

At the risk of losing my Platinum Membership. I can't let this go any longer. I will let all standard members know the requirements for a Platinum Membership. A Platinum membership only goes to platinum members. A platinum member has all of the following attributes: 1. Owner of the latest GPS technology which is able to enter platinum coordinates. 2. Must have found a minimum of 10 platinum geocaches. 3. Must have found a platinum geocache within the past 3 months. 4. Must have an activated platinum coordinate decoder. 5. Must have possessed a Top-Secret Clearance from the military, or governing sanctioning body, within the past 7 years. 6. Must have access to platinum 900 number. 7. Must have at the minimum 3 platinum travel bugs in circulation with each traveling 10,000+ miles in three continents that are surrounded by a major ocean. 8. Must be ready to geocache at a moments notice. 9. Can never leave the home without at least two qualifying GPSr units 10. And, most importantly, must hold a valid platinum license issued by the local governing authority.

I don't know what file to download... that is my problem. I looked all through the GPX folder and can't find anything. I just finished doing this when I went from my Oregon 300 to Oregon 450. You can also do it with Basecamp. Transfer all of the waypoints to the Library from the old unit. Then, transfer them to the unit which you want to send them to. It only takes seconds. The Oregon 200, 300, & 400's handle waypoints differently than the Oregon 450's and 550's. On the 450's and 550's, there is a gpx file by date that holds all of your waypoints.

Give it to her - she might feel better about it then. Lucky for you that nobody picked it up before you did - and that it still works! I'll give her the Oregon 300 to replace her Oregon 200 and give the Oregon 200 to the kids.

Yesterday, I found my Oregon 300, which I thought had been stolen out of jeep, in the backyard of my old house! It makes me feel better about my new neighborhood because I thought one of my neighbors had reached into my Jeep and took it. But, I was an idiot and hung it in a bush to not scratch it and completely forgot about it while I was moving. Yesterday, my friend and I went to the old house to mow the weeds and he bumped it with the lawn mower's wheels! I thought about not telling the wife that I forked out $300 for an Oregon 450 because I knew that she would kill me. Anyway, these units are tough because it survived extreme temperatures, and a couple of storms, outside for two months! I wasn't sure if it would start up, but I put a new set of batteries in it and it started up fine. The only thing that happened to it was that the screen protector was no longer see through. I have to say that I am very impressed with how tough these units are.

One of my friends just told me to not keep any geocaches on my unit. Ugh, that's not an option.

This weekend I noticed that whenever I search for food & drink / all categories on my Oregon 450 that it takes FOREVER to give me a list. My wife has the same City Navigator 2010 map on her Garmin Oregon 200 and her unit gives her a list in a moment. I originally attributed it to the 450 being a slower unit. Then, I did the same search without any geocaches loaded on it and it gave me a list instantly. I have just short of 5,000 geocaches loaded on my unit and my wife has 2,000 geocaches loaded. I'm not sure if I like this trade-off. Anybody have any ideas?

Oregon 450, touchscreen is the way to go! Not that I don't have a biased opinion.

I've hidden about 10 (25% of my hides) of them to drive people nuts in an urban setting just to get back at the people who have made me look for nanos! :-) Plus, you can't blame people for hiding them because they are real cheap on the internet. What drives me crazy is having to hike through the woods to find out at the GZ that the geocache container is a film canister. I want to at least find a tupperware container with some stuff in it. On all of my nano hides, I do mention that they are looking for a nano. So, yes, I think that their should be a nano attribute added. Not because I don't want to look for nanos, but to be able to fine tune my search possibilites.

I have no problem with them, but some people have gotten bent out of shape over religous tracts.

I just created 2 cache filters on my Oregon 450 & Oregon 200. I then shut them down and started them back up, and the two filters were still visible.

Oregons and Dakotas have an issue when (re)loading new gpx files. The way I understand it, the GPS has an internal database which gathers it's information from the /garmin/gpx folder. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, the unit will hang when you delete old files and then replace them with new ones. What many of us do is delete the pocket queries from the /garmin/gpx directory, then start up the unit with the folder empty. This seems to reset the internal database. Then, hook up the unit to your computer and put the new gpx files into the /garmin/gpx folder. Finally, start up your Dakota and everything should be just fine. I am not sure if this is a bug, or just the way you are supposed to do it all the time. By the way, the best places to find information about your Dakota is the Dakota Wiki or the Garmin Oregon Wiki. Both the Oregon and Dakota work the same when it comes to Geocaching.

It seems kind of silly that their own software is not able to use the custom icons. But, I will definitely post this on their site.

I've had my Oregon 450 for about a month now and used it very little. But, so far, I am very impressed with the USB transfer speeds, the screen, the 5,000 geocache limit, and the wireless transfer. I've used (own) the Oregon 200 (wife's), Dakota 10 (lost), Oregon 300 (stolen), Nuvi (sold), a couple of Legends (long story), and a Pioneer DVD navigation system that I hate on my motorhome. So, I am no stranger to GPSr's and how they work. What I have noticed on the 450 is that everytime I create a waypoint, a new waypoint GPX file is created with the current date. When I received my Oregon 450, I transfered my saved waypoints that I have acquired over the years and transfered them to the unit. The Oregon 450, or Basecamp, created a waypoints.gpx file with all of them in the /garmin/gpx directory on the unit itself. This was fine because there was only one waypoint.gpx file initially. Now, weeks later, I have over 20 waypoint gpx files, with different dates in the name, in the /garmin/gpx directory and it seems a bit cluttered. So, I opened them up and saw that the files are easy to manipulate. I cut and pasted the waypoint info from all of those files and placed them in the original waypoint.gpx file, deleted the rest, and the waypoints show up just fine on the unit. This means that if you want to de-clutter the /garmin/gpx directory, you can do one of two things: 1)You can do what I did above, or 2)You can use Basecamp to transfer all of the waypoints to your computer, then delete all of the waypoints on your GPSr and finally transfer them back to your GPSr. One of the recent software releases for the Oregon x50 units has allowed us to use custom symbols on our units. I forget how I did it, but I added about 20 symbols to my Oregon 450 and I am using one or two of them with my waypoints. My question is, how do you make Basecamp use these symbols? I noticed that when I transfer waypoints with custom symbols to Basecamp that it shows a dot in place of where the custom symbol should be. I need a life because this is bugging me!

Garminfone Link Anybody know about the Garminfone? Is it new? Is it worth switching to T-Mobile to use it?

wrong move there..... cover those beans in chocolate....and eat'm on the road! bbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttttttttttttttttttt Then, I could share my inner-beans with whoever is riding with me. What was this discussion about? Oh yeah, loading a lot of geocaches. I have since changed my mind and I am not going to keep loading 29k+ geocaches into GSAK on a weekly basis. Not because I don't want to have them handy. It's just that I don't want to have to spend extra time using GSAK, not that I don't like GSAK. What I have now decided to do is use 5 pocket queries that have little overlap and include all the geocaches placed within 40 miles from my home. This will cover 1,256 square miles of geocaching territory! I will have the queries run once, or twice, a week and download them directly onto my Oregon 450. Less time on the computer leaves more time for geocaching.

I've never owned a 60x series. But, I've owned a Garmin Legend, Garmin Legend Hcx, Garmin Oregon 200, some Nuvi model, Dakota 10, Garmin Oregon 300, and now a Garmin Oregon 450. The display issue that most people have complained about has not bothered me at all. Tilting the unit a couple of degrees one way, or another, would make it readable in direct sunlight. The Dakota 10 was brighter than the Oregon 200 or Oregon 300. But, the resolution was not as good and the screen was smaller. For me, the trade off between the Dakota and Oregon series is size vs. resolution. I'd go for the resolution. I haven't even touched upon the touchscreen and the paperless geocaching capabilities. The touchscreen is soooooo easy to use. Once you use a touchscreen hand held GPS, you WILL NOT want to go back to some kind of navigation that uses a knob, or wheel. As for WAAS, heck, I thought it had been working all along on the Oregons. I guess it has finally started working with a recent update. It didn't affect my geocaching capabilities because I found around 600+ geocaches with my Oregons last year. Some may say that my opinion is biased. But, I am just telling you about my experience. I read a great unbiased comparison between the 60 series and an Oregon 450 at the following link: Review Link