scosun

I’m glad you started this string, I’ve always been curious how fellow geocachers deal with muggles, and cops—specifically. Sometimes I think it could be a lonely day in the hurt locker if such an encounter isn’t handled properly. Typically, I try to avoid talking to anyone. Timing goes a long way. Strangely, I have never in my several months of doing this run into another geocacher while geocaching. I’m sort of surprised about that, or least I thought I’d see people who I thought were geocaching. Here are some of my solutions to remaining incognito: * Urban environments: I’ve held the GPS to my ear, always seems to work. * Suburban environments (the most difficult I think): move very quickly and if you act like you belong there most people go along with it, I try to blend in when possible and if I anticipate an encounter I attempt to vanish. * Suburban environment at night (even harder if you’re using a light): red filter lens, subdued clothing, one eye for the cache, one eye for everything else. I do most of my caching off of a motorcycle, it is always appropriate to squat next to it and check out the engine. * Rural environments: stay alert surroundings and evade others with or without them knowing you were ever there. Thus far it has worked and I’ve certainly been in some compromising situations/places. I think if I were ever cornered I would tell them exactly what I’m doing instead of fabricating a story, but I rather just skip all of that completely.

I bought my 1st GPSr this fall, a refurbished Magellan RoadMate 2200T with the sole intention of mounting it to my motorcycle for touring guidance--it was recommended to me by the motorcycling community (baring the Garmin Zumos, it was my 1st and didn't want to drop serious bank quite yet). Ergo I had specific requirements of a "car navigation system" (i.e. waterproof, no moving part, battery power, big touch screen [for gloved fingers], etc.). I am/was pretty happy with the road navigation--definitely made less errors and safer than trying to fumble with a map and hold the handlebars. Then I was introduced to Geocaching, so I upgraded the RoadMate to Crossover software--and loved it for a time, though the "upgrades" to the navigator were lame and I felt the "directional logic" was less efficient than the older version. It had some crashes and eventually I sent it back for repairs and didn't see it for 2 months. It came back and still has its problems, but only in outdoor mode. The RoadMate (really, Magellan Crossover) is a cool all-in-one concept, or so I thought. Very easy to use and the interface is nice for cars and motorcycles, but not ergonomic for scrambling through the woods. Battery life is only 8 hrs, which is good for a said "car GPSr" but crappy for expeditionary. Long boring story short: I ended up buying a Garmin Vista HCx after talking to a lot of people, salesperons and not. I've only had it for about 1-2 weeks and thus far for Geocaching, tracking bicycle rides, hikes, climbs, and boat trips, I love it, still haven't explored all of its capabilities. Good luck.

I bought my 1st GPSr this fall, a refurbished Magellan RoadMate 2200T with the sole intention of mounting it to my motorcycle for touring guidance--it was recommended to me by the motorcycling community (baring the Garmin Zumos, it was my 1st and didn't want to drop serious bank quite yet). Ergo I had specific requirements of a "car navigation system" (i.e. waterproof, no moving part, battery power, big touch screen [for gloved fingers], etc.). I am/was pretty happy with the road navigation--definitely made less errors and safer than trying to fumble with a map and hold the handlebars. Then I was introduced to Geocaching, so I upgraded the RoadMate to Crossover software--and loved it for a time, though the "upgrades" to the navigator were lame and I felt the "directional logic" was less efficient than the older version. It had some crashes and eventually I sent it back for repairs and didn't see it for 2 months. It came back and still has its problems, but only in outdoor mode. The RoadMate (really, Magellan Crossover) is a cool all-in-one concept, or so I thought. Very easy to use and the interface is nice for cars and motorcycles, but not ergonomic for scrambling through the woods. Battery life is only 8 hrs, which is good for a said "car GPSr" but crappy for expeditionary. Long boring story short: I ended up buying a Garmin Vista HCx after talking to a lot of people, salesperons and not. I've only had it for about 1-2 weeks and thus far for Geocaching, tracking bicycle rides, hikes, climbs, and boat trips, I love it, still haven't explored all of its capabilities. Good luck.

That is correct. Simply add a trailing zero. NOTE: All the formats should "line up", if the unit and the source coordinates are set to the same format. For this hobby, keep your unit set to DD MM.MMMM and everything should "line up". (If you continue to have a problem--and you have determined that you are not "crossing" formats between your source and the GPS unit, give more details and the group can help you resolve the problem.) This has to do with the "resolution", as mentioned above. The more digits you see after the decimal point, the faster the unit will react as you move around. Think of the odometer on your automobile. If it shows only "miles", you must drive 5,280 feet to see the last digit change. If it shows one decimal point, you will see a change in 528 feet. If it showed two decimal points, it would change every 53 feet.* Any level of resolution will do for hunting a cache, where the coordinates are only as accurate as the techniques and resolution of the cache's owner. (There's a cache in a Virginia town where building reflections caused such large errors that the posted coordinates take seekers into a private yard.) Some mapping software may ignore the "leading zero" in the Longitude, but your GPS unit wants to see it. This is necessary because the maximum Longitude number is 180, and a provision must be made for a three-digit Degree figure. You have asked some excellent questions, scosun. I hope this info is helpful..... -Paul- *When measuring distance with a GPS unit, you may notice that it reads in "feet" up to 580, and then switches to decimal miles. That's because you have reached a distance of a tenth of a mile. Paul-- Thank you for your prompt, thorough, and knowledgeable reply. It was very helpful. I took your advice and reset the unit to the DD*MM.MMMM' format. I tested it out on several caches I have already found and sure enough, it's accurate. I think what made me hesitate in the past was the lack of the final digit on Geocaching.com and also that the unit would change the coords after I entered them. For example, my first find ever is listed as being at N 39° 01.474 W 077° 04.265, so I would enter N39*01.4740 (added zero) and W077*04.2650 (again, added zero). I after completion, the unt would display my newly save waypoint's coords as follows: Lat: 39*01.4736 Lon: 077*04.2648 --it altered the last three digits. Why? This scared me at first, ergo I switch to decimal because what I typed in stayed and I rarely had to add zero's --I figured a zero that far down the coord wouldn't matter so much as long as I got close enough to the cache. There were also two other cases that initially had been frustrated and confused, but I unfortunately I cannot seem to replicate them on the unit right now. In one case, I would enter coords (not sure what format) and after completing Lon it would flip back to Lat as if it was throwing out or not accepting what I had put into it. Any thoughts? The second case was after entering coords and the unit generated a line, I noted that comparing it to the small "road map" Geocaching.com gives you, it would be 180 degrees in the opposite direction! Also, if I put the unit into DD*MM'SS.SS" format, Geocaching.com's comparative conversion only gives a single digit for MM' and two additional digits for SS.SS". How would you enter a coord into this? Final question. How do I know, just by looking at coords, what format to use? They are labeled on Geocaching.com as you know, but say I see coords somewhere, how would I determine the appropriate format? What format does my unit read-out if I'm taking a reading on my current location? By-the-way, Magellan got back to me and confirmed that the unit runs on WGS84 Datum and employs WWAS technology. Thank you very much!!! V/R --pete

I have a Magellan RoadMate 2200T that I've upgraded to a Crossover--I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to use my road navigator for Geocaching. That aside, I do have a technical question. I am in the process of determining what datum the unit runs on, but if anyone here has this unit or could can help me out, I'd appreciate it much. The when entering Lat/Lon into the unit, it accepts three different formats as follows: DD.DDDDD° DD°MM.MMMM' DD°MM'SS.SS" Conversions available on Geocaching.com (as you are very-well acquainted with) are: Decimal DDD MM.MMM DDD MM SS.SSS Plus the drop-down menu items of DMS, MinDec, and DegDec. I am confused because the only conversion that lines up is "decimal" to my "DD.DDDDD°" and sometimes a lat or lon will be missing the last digit (for which I've been substituting a "zero"). Furthermore, the latter two conversions include additional "D's", the last an additional "S", and the second to last short an "M". Oftentimes, I will nned to enter a "0" prior to the rest of my Lon as well (i.e. W 077 etc etc) which is not indicating on any Geocache conversion for Lon. I'm sure there is a simple explanation to this, but I'm just not getting it right now. Thanks a lot! --pete