Poindexter

It does not have a basemap nor can any maps be uploaded to it. It comes pre-loaded with points of interest data including worldwide cities, and nautical navigation aids such as lights, buoys, sound signals and day beacons. You can also upload other points of interest from their Mapsource cd's. It does have a "map" page that will show your waypoints and the points of interest but no roads or land/water features. Yes, you can upload/download waypoints, tracks, and routes with your computer.

And that vehicle is on the list of vehicles with special windshields that contain metal in the glass.

Hmmm, lots of strange things in the news today. Here's another interesting article. A recent law passed by the US Congress will literally change the way people look at the world. The Cartographic Reorientation Act of 2003, which was attached as a rider to the massive 5036-page Department of Interior appropriations bill, didn't initially receive much attention, except from a few lobbyists for the GIS industry. But this bill has far-reaching consequences. The Cartographic Reorientation Act of 2003 mandates that by the year 2010, all maps produced in the United States must be printed with a viewing orientation of South to the top. The introductory text of the Cartographic Reorientation Act of 2003 explains that this map reorientation is being done for two reasons. First and foremost, the increased accuracy of the Global Positioning system has made most maps obsolete by exposing cumulative surveying errors heretofore unknown. Maps which have been reoriented will have to meet strict certification requirements. Secondly, key individuals in the Bush Administration have long believed that the counter-clockwise rotation of the earth when viewed from space along the axis of the North Pole is an indication that the North Pole is at the bottom of the earth. Congressional watchdogs doubt these explanations for the Cartographic Reorientation Act of 2003. These skeptics believe that the legislation was attached by lobbyists on behalf of Vector Mapping Incorporated who wanted to gain an infair competive advantage over the raster mapping industry, which will suffer greatly increased costs because of the high costs inherent in the distribution of rasterized maps. Others point to the Alaska Travel Board, which has already registered the trademark, "The Land Down Under". When pressed for details Alaska Senator Ted Stevens said "no comment", and walked away from this reporter.

I forgot to say that I read somewhere else in here that they are working on this problem and it should be fixed soon.

You can get that by clicking the poster's name, then click "view recent posts by..." and then click the posters name under "author" and it will take you to the geocaching.com profile page for that person.

Try here

Your signals may not only be coming through the windows. Check your sat page. I pick up good signals through the roof when on the second floor and in the family room which has no second floor and sometimes even get weak signals through both floors. This is also a good way to see the significant difference between using the internal antenna and an external one.

BeDoggy: Wow, you really do have a serious problem. If you really think you know everything and can never admit when your wrong or even consider that you might be, and must ramble on and on just to satisfy yourself, I suggest you stay out of these forums.

In the case of the Garmin Map76S, it has built in tide tables, alarms for Anchor drag, approach and arrival, off-course, shallow water and deep water (with depth via serial port), it has preloaded navaids and gives sea temperature with input via the serial port. It's also waterproof and floats. It also is BlueChart compatible which is Garmin's exclusive marine cartography.

Hey Mopar, you took the words right out of my mouth. Now I can bow out of this debate. I too am an FCC licensed technician as well as an extra classed ham with 27 years in the electronics field. I could say more about this guy but I think I'll just clam up...with a grin

You should really do something about that inferiority complex you have.

Where I'm from, we have regular caching "events" where several caches may be placed in a park for the event and they are usually left there as regular caches after that. There's one area I know of with 10 caches within a half mile radius.

No you don't have to. For each set of files you import, you can have different properties. Just click on one of the pushpins of a set and then click on "Data" then "Data set properties" and any changes you make will be made for all pushpins in that set. This is for S&T 2003. May be a little different for other versions. Once you have everything the way you want it, save the file in S&T so you can just open the file next time and not have to import each time.

Hey BeDoggy, thanks for a good laugh

Yes, been doing this for while also. I also use Microsoft Streets and Trips for planning the order of which caches to do for the day and getting directions to them. Also check out GEM which will give you more up to date color aerial photo's. You know, if you have an OnStar system in your vehicle, you can tap into that for input to your laptop if you don't want to use your handheld GPS. Ain't this fun

Radio waves are not light waves and are not reflected by glass unless that glass contains some type of metallic material. Radio and light waves are both part of the electromagnetic spectrum but are certainly not the same thing.

Only use EasyGPS for transfering data to your GPS. Do everything else in GeoBuddy. You can open more than one .loc file at once and then click the "merge files" button to automatically create a new .loc file. Also in GeoBuddy, you can set your preferences to see your lat/lon as DD MM.mmmm and if you don't like your caches named in the GCXXX format, you can have it create the waypoint ID from the waypoint name. I am doing the same thing you are importing the caches to S&T. It works great! Ok, now I also see what you mean about the different coordinate formats. Use this free, quick easy to use converter to change the format. [This message was edited by Poindexter on March 29, 2003 at 07:04 PM.]

The 76 in not a mapping unit and is available for around $220.00 The 72 is also non-mapping and runs around $145.00 The 76 has a higher screen resolution and an external antenna jack. Both are marine units.

These are not datums, they are coordinate systems. When working with topo maps, I use the UTM grid. Much much easier to use than Lat/Lon

As you can see from this excellent page on the subject, the greatest increase in accuracy occurs within the first few minutes of averaging.

quote:Originally posted by smillersmiller:I love how a lot of people have totally missed the point here. Looks to me like you need to read his post again. Magellan's are cheap because they are of a lower quality than Garmin just like a Dodge Neon is to a Ferrari 550.

My Garmin MAP76S does averaging as do some other Garmin units. Averaging can significantly reduce position error depending on how long you do it. 20 to 30 minutes to reduce error 50%

You've been a member for 9 months and you haven't done any caches yet? What the heck have you been doing? Anyhow, do a search for caches in the area you want to look for them from the hide and seek page, download them as an .loc file, download EasyGPS from the links page, set your eTrex serial port to the garmin mode and upload the waypoints (caches) to your gps using EasyGPS and go find some caches! By the way, you can download a more detailed manual from the garmin website.

Garmin GPSMap76S or Garmin GPS V. The two best quality handhelds available today. Stay away from Magellan. You'll regret it and then you'll upgrade to Garmin.

I too, am coming up on #100 and am contemplating a challenge. If your a paddler and are willing to go a little further south in Maryland this one looks good if you take one of the longer routes. Iv'e paddled all up this river many times and it's a beautiful place to see. I assume the cache is still there, it's only been found once in the year it's been there. Iv'e done a few at Patapsco Valley State Park but didn't have the one your looking at on my list. Anyway, good luck at which ever one you go for.