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oldskoolboarder

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Posts posted by oldskoolboarder

  1. What are the pros and cons or differences of getting a Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx or a Garmin GPSMAP Cx or Garmin GPSMAP CSx... which would you suggest me purchasing?

     

    I wanted a relatively small unit and didn't care about the compass. Because this is just for caching, I didn't care about car nav. I use my Blackberry or iPhone 3G for that. I also played w/ the HCx and 60CX and preferred the ergonomics of the Legend. YMMV. It also helped that Amazon had it on sale.

  2. I have an HCX and use it w/ my Macbook. Yes, it's compatible but you'll have to deal w/ some "tricks" to get the maps over.

     

    The Garmin maps are still formatted for PCs. Garmin posts tutorials on how to convert these to Mac format. I use Windows XP with Parallels so I used Windows to convert the maps and then brought them into Map Manager on the Mac. You can also use Bobcat which is good enough but not fully featured. But it does work on a Mac and is sufficient to track caches.

     

    http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3885

     

    You can also MacCaching to transfer caches but IMHO Bobcat is your best option. Then you can at least use the Garmin maps with it.

     

    Good luck.

  3. Anyone here try iGeocacher? Seems you have to buy it in order to use it.

     

    I was using a Blackberry Curve for a bit and ended up buying Cacheberry. GREAT GREAT paperless caching app, IMHO. Loved how I could sort by those caches that were near me, since the Curve has it's own GPS chipset.

     

    I had a 1st gen iPhone and used PQView which is OK. The problem lies when you are deep in the mountains and there's no signal. No signal, no queries, hence my hesitation on iGeocacher. This is why I liked Cacheberry, I could load the GPX files into my memory card very easily.

     

    I'm waiting for a similar app on the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

  4. You can set the zoom level at which waypoints are displayed. So if you are zoomed in close, you will see the caches, but if you zoom out to a certain point they are gone so they don't clutter the screen.

     

    Here is how it's done in my 60csx. It may be similar in the HCX.

     

    Go to Main Menu ====> Setup ===> Map, then enter.

     

    Go to Map Setup Points, the select User Waypoints and choose the desired zoom level. (I have 1.2 mi which seems to work pretty well).

     

    Great, thanks! That seems to work. Just need to figure the best zoom level for me.

  5. The latest version of GSAK (7.2) has a macro that enables you to load to the Notes on an iPod. Very slick.

     

    Not sure if it will work for iPhones too?

     

    Good to know. Won't work for me on 2 counts though. iPhone doesn't sync to notes, yet... And I'm on a Mac so there's no way to take that GSAK note directly into iTunes Mac. I assume I could use that text file and open it in OSX to move it. I do use parallels for map installations but trying to see how much i can live with on a Mac. Trying Bobcat now.

  6. Newbie...

     

    First time we went out, I manually chose easy caches and copy/pasted the details/hints in an email and sent it to my Yahoo account. Then made sure my iPhone had those emails to have the data in hand. Nice but a bit of work to get it going.

     

    Now, I've paid for Premium membership. I'm going to create a PQ of local, easy caches and get those into Bobcat (or at least try).

     

    I saw a program PQView so I can also view that PQ on my iPhone. However, it's browser based so it needs a connection to run Safari. Sometimes doesn't work out if I'm out in the mountains.

     

    I've seen people use their iPod address books, etc.

     

    Anyone have an easier suggestion?

  7. I looked on geocaching.com and searched here.

     

    I've got the premium membership for the .GPX files. I notice mentions of Pocket Queries and tried to understand what is said on the site. But it's not getting into my thick skull...

     

    Is there a better description someone can point me to? Thanks.

  8. I had some custom maps I was using on a PC that were downloaded already to my Legend HCX. I used MapConverter to convert some maps. It created a .TGZ file. In OSX, I uncompressed it to a .gmapi file.

     

    How do I get those maps into Bobcat? I tried Import but it doesn't highlight .IMG (not surprising), .TGZ or .GMAPI. It only wants .GPX or .GDB. I even tried to drag the maps but no go.

     

    UPDATE: NEVERMIND. I ran MapManager. All maps are in Bobcat.

  9. Much better today.

     

    We chose the "easy" ones near our house, more urban. Our 5 yr old found the first one and she was psyched. Both the wife and I said, this is what it should feel like to do this.

     

    Went to the 2nd one and found it. But then we went 0 for 2 on the next 2. Oh well, we'll go back and try those again when the leaves clear up.

  10. Yeah, we may try tomorrow with more "urban" caches.

     

    Sad thing was that most of these weren't micro caches. Most of were medium/small tupperware containers which I was shocked we couldn't find. We did do a bigger area search as I know GPS coordinates aren't accurate. I do understand that the originator may have also had an inaccurate GPS.

     

    Bummer but we won't give up. It was still kinda fun "thinking" we could find it...

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