marnen

If you have a suitable phone, maybe you can use Geocache Navigator rather than buying a GPSr right away. This might be particularly good for the kids. Oh, and you don't have to put "LOL" after every sentence.

See my post in this thread for how I do it. Also look at MacCaching.

Start by spending some time with the manual, if you haven't already. Well, it's hard to know with such little information. But if I had to guess... ...I would say that it's one of two things (more experienced people may have other ideas). First: make sure that your GPSr is set to use the WGS 84 datum (basically, a particular frame of reference for the coordinates), since that's what Geocaching.com uses. Second, there are several common formats for coordinates. Geocaching.com uses degrees and decimal minutes (such as 41° 02.500'), so you should too if you're typing in coordinates from there. Again, this will be an option on your GPSr. The other possibilities, which you should not be using for geocaching, are degrees, minutes, and seconds (41° 02' 30") or decimal degrees (41.041667°). (BTW, all three examples in this paragraph are equivalent.) Does this help?

I believe you were misinformed. In order to use a phone for GPS, it needs to have the hardware to receive GPS signals. Some phones have such hardware, but your Treo 180, as far as I know, does not, so installing GPS software won't do a bit of good because there will be no signals coming in from the satellites. However, once you get a GPS receiver, you might want to take a look at CacheMate. It's a cache-management program that runs on Palm OS (I don't know if the current version will work on your Treo, but an older version should). Good luck!

I started out not really caring about the trading aspect -- I rarely take or leave anything when I find a cache. Threads like this largely reinforce that lack of interest. For me -- and I'm not trying to speak for anyone else -- it's all about the hunt. It's hard for me to get excited about some trinket. Trackable or unusual items are another matter, though.

I put them into PDF files and view them with PalmPDF. You could also use the image viewer (Media) that comes with Palm OS.

MacCaching claims to be able to do this too.

Probably. I have had good results with my Palm T|X, and the Z22 seems to have many of the same features, except that file transfer may be a little harder since it doesn't have WiFi or Bluetooth. You will likely want to install PalmPDF and/or CacheMate.

What language? I can translate from German, French, or Russian into English pretty well, and other languages (Spanish, Italian,...) a little less well, so I may be able to help.

It has been my understanding that the almanac data is internal to the GPSr, based on its calculation of satellite orbits. That's why it can give approximate satellite positions even without a signal.

I wonder. I've found all my caches in Battery Save mode. I use lithium batteries in my eTrex Legend, but not because I think the navigation's any better. The dadgum thing just eats battery power so fast that anything else doesn't last! Maybe I will try rechargeables at some point. Edit: I did not type "dadgum". This language filter is a bit overzealous, methinks.

Actually, it sounds like you're doing exactly what you should be. 8 meters (25 feet) is a typical range of error for GPS. When you're that close, you have to just be clever and look around.

I have a Legend, which I generally like, although it is showing its age. I believe that if you buy the detailed map package, it will autoroute. Of course, I haven't done that, so I'm not sure.

Then get another copy. I don't know what kind of GPSr you have, but Garmin and Magellan both have product manuals available for free download; other manufacturers probably do too. If you don't have the manual, then you don't have the information needed to make the best use of the device you paid for, so you've wasted your money. How far have you tried to move? GPS is typically only accurate to about 20 feet at best. Almost certainly.

Every GPSr is different. But... The screen that looks like a compass will probably have a pointer that will show you the direction to the cache. For other navigation features, check your GPSr's manual.

I find the TopoZone link on the cache page very helpful too, at least for U.S. caches. It will show you a U.S. government topographical map of the area, so you may be able to see the best approaches.

Yeah, purple containers would have been more noticeable. Seriously, there's no particular "theme" to microcaches other than size and the absolute impossibility of finding many of them. (In fairness, I should add that I've found a couple of pretty cool microcaches this week. I particularly liked this one.)

I know I can rename the files after download, and that is suitable as a workaround, but it adds an extra step in the process which shouldn't really be necessary. Besides, it doesn't fix the root problem, which is that the name of the file as first downloaded is completely uninformative regarding its contents. It would be trivial for the application to be modified to use the waypoint name as a filename, which is why I suggested it. (As a developer myself, I would expect to spend no more than 5 minutes implementing a change like this.) Anyway, GSAK is of no use to me since I don't use Windows and have no interest in using Windows. I know that. But I'm not a premium member yet, so I can't take advantage of this feature.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil seems to do something similar. Perhaps that cache's creator could offer useful advice...

I've been logging my DNFs too. Among other things, they help me remember which caches I've already tried to find!

I thought it did, but if it's advertised like that, it may not. You certainly could try Acrobat Reader for Palm, though it's not that good.

Would this help?

In some browsers (such as Safari) the button is labeled Choose File. But it should be easy to spot either way. Now you know.

Cool! It makes sense, but I didn't know anyone was incorporating this feature. I'll look for it when I buy my next GPSr. In the meantime, I've been considering bringing a compass with me for just this situation.

Here's my 100% free-tool version of paperless geocaching -- no CacheMate license, no premium membership (so no pocket queries). My procedure is this. Adapt for your own situation as necessary. 1. Enter waypoints into GPSr manually (!). I could probably send LOC files, but I've misplaced my data cable. 2. "Print" cache descriptions to PDF files (this feature is built into Mac OS X and Linux; there are free tools for Windows to do similar things). 3. Use Bluetooth to send PDF files from iBook to Palm T|X, then view them with PalmPDF. 4. Use Palm for note-taking if necessary.