Slug Trails

As a standard member of geocaching.com, you are only able to download the .loc file format - and these only contain the basic information on geocaches. Premium members have the ability to download a .gpx file. This is bursting with information, such as difficulty, terrain, hints, past logs and so on. According to the smache website, the program accepts .gpx files, so yes, a subscription would increase the information available to you on your PocketPC.

When you have a cache that has additional waypoints, if you click on the name it to view the waypoint details, you are shown a list of mapping websites to view the co-ordinates on. If you choose 'Google Maps', you are taken to the website, but the location is inputted as the co-ordinates, but with '()' on the end. This results in the error 'We could not understand the location N 01° 01.001 W 001° 01.001 ()' Obviously it works when you delete these brackets off the end, but I don't think they were meant to be there in the first place

Pocket Queries are the way to go. They allow you to download up to 500 caches in one file. You need to be a premium member for this feature, and it seems like you already are one. If you go on your account page, down the right hand side is a link for 'build pocket queries'. You pick all the criteria for your search, such as types of caches, centre-point and what radius. You also need to pick how often you want the query to run. You will then get a .zip file sent to you by email, which you can load into your preferred waypoint management software to then transfer to your GPS.

For our Garmin GPS's, we download the track data from the unit to Garmin's Mapsource program. There is then an option on there to 'view in Google Earth'. You can then save the track in Google Earth as a .kmz file, to open at a later date (or send to someone to view )

Do you mean people that have their own geocoin, and log it in to every cache they find, and instantly log it back out? I know a few people that do this, and they do it so the coin travels to every cache the person has. They could then look at this on a map to see where they have travelled, or have a look at how many miles they have clocked up.

I have no idea if this is a nationwide promotion, but I'm sure its more likely to be than not. My dad just returned from Morrisons with a carrier bag full of tupperware (Morrisons Klip&Lock) that are about half price. The small ones were about 50p, down from the normal price of 99p, and the bigger ones are similarly reduced. These are the boxes we used for our small caches and are doing well. Just a heads up so you can all get some caches a bit cheaper

Thanks... Better edit my original post slightly as to not confuse or misinform others

When I bought my Garmin Etrex H, the fact it supported WAAS was advertised everywhere. I immediately shrugged off the idea of using it as I was under the impression it was only supported in North America. This is of no use to me as I live in the UK. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recently discovered that EGNOS is a european version of the American WAAS. Another post on the forum suggests that the correction data comes from the satellites numbered 33, 37 and 39 on the GPS. After reading up online, I gather that the EGNOS system has been up since 2004. The WAAS and EGNOS signals are also transmitted in the same 'format', so a device supporting one would also support the other. This made me curious as to if it would work on my Etrex H in the UK, so today when sat in an open car park, I enabled the option and watched the satellite screen. The display changed to 'Ready to navigate diff: 10ft' and a total of 7 D's appeared on some of the satellite bars - from a total of 11. This was after 15 minutes of the GPS being on, so it didn't happen straight away. When I had WAAS disabled on the device, I also got a supposed accuracy of 10ft. The only difference in co-ordinates was one-thousandth of a minute of the Longitude. 54.209 as a pose to 54.210. My question is, and the point of this post is, is the EGNOS system really worth using from the UK? I didn't see an increase in accuracy, the battery is not meant to last as long, it took me 15 minutes to establish the corrective signal and all the satellites (33, 37 and 39) were appearing from just the South (I'm not sure if this changes, but if not then I presume you would have to have a clear view of the South for it to work). Thanks

Being the easily confused person I am, I would still end up getting the MM-DD / DD-MM bit mixed up. I think that since there are so many different formats in use, the option to choose your own format would be better than trying to settle on a universal format

I did try search for existing posts, but it timed out 3 times on me It's nice to know it has been brought up before though - I think having the option of a different format would be welcomed by some.

I can see that in 'edit profile', there is an option to switch between imperial and metric, but I can't find anything relating to the date format. I keep getting thrown by the MM/DD/YY as I'm British and have always been used to DD/MM/YY. Would it be possible to have an option to switch this round? Thanks, Stuart

The most common we've found is 'under' the tree. Harder ones may involve a length of fishing line or string, possibly with the cache dangling from the branches or hidden under some of the leaves. I think the hardest one for me was a really thin micro that was wedged in a crease halfway up the tree. It was so camouflage!

We used to use our TomTom One V3 for getting to the location and finding the caches. It proved very difficult as we had to open the satellite information page and go by the co-ordinates to try and get them to match the co-ordinates of the cache. Plus the battery life is terrible. After 5 or so caches we bought the cheap Garmin Etrex H. It does such a better job at finding the caches, though we still use the TomTom to get to the location.

When you place a cache, you can choose a nickname other than your own. For example, if you write the nickname as "Bentleys and Whoever", this will show up on the cache page where it says "A cache by..." When this name is clicked though, it will take the user to the profile of the person that was logged in to publish the cache. Hope that helps

Your standard GPS receiver can only have an accuracy of 10 feet at best. If you are in dense woods, this can go up to 30ft or even 40ft. Also when the cacher was placing their cache, their GPS receiver will not have been completely accurate, so you have to bare in mind that when you get to 0ft, there is no guarantee that the cache is right next to you. When you are picking geocaches to find, look at the size, difficulty and terrain ratings. If the size is micro, you will usually be looking for a 35mm film cannister or even smaller. Small and regular are normally variations of tupperware boxes or ammo cans. As you are new to geocaching, try searching for regular sized caches with a low difficulty/terrain rating. Once you bag a few of these, you will begin to see a pattern of how the caches are hidden and where to look. When you visit the cache location, look for tell-tale signs as to where it might be hidden. Sometimes the ground is worn where people have walked off the path. Look for piles of stones that look out of place, or layers of sticks that could be hiding a cache. It may help if you imagine you are hiding the cache. Where would you hide it so the public won't stumble across it but where geocachers won't have too much of a problem finding it. Under a tree perhaps, covered by a stone and off the main footpath. Or in a hollowed out tree stump covered by a piece of moss? You could make use of the additional hints given on the cache pages as a lot of cachers do when they can't find it. Some even read the hint before finding the cache - it's completely up to you how you play the game. Good luck

I think the way you are trying, Fe02, is correct , however, isn't Lucy's birth date added to the co-ordinates N42° 44.226 rather than N42° 43.226 as 2421 + 1805 = 4226, and then just put the decimal point back in the right place to get 4.226

Must... not... read... I couldn't resist. It's in my nature to be curious. Sorry . You haven't said 'no posting', so is this OK??

I've been geocaching for a few months now, and do so with my trusty Garmin Etrex H (the yellow one ) I've got to know the unit really well, but there are a couple of things that I can't find in the manual. First of all, when I create a route of geocaches on the unit (a list of 10, for example), when I reach the first waypoint on the list (i.e. find the cache), how do I tell the unit to start navigating to the next waypoint? And secondly, can someone explain what exactly the Tracback feature does? I understand you have to save a track that has been recorded by the unit, and you then have the option to 'tracback'. How does this work if you have several different locations saved under the same track? So if I walk round the local park, turn the unit off, then go to the lake, turn it back on and walk round that... If I then select tracback, where will it take me? Also, with tracback enabled, does the arrow on the navigation page point 'as the crow flies', or does it follow the track created, so the arrow follows the path, for example. Sorry if all that seems a bit unclear, Thanks, Stuart

We've only been caching a few months, and we're 17. I'm always thinking to myself how the hobby wouldn't be possible if we were younger, and unable to drive. There are only a handful of caches in our immediate area, and I don't think I could manage to get a bus everytime I wanted to go caching. I think to be able to get the most out of caching, you either need to be able to drive yourself, or have parents or close family that cache with you.

Congratulations Your name caught my eye as I was browsing the forum. I'm certain I've seen your recently logs (from the same day as us, even) from the caches in Findon. We're visiting down south, also!

... is the 'My Account' link down the left hand side of the geocaching.com website blurred? Actually, on closer inspection, the image has been scaled from 121 x 22 pixels to 120 x 22, which is not the case for the other links. Is there any reason for this, and can it be fixed? It makes me think I'm needing glasses everytime I see it. Slug EDIT: This only seems to happen in Firefox 3, the problem doesn't seem to occur in Internet Explorer.

We used our TomTom One (V3) to do our first few caches. If you manually enter the coordinates in, it will only take you to the road that is closest to the cache. What you have to do then is click on the bottom right blue box that shows all the travel information (this is from the normal screen). This will bring up another screen where you can click a blue box on the right showing the remaining battery and signal strength. This will bring up (another) screen showing your exact coordinates. You can use these to get to the cache, but unfortunately, it is very tedious without a map or a compass.

I'm in a similar situation to you. Haven't been geocaching long, and bought the eTrex H to help me. I have a car sat nav to take me close to the caches. The easiest way to get the co-ords on to the device is by using the Garmin Communicator plugin. This allows you to click the button on the cache page that says 'Send to GPS' - easy as that. You can download the plugin here. However, I used this method to put the caches on my eTrex. Then I discovered the device can only store waypoints up to six characters long. This meant when I wanted to add, for example, two caches named GCGB123 and GCGB124, they would be saved on the device with the same name, and one would be overwritten. Because of that, I now download the 'LOC Waypoint Files' and use EasyGPS to put them on the eTrex. This piece of software automatically shortens the waypoint names if they are longer than six characters, which makes life a lot easier. You can also retrieve the waypoint from the device and back them up GSAK is a piece of software that is praised by a lot of people, but for me, it looks overly complicated as I am not familiar with it, and so EasyGPS does the job for me. I got the serial - USB converter as I do not have a serial port on my laptop. If you do have a computer with a serial port, then there is no point getting the converter, unless you plan to use another computer elsewhere. Hope that helps!

If they are going to ban all distractions such as GPSr's, then they might as well go the whole way and ban talking to passengers, looking at the dash or changing the radio station!

Mmm.. I've just been using EasyGPS to download the LOC waypoint files for each geocache. One problem, though. Each time I download the LOC file, it opens it up in a new instance of EasyGPS instead of the existing one I'm working from. Is there a solution to this? Otherwise EasyGPS would be perfect, as it automatically reduces the waypoint names to six characters. Thanks