WARTIDE

Just got my Venture GPS I bought from Trioba. It works great as far as I can tell here in the parking lot at the office. Thanks for a great deal and fast shipping too!

Seek and ye shall find! I went to the garmin website and the 2nd gen Etrex yellow (WAAS version) does indeed list yards as a measurement option. Also, it looks like the Explorist 100 does also, even though I need confirmation from an actual user on that. The Geko 101 does not have yards as an option.

Thanks for the info Vlad. Anybody with a second generation yellow that could check their unit for me.

Casey, I think it will be a collection of waypoints. I know all the units have at minimum several hundred waypoints you can set so it would be no problem having multiple courses on the gps. I think the legend may have folders where you could group different courses. Come on guys with an etrex yellow, can you select yards as an option?

Timpat, Thanks for the info. I know the legend will work with yards, my father in law uses one on the course. However, I don't need the mapping. I currently have a GPS V that will actually be upgraded to a i5 very soon. I may go with the legend before it is all said and done. I really hoped to pick up a used yellow etrex for $50-$60 though and just leave it in the cart or my golf bag. Casey, You don't have to mark the tee boxes unless you want to find out the distance of a long drive or something like that. I helped my father in law set up his Legend by just marking the center of the greens and naming them by their number. For example, our course initials are AGCC. There are AGCC1-18 on his waypoint list. At each hole, he uses the thumbstick to change to the current hole. You could mark the back, center, and front of the green, but it would require you to thumb thru more waypoints to find the correct one. As long as the unit you get uses yards, it will work for golf.

I need a little help from the experts. I currently have a GPS V that I've been using for years for driving and geocaching. Some of my golfing buddies have these new SkyCaddy GPS receivers for using on the course. I really thought the on course yardage markers were good enough since I play the same course 90% of the time. However, I find myself asking for yardage several times per round from my GPS enabled partners. I checked into SkyCaddy, IGolf, etc. They are stand alone units but require a yearly subscription fee of $30 as far as I can tell. I wanted to use my GPS V and just mark the center of all the greens, but unfortunately the thing cannot be set to measure in yards. It measures in feet and tenths of miles or in meters. I don't want to be doing calculations in my head trying to convert distances on the course. I need a BASIC and hopefully inexpensive GPS that has yards as a distance option. I'm thinking the Etrex yellow, Geko 101, Explorist, etc. The problem is that I don't know which can be set to measure in yards. Could anyone with these units or something similar verify that they can be used for yardage? Thanks Wartide

Hi everyone, I've been a member here for a while, but haven't posted in a long time. Not much time to cache or travel with a 22 month old and work. But I do stop by now and again to check up on the posts here. Anyway, my father in law travels quite a bit in the southeast US. He has used my Garmin GPS V on his last few trips and has fallen in love with it. He told me to find him a GPS soon. So here I am, kind of out of the loop as far as the newer units go. I've done some preliminary research and it seems the units are ALOT better and cheaper that a few years ago when I bought my GPS V. I have it narrowed down to the Garmin Streetpilot I2, I3, I5, c320 or maybe the Quest (first version). Personally, I think the I2 would serve his purposes fine, but I wanted to hear from the experts. Thanks everyone, wartide

Sorry guys, I wish i had several to get rid of, but I only have the one. Mihiker has already sent the address so the deal is done. Thanks for understanding.

Ok, Mihiker I sent you an email. Please reply and give me your mailing address and I'll send it out today or tomorrow. WARTIDE

Alright, Mihiker it's yours. I'll send you a pm or email and get your address. Wartide.

I recently bought a new Palm Zire 31 to replace my Palm IIIxe. The palm iiixe works great for geocaching and everything else I needed it to do. However, it has this habit of not coming on until you give it a smack with your hand. Now for caching, this doesn't make any difference to me, but I keep a lot of business stuff on my palm also. I used it primarily for caching and used it with Cachemate software. I, of course, erased the cachemate software so if you want it, you can sign up with the guy that sells it on this site. I think it is just a few bucks anyway and well worth the money. Anyway, I would like to give this Palm IIIxe and the hotsync cradle to someone who could use it for geocaching. Please don't reply unless you need it for caching and will actually use it. In other words, please don't get it and stick it on Ebay or something. I don't have a manual or software for your pc, but I believe you can just download it from the web. OK, first one to post that promises they want a PDA and will actually use it for caching gets it. I will ask you to pay for shipping, but you can just send me a check after you get the Palm, or you can be an A-hole and not send the check and nobody will know except you and me. Alright, hopefully the right person will see this and this PDA can get into a good home and back into the woods caching. Wartide

Thanks for all the replies. I went back and checked my pocket query page and found that I had not checked the "Is Active" box. Oh well, another geo lesson learned I guess. Thanks for all the replies, I'll get my new query tomorrow and load it up on the palm and see what happens. You guys are great. Wartide

Do any of you know how to keep archived caches from showing up in a pocket query. My wife and I unsuccessfully looked for a couple of caches on a recent day trip only to find out they had been archived. The pocket query I use now sends me the 500 nearest caches to my home. I then put the query into cachemate on my palm. I also have cachemate set to show 1 past log. However, I found out while trying to log these archived caches, cachemate doesn't show notes only Finds/DNF's in the past logs. Any easy way to not include archived caches in my pocket query or in cachemate? WARTIDE

For any of you looking for a good PDA to run cachemate and go paperless, tigerdirect.com has a pretty good deal on the Palm IIIxe. I have a IIIxe and couldn't be happier, however I bought mine on Ebay and paid about $75 for it. Check it out at www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=660451&SRCCODE=WEM587C Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with tigerdirect, I just thought this might be a good idea for a geocacher.

I seriously can't figure out why it is such a big deal for a cache to be placed on public property. I personally don't ask permission on public property. The one I placed in my local State Park was placed by using the "frisbee" rule which I really like. I can't understand why a park official would not want a cache on park grounds. I hear so much about disturbing nature, ecosystems, blah blah blah. How is a small ammo box or tupperware that can barely be seen with the naked eye gonna cause any problems. And if they are so concerned with leaving nature untouched, why did you build that lodge? Why did you build the golf course? How about the campground? All of these "attractions" are to entice the public to use and enjoy the land that has been set aside for that purpose. My entire theory of why a land manager wouldn't allow a cache is this, he/she is in a position of authority and can't handle the responsibility. Bottom line is caches don't hurt the environment or the scenery. And if there are any negatives to a cache being placed, they are far outweighed by the positives. Wartide

Renegade Knight beat me to the punch. Just plant the cache and enjoy. It's not rocket science after all. If you need to go back and edit it, so be it. The important thing is to enjoy yourself and place a good cache for your fellow cachers. Wartide

Thanks Olar, Option #2 was the one I was looking for to do the job. I'll give it a try in the morning. Thank you Wartide

You'll love geocaching. Are you by any chance related to JoeFrog? Wartide

Hey, another question over here. I recently obtained a PDA, cachemate software, and a premium membership in order to go paperless caching. I absolutely love being able to search for "nearest cache" on the fly especially in unfamiliar territory. I've set up a pocket query to be delivered every Friday and promptly upload it to my PDA. However, I'm still reading the coords off the PDA to my wife who then enters them into the GPS V and we are on our way. I know I can use EasyGPS to load waypoints into the GPS, but it only shows up as GCY175, etc. Is there a way to upload the cache name into the GPS with EasyGPS or do I need another program? Can I upload to the GPS with Cachemate? It would be great to be able to have the name of the cache on the GPS and just select it instead of manually entering coords. I'm kind of in a hurry between patients right now, so my post may seem kind of garbled. If you need more clarification about what I'm trying to do, please ask. Thanks for your help. Wartide

Joefrog, There are several good caches in my area. Lake Guntersville State park has 6 or 7 I believe. If you go to the state park, be sure and find Dog Gone Cache. I think you'll like it. Wartide

My wife and I have hidden one regular cache and two micros that were quickly approved. However, one of the micros we hid this past weekend still hadn't been approved as of yesterday. I contacted the approver and asked if there was a problem. He voiced his concerns and I could see his point. I decided to just go retrieve the micro and move it to a new location. The problem with the cache was that it was very near an elementary school. It was still in a public area just across the street. The approver stated that he would hate to have the cops called on a geocacher. He suggested to ask the school admin. for permission. Instead, I just decided to move it. My point in posting this: when I went to move the cache, I noticed that classroom windows were only about 50 feet from my cache placement. Also, the playground was about 100 feet away. In my excitement to place the cache in a well hidden area, I completely ignored my surroundings. It was a Saturday and the school was empty so that probably had something to do with it also. Through several emails, the approver was very helpful and polite and not only told me his concerns, but gave suggestions for ways to get the cache approved. In the end I thought it would just be better to move it. I don't want to give any names (don't want to look like a brown noser) but these volunteers do a great job. Wartide

That is amazing. I love coincidences or fate or whatever you call it. Unbelievable. Wartide

Thanks for the responses. You are right EasyGPS stripped the files of most of its info. When I received my 2nd query, I converted it with the included utility in cachemate. All is well and I really like this setup now. Can't wait to try it out this weekend. Thanks again. Wartide

Hate to reply to my own question, but I think I may have figured it out. I took the attachment and opened it with the converter that I downloaded as part of Cachemate. I then converted it and "HotSynced" it to my PDA. I'm just toying around with it now, but I can already tell I'm going to love this. Wartide

Thanks Jolly B Good. I just created a new search, but haven't received it yet. However, I was able to finally open the attachment from the previous query. I double clicked the attachment and it loaded into EasyGPS. How do I get this into the Palm/Cachemate? Thank you so much for your help. Wartide