EvilTwin1974

Howdy, its been a while since I was on here. Got a problem. OK I've lost my Vista HCx, haven't got a clue where it is, but after nearly a year MIA I'm calling off the search. Which leaves me with a quandary, I liked my Vista HCx, it had all the features I needed. The key things I liked were a decent GPS lock even under trees, the ability to send the locations of caches directly to my GPSr via USB cable, built in compass, store waypoints and maps on micro SD etc etc etc Having a look at the cost of replacement its gone down to £150 (based on Amazon UK) so now for the questions... I can either get the same GPSr again, this has the advantage of being a known quantity to me, and now its relatively cheap. But If I had say a budget of £250 what else could that get me? Trying to use this as a option to upgrade.

After reading the thread suggested by Stuey, and a little more from some others, I think I'll be going ahead with trying to get the appropriate permissions. The church itself is a parish church that dates back to the 13th century, although theres no regular preist, the church is open all the time to visit. Plus theres very little in the area in the way of caches, so a few new caches in the area would be a good thing.

OK, I've found a few caches now, I'm getting a feel for what makes a good hide, and what makes somewhere unsuitable to place a cache. So while I was out today (the wifes away for the weekend, so I found 3 caches while I was out and I've 3 more caching days ahead), I had a look round my local church, Its a lovely old building, with about 20 graves for RAF servicemen during WW2, which to me makes it an interesting place to visit alone. Paying more attention to the trees at the back of the church yard I found one right in the corner that seems ideal for placing a cache. I've got the contact details for the parish, to see if they are willing to grant permission for me to place a cache in the church grounds. However I'd like to get some opinion on how receptive the church is to placing caches, from anyone who's had dealings with them. Any tips, besides start praying, or going to church on Sundays?

OK, I've just received my eTrex Vista HCx, and generally I'm quite happy with it, however I have a simple niggle with it that there must be an easy solution to.... If i'm in an area, why can't it display all my waypoints and caches on the map page? I'm in an area where there are at least 12 caches close to me, yet as much as I try zooming out it does not seem to show them. If I set a route it will show my destination cache, but none of the others. Have I fiddled with the settings and done something wrong, or is this just the way things are with my vista? this is a real pain when I'm trying to find whats close to my destination, when I go on my travels.

OK, come pay day I'll be buying a Garmin Vista HCX I'm interested in the mapsource GB maps for it, but have a couple of Q's How big is all the UK, when put on an SD card in the Vista? I read on Amazon reviews that there are no PROWs, does this mean I'll still need an OS map to find the footpaths, or are they all in there? I use a tomtom to drive to and from caches in the UK, so if its just roads on the maps, I don't see the point in buying extra software to have just another sat-nav for the car, can anyone enlighten me? If there are no footpaths on the maps, can anyone advise of other mapping or other GPSr's that do offer this facility?

Fly out soon, hoping to find a few caches

OK definitely looking for a new GPSr, my old one being very old, and while its great for nav purposes, its not so good for locating a location (it can only take 3dp on a long or lat co-ordinate, as opposed to the 4dp that get used in the co-ordinates on the website). So bearing in mind I'm off to foreign parts tomorrow, and Amazon.co.uk will ship to me, and refund all tax, I've decided to take the plunge and get a nice spangly new Garmin GPSr. It will be an HCx model. I know 'H' means high sensitivity antenna, 'C' is colour screen, and 'x' is for expandable memory, via a micro SD card, but i have a couple of questions about this.... Firstly, how big an SD will the HCx models use. I appreciate that SD cards run out to 2Gb, but SDHC's are running to 16Gb, and 32Gb cards are moving on to the market now. So how big can I go? Secondly how big is the Mapsource / Topo map for all of the UK? Finally I don't need an altimeter (I don't see the point, if the contour lines on the map give you an idea of your height), and I carry a compass with me when out and about as a backup. So when you take these features out of the equation, do the differences between the Vista HCx and Legend HCx justify spending the extra to buy a Vista HCx? I know its only £20 difference, but £20 is still a reasonable saving if I don't need those features, and can get by without, or is there more to it than that?

An eee, by any chance? That was my first thought. Although I'm interested in this myself, I'd be looking for this functionality in Xandros.

OK, I'm thinking about making cache site when I've found a few more caches to get a feel for things. Once I find somewhere, how do I try to find out who the land owner is, if its a woods or strip of land that seems to have full public access and public footpaths?

To TheWhoUK: I'm not sure if you're still serving, but bear in mind that even if you're dog-tags are 'spare' they belong to the MOD, not you, just like you're ID card. Unlike your ID, you can be charged for losing your dog-tags (particularly as you'll be attaching them to a TB tag, and advertising the fact online) I know we all end up with a few 'spare' sets, but remember there are more than a few Brit servicemen who also go geocaching (myself included, although only recently), and you only need some officer with a stick up his rear, and a good grasp of military law, for you to get deep in the brown smelly stuff. Bear this in mind before you go any further. (Even if you have got out, remember with stuff like this you're still subject to military law for the full 22)

The path is marked on the OS maps as a public right of way. There are no towers round the camp, just a huge fence, with razorwire on top. Someone poking about in the woods I'm thinking of, would not be able to see the camp, I'm just looking for some clarification. How do I find out who the local reviewer is for my area?

I live next to an old RAF station thats now used by the British Army. Round the outside of the perimeter fence is a public footpath that follows round the edge of the camp, there are a few nice woods, and areas that have great views. In short its a nice path to go for a wander on a sunny afternoon with the family (my kid likes watching the heli's taking off and landing), or trot round on an MTB doing some trail riding. Some of those woods are public, and would be great to hide my first cache in (particularly as the nearest cache is 3 miles away, so no saturation problems!), but the guidelines state that caches should not be: "Caches near or on military installations" How near qualifys as 'near'? I've no interest in placing a cache inside the camp, I know the perfect spot, but I'd like

The one in a race is just trying to gain some distance over its twin (its very far behind at the moment), the other just wants to gain distance, so i thought my idea would be of help to their owners.

OK i went out yesterday and found my first cache, which I'm quite happy about. (I even returned today and added 3 larger sillica gel packs as the cache was a bit wet) I have however taken 2 hitchhikers, and will be off to foreign parts next week which should up the miles on them. My problem is I'm a bit impatient, and want to go looking for a couple more caches before I go, so.... Can I take them along to the other caches, log them in, log them out again and move on to the next cache, so they clock up a few extra miles (one of them is in a race with its twin, so giving it a few extra miles would help it along its way) or is it generally accepted that you pick them up, and drop them off at your next location, with no caches inbetween. (ie a single leg on its journey with you)

I have actually found my old GPSr, and its manual. Its a Magellan Blazer12, after some fresh batteries I finally managed to get it to power up, but I've found that what was good for a 5 year old unit, isn't as good as I need for today. After setting it up, it took 3-4 mins to find the first sat, then another 3-4 mins to find a second, the third another 2 mins, then a lot better to find 4 and 5, eventually it locked into my position. Quite a long time to find sats I'm sure you'll agree. The almanac must have been updated internally on this first power up, as second and subsequent trys to turn on, and find sats takes about 5 mins, which again I feel is a bit too slow, and a new GPSr will probably be a lot quicker. For the moment though, I'll use my blazer12 to give caching a try. Having had a look at several online purveyors of GPSr's all sell the Garmin Etrex HC, which seems to offer something along the lines of what I need. (and cheap) Is this any good for a basic GPSr mainly for cross country nav, but also to get going with some first trys at finding caches? Does the 'improved high sensitivity' antenna work ok in forests / urban canyons etc?

OK, I'm looking for a GPSr to try Geocaching out, as well as cross country navigation. I've had them before, and am familiar with navigating with them. Its been a few years since I've owned a pure GPS unit, instead of a sat-nav, so i've been reading the forums. I've decided what features I think will be important. OK so I dont need a unit with maps installed, cross country a physical paper map will always be my preference. (I'm in the military, so I have no fear of a proper map) I need it to be able to work in OSGB36 co-ordinates, plus a selection of common world-wide mapping formats (UTM, WGS84, etc). Although not essential, I'd like to be able to hook up to my computer to pre-set co-ordinates at home where possible, however a serial port is not an option, it will have to be USB. I can live without this for a good price on the GPSr A good chipset will be usefull, like sirf star III, so I can navigate in woods/forests. Long battery life would be nice, and are there any units I can stick NiMh AA batteries in, and charge them up while inside the machine, so I could use a car charger, or mains charger to keep it topped up, or in event fo flat batteries, I can stick some normal alkaline batteries in (hope this part makes as much sense as it does in my head! ) Backlit Screen would be nice. Finaly mounts available, so it can be used on a bicycle, car windscreen etc would be handy