Hrethgir

That unit doesn't have a barometric altimeter in it, so it just gets it's elevation readings from satellite info. And I've heard that the elevation error is about double the horizontal error, so if your accuracy is +/- 15ft, then your elevation error is around +/- 30ft. But there is nothing you can change in the unit to "fix" what you are seeing, you would need something with a barometric altimeter built into it to be able to calibrate anything.

What unit do you have now? And what are the coridinates you are trying to enter in? My guess is that the coords you have a re just in a different format that what the GPSr uses, and they just need to be translated.

The Legend does come with a wrist strap, but nothing like the Forerunner, it's really just a short lanyard. And the screen is nice, although both of those pictures you showed are accurate. The first one is a daylight color scheme, lighter colors and stuff, while the second once is a night time scheme, with darker colors. It can switch between them automatically based on sunrise and sunset, ot you can set it to stay on what you like. But the daylight scheme is pretty bright if you are outdoors at night, and a darker scheme works pretty well for that.

We..or rather I..got interested in it because we were going to be attending a local pirate festival (arrrr!) in October of 08. I knew from the festival's website that they were going to have a geocache treasure hunt and I tried to convince my husband to go for it. He wasn't terribly interested, so we didn't attend that portion of the festival. We did attend later in the day and recieved a geocoin stamped with the festival's name and date on it (long story there). Then I totally forgot about it until about a week and a half ago. Somebody (I forget who) mentioned it to me and I thought "OH! This will be SO much fun. It will be easy, no tramping through the briars and getting dirty and bugbit the way you would if you went camping." I was SO wrong. Dogs don't frighten me, even large ones, as long as they are leashed and their person seems to have reasonable control over them. Shotgun shells, however, do scare me as I might possibly get shot and it alerts me it MIGHT not be such a safe area to be in. If I hear what sounds like a gunshot going off (whether it's from a shotgun or a handgun), I hit the floor immediately. I grew up in a rather rough neighborhood where getting shot was something that could happen to anyone on a daily basis. Babythree From what you're saying about the Pirate Festival, I have a guess that you are in the Portland, OR area? Anyways, maybe you should try meeting up with some local cachers and going out with them, they can help show you the ropes and what style of caching fits you the best. Sounds like urban caching might be a better fit for you. but if you do go out into the woods, might I suggest wearing an orange hunting vest? I recently picked one up for myself, as I prefer getting out into the woods to searching around park benches, but I don't want to get shot, either! Got a bright orange vest and hat, and the vest has pockets for batteries and pens and a little first aid kit and my phone and whatever else I might need out there. But anyways, before totally giving up and letting a few knuckleheads poison the whole well, try some in-town caches or going to an event or just hooking up with a couple others and try geocaching in a different way. EDIT: Just looked at your finds, and they are both in Texas, so I reckon ya'll aint anywhere near Portland after all! Anyways, it sounded like the library one you found wasn't so bad, look for more like that, maybe.

I've done a bit of caching off my mountain bike, works great! Especially when it comes time to go through the container and sign the log. A couple I found were Tupperware-style containers, so sitting down with them next to a bicycle and drinking from a waterbottle makes it look like you are just taking a break and getting a little snack from your backpack! Stealth doesn't mean unseen, just unnoticed.

Haven't seen that one in real life yet, but that is just plain lame and weak, what's the point?

I have a Dell Axim X30, and I bought the Pharos GPS bundle for it, and it sucked. The mapping software made HORRIBLE routes, the battery life of the PDA is crap (old battery, and wired GPS antennae doesn't help either, since the PDA powers the receiver and it's not easy to use wired up), and it is nowhere near weather resistant, let alone weather proof.

I originally bought a PN-20 as a way of trying it out to see how I liked DeLormes when I heard about the PN-40 coming out. I can say that while the redraw speeds of the PN-20 are low, it is FAR from junk. The slow processor makes it not so good for navigation in a car, as it has trouble keeping up, but for geocaching or anything at walking speeds, it works fine, even with imagery. I never had a mount for it, so I'm not sure how well it works on a bicycle, though. But I did sell mine a few weeks after buying it so I could put that money towards a PN-40. It wasn't that I didn't like the PN-20, mind you, but I liked it enough that I was glad to see the flaws were addressed and wanted to move up immediately. Now, if all I was going to do was geocache with it, I might have kept it, but with faster redraw speeds of the PN-40, I wanted to use it for navigation on my motorcycle, and the PN-20 wouldn't work so well for that. But still, PN-20 != junk by any means! I got the refurb one from www.tigergps.com for a great price, look into that if you want to get one.

Yup, the .gpx will have the hint and everything. And being premium, you can download that format.

Small correction: The PN-40 has the same receiver as the Oregon (STM Cartesio), not the HCx series (MediaTek MTK). Wow, I suck at wording things in this thread! I didn't mean the PN-40 and HCx series have the same receiver, just that they both had a high-sensitivity receiver, but the way I worded it does make it sound like they have the same receiver, my bad. Edit: And now I notice that it wasn't even me you quoted! Well, I wasn't totally clear either, but maybe I should step away from this thread for a few!

You can always put the Vista up for sale in the Garage Sale section and then put that money towards a PN-40. You'll find a buyer for it pretty quick, I sold my PN-20 withing a few days of listing it up. But really, besides the aerial imagery, the Vista HCx and PN-40 are pretty similar, and you don't really NEED the aerial imagery to find a cache, but it is pretty cool! I'm actually glad you tried the imagery thing on your Vista, I was curious to try it on my Legend HCx, but I won't even bother now, I'll just whip out my PN-40 I've never owned a Vista HCX, but will it do the paperless caching? Can it route right out of the box? Does the maps come included? Can you load NOAA, Aerial, sat and other maps effortlessly and have them work? I love my PN-40!! What similarities does it have to the Vista? Well, i guess by "similar" I meant that they both have the same size color screen, high sensitivity receiver, barometric altimiter, and electronic compass. Sure, the Vista HCx needs extra software purchased to do routing, but it costs less than the PN-40, so even buying the software for that gets the price about even with the PN-40. But, yeah, the PN-40 can do the imagery stuff that the Vista HCx can't do, and the Vista HCx can't do paperless, but those are the two biggest differences between them. More similarities than differences, although the differences are kind of big.

You can always put the Vista up for sale in the Garage Sale section and then put that money towards a PN-40. You'll find a buyer for it pretty quick, I sold my PN-20 withing a few days of listing it up. But really, besides the aerial imagery, the Vista HCx and PN-40 are pretty similar, and you don't really NEED the aerial imagery to find a cache, but it is pretty cool! I'm actually glad you tried the imagery thing on your Vista, I was curious to try it on my Legend HCx, but I won't even bother now, I'll just whip out my PN-40

He's looking for a car GPS, though, so the yellow Legend won't work, it can't do mapping. I have a Garmin Streetpilot c510 I got from www.woot.com for $75, and while you can't type in coordinates, you can plug it in with the USB cable and load caches into it just like any other Garmin handheld, so either individually with the Send To GPS on gc.com, or big groups from a PQ or stuff you've downloaded individually by using Map Source. Not good for finding the cache, though, it doesn't do off-road stuff, so it gets me close, then my handheld gets me the rest of the way.

Some of the more expensive Garmin Nuvis can do both, kind of, but the best way to do it is to have one for the car, and one for when you're on foot. There really isn't one that can do both well. I have 2 car units (Garmin Streetpilot c510 and Navigon 2100) and 2 handhelds (Garmin eTrex Legend HCx and DeLorme PN-40), works great. Use the car unit to navigate around, and the handheld to find the cache. The DeLorme can actually do OK with navigation, but since it doesn't really have a speaker, all you get are beeps to let you know a turn is coming up, and the screen is much smaller that an automotive unit. Look around for sales if money is the issue, I got my auto units for $75 each (Garmin from www.woot.com and the Navigon on clearance from Office Max's closing sale), and you can score a good handheld for a good price if you search around enough.

I was really happy with the accuracy of my PN-20 when I had that, and from what people are saying, the -40 is even better, so that makes me happy! Haven't gotten out with my -40 yet, but will very soon. One thing I can say is that my -20 never found a single satelite from my living room sofa (right by a window), while the -40 is able to see enough to get a 3-D fix with a not-too-bad +/- error, so that bodes very well for performance under tree coverage. I know there where a couple places at Disneyland where the -20 track went yellow, but my Legend HXc was able to keep a solid lock. Oh, and the Legend locks on pretty well from my sofa, and even from the middle downstairs hallway of my 2-level apartment, it's really pretty amazing! Just stay away from water, though, it looses it's mind there. Tried setting a waypoint on a dock in a river, and with the Legend, I tried twice, and both points were out in the water, and in opposite directions from each other, but the point I set with the -20 was spot-on.

It just means that he accidentily posted the same thing twice, the one about the PN-40 and the Oregon 400t. It's a forum bug, it happens, so you didn't miss anything. As for good beginner GPSrs, there are several units of various costs and abilities: Garmin eTrex H $94: high-sensitivity receiver, but pretty basic otherwise. Garmin eTrex Venture HC $133: high-sensitivity receiver, but also a color screen, makes for better veiwing. DeLorme Earthmate PN-20 $180: high-sensitivity receiver, color screen, expandable memory for maps, plus it can do aerial imagery, which is pretty cool. Kind of a slow processor, though, makes for slow redrawand menu speeds. Garmin eTrex Legend HCx $188: high-sensitivity receiver, color screen, and expandable memory for maps and route saving. Garmin eTrex Vista HCx $225: Same as Legend HCx, but also includes an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. Garmin Colorodo 300 ($315) and 400t ($420): high-sensitivity receiver, color screen, expandable memor, large screen, can do paperless caching. DeLorme Earthmate PN-40: similar to the PN-20, but has a faster dual-processor setup for faster redraws, plus also includes an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. Garmin Oregon 200 ($355) 300 ($395) and 400t ($475): very similar to the Colorado line, but has a touchscreen. Hope this helps you narrow it down a little, you can at least figure your budget and go from there.

Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars are only a buck or two, make good swag. I just went to Target and wandered the isles looking for small neat stuff that was prett cheap, ended up buying a set of 3 little finger puppets, a Hot Wheels car, some dice, and some other little things. Also had some carbiner-style LED flashlights I got from the company store for a couple bucks each, but I'm out of those. Just keep your eye open for something you wouldn't mind finding in a cache, that's the best rule of thumb I can think of.

My only goal is to have fun, I don't really care too much about total number of finds or finds per day or days with a find. Heck, I haven't had a find Nov 26! But I have upgraded to a DeLorme PN-40, but between the weather (lots of snow and rain, and I don't like being wet and cold, defeats the whole "fun" thing for me), holidays, and a couple sicknesses (one sinus infection and then a nasty flu 2 weeks later), I just haven't gotten out. I will be making a run very soon with a friend of mine, though, looking forward to it! To me, making find and streak goals makes it more of a job than a hobby, and then it starts losing it's fun, and then what's the point?

I brought my Legend HCx to Disneyland this past summer, it was cool. Sure, the GPS didn't show any details of the park or anything, and I was too busy doing stuff with the family to look for more than 1 of the virtuals, but I just left it on and saving a track, and then when I got home, I was able to upload the tracks and view them on Google Earth, it was pretty cool. I wear a hip-pack when I go to Disneyland, so the GPS fit in there no problem, and it's not like an Oregon is going to add much of anything to your light packing. I pack light, too, did 4 days and 3 nights out of a rolling backpack that fit on carry-on. I say bring it. Oh, and wimseyguy, on the way back from California, we must have gotten a good tailwind, hit a top speed of 698 MPH. Wish he could have gotten those last 2 MPH, though!

Yup, .loc files pretty much only give you the coordinates, while the .gpx gives you the whole enchilada: coords, difficulty and terrain rating, description and hint, and I think even the last 5 logs. Everything you need to go paperless, whick I beleive your Colorodo 400t can make use of very well.

http://www.delorme.com/support/SupportTemplate.aspx?id=433 Follow the instructions. I think there is also a link to it on the Delorme forums at forum.delorme.com , you should bookmark that site, too.

I actually have a Legend HCx and had a PN-20. I really liked the PN-20; in fact, I liked it enough that I sold it so I could buy a PN-40. The downside of the PN-20 is that it is on the slow side in regards to redraw speeds and moving around/between menus. Don't expect it to be useful for showing imagery when you're in a car, the redraws can't really keep up if you zoom n too much, but for walking speeds, it works fine. Also, it comes with full street-level maps, while the Garmin only comes with major highways/freeways. you can get free maps for it, true, but they aren't routable, just something to keep in mind. They are both very nice units, though, can't really go wrong with either one of them.

Most handheld GPSrs have handlebar mounts you can buy, so pretty much any of them should work. I've used my Garmin eTrex Legend HCx on my bicycle, just ride towards the cache, and then when you get close enough, park the bike, take the GPSr off the handlebar, and go from there. I also plan on getting a mount for my DeLorme Earthmate PN-40. But if you have an idea of what GPSr you want, look at www.ram-mount.com and see if they have a handlebar mount for it. As for the Garmin bicycle units, they might work, I have no idea, but you can get something better for geocaching for the same price or less, like the Garmin Oregon 300, Colorado, or any of the etrex series, plus the DeLorme Earthmate PN-20 and PN-40. Really, there are a lot of other options, although I don't know what exactly you want out of the GPSr. Maybe the bicycle specific units give you more of the options you want, you 'll have to tell us what you want it to do, and maybe we can point you in the right direction.

Actually, they also have a Class 4 32GB SDHC card for about $85 shipped, very not bad! http://www.buy.com/prod/edge-32gb-sdhc-fla.../210479225.html From what I understand, Class 4 is a slower max write speed than a Class 6, but for in a GPSr, that isn't supposed to make a difference, since it's just being read from, not written to. The 16GB I have in my PN-40 right now is a Class 4, and is seems to work fine. Or at least the color COQQ aerial imagery redraw can keep up with me on the freeway at 70 MPH at the 640ft zoom. I don't know anything about the brand on that 32GB card, Edge, but it's all solid state, pretty robust, and will either work or not, I might just toss them an order.

Snowshoes. The cold weather is what's been keeping me from giving my PN-40 a geo-spin; well, the cold weather, a sinus infection, and then the flu. Snowshoes whouldn't have really helped for any of those, though Soon, though, I'm pretty much recovered from the flu (spent New Years Day with a 101 degree fever... yaaaay....), maybe I'll try to sneak out this weekend. Unless it's raining, I hate rain (Oregon is a bad state for me to live in!).... And definitely get at least the 16GB SDHC card. It does hold a lot, I have about 14GB filled on mine, but that's Sat10 of the I-5 coridor from Salem to Portland and pretty much all the metro areas around there, Color COQQ Imagery of most of the same stuff (for higher zoom levels), and a few areas of the HiRes stuff around work and my parents house (for really zoomed in). I'll probably throw some more Sat10 stuff on there, even if it's places I might not go for a while, just because it's neat! I want to eventually get a 32GB card, but all that's really going to do is give me more space to fill with imagery of places I might never go to! I'm a homebody, but I like to stay prepared! Besides, urban micros tend to bore me, I'm going to make a run to the forest area around Detroit Lake and do some wilderness caching.