TeamCNJC

You need to import the data into Excel, parse out the degree and minute markers, and covert to degrees.degrees for importing into G7toWin. I did it using Excel, the FIND and MID functions, saved it as a CSV file, and successfully loaded all 305 waypoints into G7toWin. Email me at teamcnjc@earthlink.net and I'll send you the files. As far as cluttering up the screen - yes, it will. However, you can turn off waypoint display in the map setup, if desired. ExpertGPS is another alternative. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Is that what Michael wants? Something similar to this? -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Naah, don't move it. We wouldn't have any geocaches in MN in the summer if we moved them all because of skeeters. Unless, of course, your GPS works inside the Mall of America. I hunted two caches over the long weekend. In both cases, the skeeters were fierce. I think they're just going through a peak right now. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Naah, don't move it. We wouldn't have any geocaches in MN in the summer if we moved them all because of skeeters. Unless, of course, your GPS works inside the Mall of America. I hunted two caches over the long weekend. In both cases, the skeeters were fierce. I think they're just going through a peak right now. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

quote:Originally posted by uocooper: ...Am I stuck with mapsend since nothing else works with the SporTrak? If you want to upload maps into the SporTrak, yes, you're stuck with MS Topo, the same way that you're stuck with MapSource for Garmin. If you're looking for a program that allows you to print topos to carry with you while you're hiking, you can try a program like NG Topo! (CD) or ExpertGPS (Terraserver - online). ExpertGPS has a free 14 day demo, and I'm sure that if NG Topo! is not currently compatible with SporTrak, it will be soon - email the company. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

IMHO, it would have been easier to email the "new" parent and Jeremy then it would have been to pull the cache. Is Michael Moreth going to reclaim his other cache as well? -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

The FAQs posted on the Magellan web site show that there's an option to directly upload to an SD card. Does anybody know which version of MapSend you need to make this happen? Also, are there updates to the MapSend program (not data) anywhere? Thanks, -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Without having a 76S, the general method is to mark a waypoint and edit it. Look in the manual, and follow the instructions to mark your current position. That should bring up a window with a default waypoint name and the current coordinates. Edit the icon, the name, and the coordinates to match the geocache. You can also download them into EasyGPS, then upload from EasyGPS direct to your 76S. (The 76S should be supported). -Craig/TeamCNJC -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

If you just purchased a Meridian line or SportTrak line GPS, along with MS Topo or MS Streets and Destinations, you're eligible for a rebate. Fifty bucks should buy a large card or a decent card writer. (Which one? ) -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

If you just purchased a Meridian line or SportTrak line GPS, along with MS Topo or MS Streets and Destinations, you're eligible for a rebate. Fifty bucks should buy a large card or a decent card writer. (Which one? ) -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Is that 1 work week, or do we have to take holidays into account. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

Is that 1 work week, or do we have to take holidays into account. -Craig/TeamCNJC ... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took off through the thorns, chest high, ...

... that you try an on/off approach to see if there's any different, but I got bored at work today and ordered a MeriPlat, so now I can try it myself.

... that you try an on/off approach to see if there's any different, but I got bored at work today and ordered a MeriPlat, so now I can try it myself.

quote:Originally posted by ChemTurtles: ...I'll probably pick up the best Ebay bargian I can find between the 76 line and Meri Gold/Platinum. Yes, I'm still wishy washy but feeling much better about it. Just made my decision this morning. Went with the Platinum. After reading and going through all of the "six vs. half-dozen" arguments here and in other threads, I liked the upgradable/swappable memory, and the price. I got a Platinum with MS Topo and a data card for $395, including 2 day shipping, from GPSdiscount.com. I'll keep my Venture as a backup, and use it to train the kids. Thanks to all the posters here for their views.

quote:Originally posted by JetSkier:I have a Magellan Meridian and there is no way to disable WAAS. Which Magellan has this capability? Which one do you use? Try this thread here. -Craig/TeamCNJC [This message was edited by TeamCNJC on July 01, 2002 at 01:02 PM.]

I think it depends on the model of GPSr. From what I've seen posted here before, it seems that the Maggies are able to deal with intermittent WAAS signals while the Garmins seem to choke a bit. What are you using? -Craig/TeamCNJC

(I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong here, but... ) Aside from being able to pick up reliable WAAS signals, you also have to be in proximity to a WAAS ground station. The ground stations receive the "raw" GPS signals, calculate the error, and upload the error correction to the WAAS birds, which transmit the error correction back down to all WAAS-enabled GPSr units. When you are receiving an error-corrected signal in a Garmin unit, you will see a "D" in the bar indicating differential signal. Bottom line - if you're not close to a ground station, the error correction is not valid, and you will not improve accuracy. -Craig/TeamCNJC

(I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong here, but... ) Aside from being able to pick up reliable WAAS signals, you also have to be in proximity to a WAAS ground station. The ground stations receive the "raw" GPS signals, calculate the error, and upload the error correction to the WAAS birds, which transmit the error correction back down to all WAAS-enabled GPSr units. When you are receiving an error-corrected signal in a Garmin unit, you will see a "D" in the bar indicating differential signal. Bottom line - if you're not close to a ground station, the error correction is not valid, and you will not improve accuracy. -Craig/TeamCNJC

I've been using Rayovac rechargable alkalines for years. Tried them in my GPS and get about 6-8 hours. I get 10-12 hours using the Rayovac NiMH batteries. When I upgraded to the 1-hour charger last fall, it fried a couple of my batteries. They heated up and melted the labels! Rayovac replaced the charger and the batteries. I didn't see any information on the Sanyo website regarding the capacity of your battery. Perhaps the battery and the charger are mismatched? Did you try contacting Sanyo to see what chargers the recommmend? -Craig/TeamCNJC

... and haven't had too many problems with it. I've found 20 caches in the woods and in the desert, and it's always been reliable (when the coordinates are right!) It does get buggy under heavy tree cover. When that happens, I stop, let it stabilize, and use a compass to take bearings. Also, you need to make sure that your in bearing mode rather than course mode, which will steer you back to the line you're supposed to be on, rather than directly to the destination. If your pointer is offset in the middle, you're in course mode. Course mode was the reason I missed my first cache. I'm sure that other devices have their own pecularities as well. Doesn't the SporTrak have auto-averaging that has caused problems with some people? I usually use my Venture in battery saver mode. I don't live in an area where WAAS is of any help. The only thing that I've had a problem with in my Venture is the use of the map screen. If you accidentally "grab" a waypoint with the cursor, and put it down without moving it, it is actually moved. Depending on the screen resolution, picking it up and putting it down without "moving" it can actually move it 1/4 mile or so. I've done that with caches, but thankfully never with the waypoints I've used to mark the car. Personally, I'm saving up for a MeriPlat with MS Topo, but I'll keep the Venture as a backup (and to train the kids). Before you jump ship, why not try it on another cache? -Craig/TeamCNJC

... and haven't had too many problems with it. I've found 20 caches in the woods and in the desert, and it's always been reliable (when the coordinates are right!) It does get buggy under heavy tree cover. When that happens, I stop, let it stabilize, and use a compass to take bearings. Also, you need to make sure that your in bearing mode rather than course mode, which will steer you back to the line you're supposed to be on, rather than directly to the destination. If your pointer is offset in the middle, you're in course mode. Course mode was the reason I missed my first cache. I'm sure that other devices have their own pecularities as well. Doesn't the SporTrak have auto-averaging that has caused problems with some people? I usually use my Venture in battery saver mode. I don't live in an area where WAAS is of any help. The only thing that I've had a problem with in my Venture is the use of the map screen. If you accidentally "grab" a waypoint with the cursor, and put it down without moving it, it is actually moved. Depending on the screen resolution, picking it up and putting it down without "moving" it can actually move it 1/4 mile or so. I've done that with caches, but thankfully never with the waypoints I've used to mark the car. Personally, I'm saving up for a MeriPlat with MS Topo, but I'll keep the Venture as a backup (and to train the kids). Before you jump ship, why not try it on another cache? -Craig/TeamCNJC

Thanks, rschoolf, for making this available. I don't know if you're taking suggestions or not, but have you given any thought to parsing out the hint conversion matrix? When I used to do this by hand, I would delete the matrix, and leave the coded hint in the Palm memo, using this palm application to decode the hint if needed. Thanks again! Craig/TeamCNJC

Thanks, rschoolf, for making this available. I don't know if you're taking suggestions or not, but have you given any thought to parsing out the hint conversion matrix? When I used to do this by hand, I would delete the matrix, and leave the coded hint in the Palm memo, using this palm application to decode the hint if needed. Thanks again! Craig/TeamCNJC

quote:Don't use the name of the park in the cache name. They will search for names. Use a waypoint outside of the park that you must find to get the coordinate of the actual cache or make stages to it. ... ... Let's hope they don't post a sign at the park entrance. "Check in your GPSR before entering" If they're going to search for a name, then they'll probably look for a certain radius around the park using the park's coordinates. The tools that geocaching.com has to make it easier on us to find caches makes it easy for the rangers as well. I'm not trying to pick on this poster, or anyone in particular, but I'm not sure that the message that I've quoted above (and others here and in the GEM forum as well) is the right message that we, as geocachers, want to send. This is not a case of "do you agree with me or don't you understand." The park services has rules that their workers believe they need to enforce. Making it harder for them to enforce the rules doesn't make it right for us to break the rules. There are, however, ways around the rules. The "without permission" description of "abandoned" property gives us hope. With the permission of the park ranger/supervisor/DNR, we can legally place traditional geocaches. We just haven't got to the permission stage yet. If you look closely at the announcement on the DNR page, the reference is to "geocaching" in general, but the part of the statement that quotes the rules only prohibits placing of traditional caches. So, if we're going to go to the extreme of placing multi-stage virtual/micro offset caches to culminate in a traditional cache within park boundaries, as has been suggested, why not make the final cache virtual as well? Or better yet, use the trail signs, historical markers, and other permanent, public facilities as a code-type of virtual cache. (If you're really into the toys and trinkets, the final coordinates could be to the gift shop - "took a polished rock and a bumper sticker, left an imprint of my Visa card" ) We need to continue the positive dialogue that many on this board have initiated. I think, IMHO, we need to limit the talk of how we're going to find ways around the rules in order to get our way. Otherwise, we may see signs in the future advising us to "leave your GPSR in your car." My 2 cents... -Craig from TeamCNJC