ThePropers

First of all, welcome! A lot of this has been covered extensively, so rather than cover it in detail here, I'll give you a quick summary and then if you use the search function on what I suggest, you will find lots of reading and information. What you are asking is commonly referred to as "paperless" caching and usually involves carrying a PDA (or Pocket PC) that will hold all the info on the cache pages. The most common application is Cachemate, which I think is $8, and will be one of the best investments you can make. In addition to that, you might want to look at Plucker, which I think is free, but I haven't used it. That should get you started. These vary, but most people frown on "junk" like broken McToys (the happy meal toys) or leaving rocks or leaves. And of course food/drink/knives/matches/lighters are all no-nos. I very seldom trade any more but carry around some toys from the dollar store in case I run across something my kid would like, and then I carry two nice "adult" items such as a poncho, flashlight, waterproof match holder, etc....that I would trade for something nice if I happen to find it. Most caches end up getting junky over time anyways, so I don't find a lot of nice things. It's just one of those things I've accepted. If you do a title only search for "trade items" you'll find a lot of info. Do a search on GSAK, as that seems to be the most popular. Although the program is very powerful and does everything under the sun, the basics are pretty simple. It's free, but after 20 days you get nag screens until you register ($20). There are also several alternatives out there that will transfer waypoints to your GPS, such as EasyGPS, but I am unfamiliar with them as I've just used GSAK since day 1. The biggest thing you could do as a newbie to improve your experience is to become a premium member, which will allow you to run pocket queries. This is basically a search that will email you a file containing up to 500 caches, which you can then load into your GPS all at once using EasyGPS or GSAK, and then also load them into your PDA. It sure beats loading things by hand...

I think what you were reading was a suggestion to add that functionality. Cemetary is NOT a cache type, as caches in cemetaries could be traditional, multi, puzzle...etc. The best way I have found to do off-the-wall stuff like this is to use Google and only search geocaching.com. It doesn't do the best job because it'll return anything (logs...etc) but it's easy enough to sort them out. For instance, site:geocaching.com cemetary+pennsylvania will give me all the listings on geocaching.com that include both "cemetary" and "Pennsylvania" (the state is listed as the location on each cache page, so that helps narrow it down).

I would never eat anything I found in a cache. We have a local cacher around here who always leaves a "trademark water bottle" (even if it doesn't fit in the cache) and I find that disgusting also. I wonder how many caches they're ruining now that we have freezing temperatures around here. There are thousands of good trade item ideas, food doesn't need to be one of them.

I should clarify that I wasn't pointing fingers or anything, I was just pointing out that I didn't realize these were allowed. I wasn't trying to start a controversy. However....wouldn't a team rivalry cache turn geocaching into a competition?

I have this annoying thing with clearing out areas of my map. My PQ is set up for a 30 mile radius, so I'll open it in Google Earth, find an area, and just plan out how to hit up everything there. I usually will plan out about 40 or so, and then just do them until I run out of time. So I guess in theory I might attempt to do all of those in one day. Anyways I'll end up in my chosen area and do everything, regardless of whether it's a 5 mile hike, a 20 part multi, a puzzle that requires tons of online solving, or a a lame parking lot micro. For example, the other day I decided to go down the east side of the river with another cacher. We did everything, and ended up with 32 caches for the day, but it was a wide variety of cache types, terrains, and difficulties. Sometimes I make it to one cache, sometimes I'll make it to 30. All depends on what kindof caches are there. Of course, my obsession with clearing out my map leads me to drive 20 miles to get one lame micro that pops up in an already-cleared area. Yeah, I'm stupid like that. What's it to ya?

Hmmm...sounds like a moving cache to me. I didn't think those were allowed. I think the search thing works fine. College is a pretty common term, and I'm sure all of the results had the word "college" in them somewhere. Maybe you should've put in to search titles only? Just a thought.

It also depends. In that thread, he said within 5 miles, which actually covers a 5 mile RADIUS, so it's actually a lot of area. Using my calculus skills (finally it pays off!) that's a good 78.5 square miles. That's a lot of area to cover in a day. It's not like they'd all be on the same 10 mile trail.... I've found as few as zero, and as many as 30+...depending on what kindof caching I'm in the mood for.

It should also be noted that you can turn pages off so they don't get included when you scroll through. I have quite a few of mine turned off.

Nope. I have a hard time relying on my GPS completely when out in the woods, because if I drop it, it might break. Then where would I be? Lost, that's where. But hopefully not lost on the island from Lost. That place is creepy. Anyways, I carry a "real" compass with me.

I too keep waiting for a fix for this. I'm surprised it's taking so long since Jeremy originally said it was fixed way back in mid-October.

On the physical log or the online log? When I sign the physical log, I note the date and time (in case someone else hits it that day they can see by how long they missed having the honor of meeting me ), then usually either a short log about any cool stuff I liked, or I just sign my name. If I traded, I will note the items, and I also note any TBs I grab or leave (again, for the next cacher so they know it's not missing). For the online log, I will go into more detail about my experience, if it's a "deserving" (IMO) cache. If it's a lame parking lot micro, I won't say much about it, because it's kindof hard to write a lot about the cache when there's nothing memorable about it. While not necessary to note any trades, I do because if the person who left it comes back to read the logs, they know their trade item was deemed worthy enough to be traded for. I always like when I go back to the logs and see someone after me took something I left. It's more of a do-unto-others type thing with me. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "symbols" in your title.

I believe the blue circle is your accuracy circle (as in you could actually be anywhere inside of that blue circle). I don't know if I understand your second question. You can use Page and Quit to go back and forth among screens, if that's what you're referring to.

Odd...that one shows up as being 131 miles from Northbrook, but this one is only 33. EDIT: Sorry, I missed the part about being from his placed cache. Don't mind me. Move along...nothing to see here.

Actually, this wouldn't require any new work(?) for premium members, as it would just use the existing bookmark/watchlist functionality that is already in place, but allow it to be either searched on or (in my suggestion) added to the query that generates the PQs. At least that's how I read it.

I just set up a pocket query focused on Northbrook, IL (zip code 60062) for a radius of 200 miles and it came back with 20. The closest is about 33 miles away, and the furthest is 185. You're a premium member, so you should be able to do the same.

I also like this idea. It would be nice if we could even get the watchlist and bookmark counts added to the GPX file so we could just do sorting using a macro in GSAK. While not perfect because of the negative bookmark lists mentioned earlier, the positive lists still outnumber the negative ones quite a bit, and there doesn't tend to be (for instance) 5 negative bookmark lists for one lame cache, like there is 5 positive bookmark lists on a decent cache. It would definitely be useful for finding popular caches.

Ditto here. I've had it power off randomly several times, so I started keeping track and it's always at/near a map segment. Must be something with them not lining up exactly and causing some kindof hard error.

Interesting. Sorry but the revelance of this point given my actual question is unclear. Regards Andrew I thought the same thing (since it was addressed "Dear Garmin") but I think he was just making a point. On a related note: [sarcasm] Dear Comcast, Why is my cable bill $15 more than it was last month? Can you please fix this? Thanks! [/sarcasm]

Without jumping into units, you need to ask yourself a few questions: What kindof caching will you be doing? If you are doing hiking in the deep woods where there will be lots of tree cover, you may want a different unit than if you are going to be doing mostly urban caching. Will you just be using it for caching? GPS units can do a lot more. Would you be interested in also using it for autorouting (going from point A to point B with turn-by-turn directions), or being able to find the closest restaurants, gas stations, etc. How much money do you have to spend? Units can range from $80 to several hundred and more depending on what you get. You may also find yourself with several other costs, such as detailed road maps for autorouting, or topo maps. When I first started caching, there weren't a whole lot of hand-held units, and we weren't sure if we'd actually like it or not, so we just got a $100 etrex yellow. It worked fine for caching, and found us 800 before it broke. Now I have a 60CSx which has tons of bells and whistles, but also costs in the $450 range by the time you add on maps and memory card.

I believe the PQs run off a separate database than what you log to, but I'm not sure how often they sync with each other. Apparently it's more than every 12 hours though...

Sorry, I've never seen that behavior, or heard of it happening to anyone else. Stupid questions, but since you're an admitted newbie, some things to check: 1) You did verify the waypoints were in fact loaded correctly and displaying, correct? 2) Did you delete ANY waypoints? Perhaps you accidentally deleted all of a symbol, rather than just a particular one. 3) Just to double check that you are talking about waypoints, and not POIs. People tend to get them mixed up, and POIs will disappear from your map after you zoom out more than 800 feet. That's all I got....sorry.

I'm not that familiar with the explorists, but I am assuming what you are "missing" is comparing it to the older etrex models. Kindof like trying to compare the Super Nintendo to the Playstation 3 and wondering why people still like Nintendo. Anyhoo, I doubt it's so much about Garmin vs. Magellan as it is the units you are comparing. I have a friend with the Explorist 500, and it seems to get simiilar to reception to my 60CSx, at least in the caching we've done together. I would say the Garmin wins out though, but I'm not even sure those are equivalent units for comparison.

I know of a couple caches like that, but I haven't done one. They use those "talking house" transmitters. I was going to set one up once, but didn't feel like dropping $100+ for the transmitter, plus I didn't have anywhere to plug it in other than home, and I wasn't sure at that time if I wanted other geocachers knowing where I lived. I was going to call mine the station and make it a mystery. As in "860 AM" or whatever band it ended up on. I don't think the ones I know of are set up on a timer though, but I suppose it would be easy enough to use one of those christmas lights timers you can pick up and just plug the transmitter into it.

Did you read this? That's how I have it set up anyways... If you asking just how to get that screen, just go to Find -> Waypoints and select any waypoint.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are attempting to use one of the custom symbols. I've named them, for instance, Parking (Alternate 1).bmp which is basically a blue version of the normal (green) parking symbol that's in the file. If you want to use that one rather than the current green parking symbol that's in the file, you will need to rename it from Parking (Alternate 1).bmp to Waypoint Symbol 004.bmp. Waypoint Symbol 004.bmp is the name of the current green parking symbol, so you have to rename the blue one to take it's place. It has to be called that because the unit will not accept a name like Parking (Alternate 1).bmp The GarminOther.txt file is what GSAK uses to display a description of the symbols so they show up and can be assigned correctly. Thus if you open it up, you will see that symbol 004 is described as "Parking". For just using the alternate parking symbol, you won't need to change the GarminOther.txt file because symbol 004 is still parking. However, if you are trying to use the Micro symbol, you will have to replace one of the other symbols. So you might decide to replace the "archived" symbol with the one for micro. In this case, you would want to rename the micro symbol to Waypoint Symbol 018.bmp (the current archived symbol) and then open the GarminOther.txt and change the line that references that symbol from "Archived" to "Micro" so the changes are reflected over in GSAK and it doesn't refer to that symbol as "Archived" anymore. Keep in mind that if you are doing things such as this, the GSAK macro will not assign the micro correctly, so you will want to do the manual setup that's in the writeup (you only need to do this one time of course). I suppose if you are good with macros, you could edit the one that's included rather than doing the manual setup. I hope that helps.