JeepCachr

Trying to follow that makes my head hurt. We don't need more rules... Would you place another cache in the first park just because the rules would allow it even though it would be lame? Have you tried getting more caches approved in the park that you think would hold multiples? Hypothetical arguements are a waste of time.

You must be describing how to do it with a palm. With a pocket PC its much simpler. All you would need to do is automate copying your gpx attachment to your PPC synch directory and the next time you synched up you would get your new pocket query on the PPC. You don't have to do any converting to run a GPX file on a pocket PC using GPX sonar. If you wanted a mapopolis file of your waypoints then you could follow a similar process to what your outlining to get that automatically on your PPC.

If you provide your customers with a receipt then it won't matter that it was sold on ebay and the warranty will still be good for one year from the date of the receipt.

Newbie here, I think every excuse I've read for not logging online is lame. The 2 biggest ones are privacy and not wanting to compete. They want their privacy yet they'll be the first ones in the forum defending their right to not log. They won't log because they don't want to compete. This one still confuses me because if there is one thing that is repeated by almost everyone and that is that the number of finds means nothing because there are to many variables. Now if caches were assigned point values with multi-stages being worth more and urban light pole parking lot micros were assigned less than maybe the score would mean something. Statistics can say anything you want them to say. You can use the same set of numbers to prove either side of an arguement. I'm proud of my finds (both of them)- I definately want to compete. I'm going to catch my little brother (2 year cacher) and pass him. Will he let me? Not a chance but I sure am going to try. There is nothing wrong with a little friendly competition. Its his own fault he got me hooked.

Growth pains maybe? Has geocaching.com become a victim of its popularity? Your not detailing why he is leaving. Is it just because he can't get his caches approved in a timely manner? Is their a problem in his area with those that approve caches? Did this person leave caching entirely or just take his caches to another listing sight? If he is happier quitting than he is playing then perhaps it is time for him to move on. There is way to much time and energy wasted here with argueing about stats and complaining about poor trades or lame micros. If people expended half the energy to make the game better as they do in complaining about it they could really make a difference. I am a newbie and I hate to see the experience and knowledge lost that some of these experienced cachers will take with them when they go but perhaps its their time. I don't think geocaching popularity has peaked out yet and I think your going to see a massive influx of newbies this year as the weather gets warmer. I predict geocaching is going to be this years fad. This is both good and bad for the sport. For those that are set in their ways that don't like change I think its going to be hard for them.

As long as where you are allows off trail hiking. I try to avoid bushwhacking since this is one of the reasons that land managers use to shut areas down to hiking.

Keenpeople.com Has a counter that you can put on your cache page. This cache has one- GCH7YN It is a counter that counts how many times your pages gets viewed and you can click on it to rate the cache.

You all realize you can make our own maps with as many icons as you want right? Most map programs will allow you to do this. All you need is a program like GSAK to filter them the way you want. The maps I create are more usefull to me because they are available offline and they contain the information I want in the area that I want. Theres lots of fun things to do with mapping. Here's a simple map of my founds- Both of them...

Did you ever get an answer to this? I'm using mapopolis with my fortuna clip on blue tooth receiver and an Ipaq. I've only looked for one cache but it got me within 10 ft. of both stages. I'm wondering if GPS Tuner or Navigator II will be any more accurate or get me any closer.

Fish what did you think of this software? Does it work? Is it worth it? Is averaging good or bad? Another program I'm looking at is called Vito Navigator II. I'm looking for something that will give more information like a standard GPS.

Well how do you like navigator? Now that I got my bluetooth receiver I'm looking for the exact thing that you are. Are there any other programs that anyone knows off? Especially something that could open a GPX file for waypoints.

You can input coordinates instead of a zip code. If your unsure of the coordinates most mapping programs can give you them or look for a cache near the area where you want to go and use its coordinates for your search. When you run a search click the icon in the top right corner. Then you can visually look for a cache near where you want and find out its coordinates to do another search.

How do I run a query to find night caches?

I will attempt to stay on topic and respond to the thread starters questions. The difference in palm and PPC is the operating system. Palm is its own OS while PPC is basically a scaled down version of Windows. The pocketpc is going to cost you more to start but its going to include a lot of things like word and excel that would cost you extra on the Palm. The PPC is more like a scaled down version of windows and the palm is a simpler operating system which is easier at the cost of features. Typically your going to spend $400 for a decent PPC while a decent Palm is going to be around $200. The palm is generally going to be smaller and have longer battery life while the PPC has a bigger screen which makes them overall bigger and have shorter battery life. As far as caching goes your going to need a map program and something to read GPX files. I love mapopolis on my PPC and as far as I can tell the palm version is similar. The only big complaint I've heard is how you get waypoints into the palm. They show up as contacts in your address book. For reading GPX files I use GPXsonar, its free and very easy. All I need to do is copy the gpx file to the PC I don't have to do any tweaking or converting. I'd bet there is something similar for the palm. So it depends on what else you want to do with your pocket device. Is there a certain program or peice of hardware you want to use? Do you want a bigger screen or a smaller lighter device? Do you want a simpler operating system or one with more features? Off topic alert Jeremy can your palm do this? -Terminal Server Client -HP remote insight board client -HP insight manager -voice over IP phone -microsoft reader -browse network file shares -Pocket RAR (unzip rar or zip) -Virtual display (rotate, scroll, or compress your display) -Play WMV, divx, vidx files (plus almost any video or audio file format out there) -scrabble -arcade and console emulators This is not a list of everything the palm can't do, its a list of what I do on the PPC that I don't think the palm can do. I use my PPC for all these things.

Lighthouses even have a unique light pattern so that ships can tell what lighthouse they were looking at just by looking at its light signature.

Sorry if I'm a little overzealous in the palm vs ppc debate. If you want to debate which one can do more then I would argue the PPC is going to win hands down. If you want to debate which one can get the job done it all depends on what the job is. I don't have experience with caching with a palm or know anyone that is using one but I know several people using PPC's for caching.

Gold is never a long term investment. Look at the bigger picture and graphs that go farther back. There are many other conservative investments that will do much better than gold.

Mapopolis on Palm OS and Mapopolis on PPC are very different. For some reason, they decided to get rid of maplets on the Palm. As you are using the latest version of Mapopolis, you have geomarks instead. This is basically a link between your address book and mapopolis (add coordinates to the 'custom 1' field of addresses in your address book and that address will be marked in mapopolis). Cachemate has a plugin that allows you to send waypoints from cachemate to mapopolis as geomarks. JeremyA I have a pocketPC and have owned Palms in the past. PPC is by far the more flexible and powerfull OS. Its basically mini windows giving you maximum compatability and I would argue there is more software available for it along with it being a easier platform to develop to. You can argue that you can open Word documents with a third party app but I can open them in Pocket Word along with pocket excel, Pocket IE, ect.... add to that the ability to use practically every format of audio and video that is available on the pc. Palm does have advantages. Usually in size and battery life but mostly because the palms displays are not as good. As far as the items Scarng listed my pocket PC will do everyone of them plus it has bluetooth built in and 802.11b wireless. I have a SD slot so taking every map in the US with me is easily done. Mapopolis does auto-routing and voice directions. My bluetooth GPS talks to it wirelessly so no cable nightmares and the receiver can be placed where it can get a good view while the PPC can be placed where it can easily be used. I only need 2 programs on my PPC for geocaching. Mapopolis and GPXsonar. GPXsonar doesn't require any conversion or tweaking to read the gpx from gc.com. On my PC all I need is GPXtoMaplet to create the waypoint file for Mapopolis. There are many other programs I could use like USAphoto maps which can export aerial photos or topo maps as a JPG with the cache coordinates pin pointed. I hunger for one feature in GPXsonar and from what I've heard its coming. That is the ability to click on a cache in GPXS and have it bring up the map and vice versa to click on the map and have it take you to the cache details. I believe this can be done today with Oziexplorer maps and GPXS but I have not confirmed it.

I found the first, well the experienced cacher I was with found the one we were searching for on my first trip out. It it was under 3' of snow and after randomly digging out the bases of unusual trees and tree formations in a 30' circle we found it. I did find the secound one on my own. It was supposedly a really easy multi-stage but I didn't think it was that easy. Here's my map of both of my finds- When the weather gets warmer I'm hoping to add more dots.

You should be able to adjust or adapt the foam so that it can't move in the case. I don't think my Ipaq will budge even if its dropped but I think my ipaq is larger than a m125.

I've used previous versions of the delorme pocket map software and was very dissapointed. I don't have experience with the newest version though.

Otterbox? I here they are not as water proof as they say. But they make great micro caches. Look here I don't think extended submersion is a good test of how well it will do as a GPS or PDA case. I have a heavy armor 2600 for my ipaq and I'm very happy with it. The Ipaq is fully functional inside the case and it survived my unscientific hot tub test. Where I repeatdly dunked it and left it floating for several minutes without so much of a drop of moisture leaking inside. The ipaq even works underwater. I can't bring myself to drop test it on purpose but I think the Ipaq will survive when I do. Since my ipaq has bluetooth built in, I use it with a furtuna clip on bluetooth gps receiver. Another option would be a Aquapac, But I have no personal experience with those so I can't speak to how well they work.

I agree cables are a pain. Having used a bluetooth reciever with a PPC I'll tell you that it is really cool. All of your cache information, street maps, topo data, ariel photos, hints, logs, in one place. The bluetooth receiver can go anywhere. You can even put the PPC in your pocket or turn it off and not worry about losing your GPS lock. I was surprised how small my Bluetooth receiver was when it came. I had seen pictures of it before but nothing that really put it into perspective. My bluetooth receiver uses rechargeable Nokia phone battery and even uses the same charging plug as my Ipaq. It lasts 8-10 hours between charges. It is also one of the few GPS's that have both the st and xt chipsets in it.

I currently have Pocket Streets and Mapopolis installed. Pocket streets is awefull. The maps are good but getting the maps on your PPC is kludgey. It does not have any routing. Reading the maps can also be an issue. It is cheap and will work with your GPS. Mapopolis is the best I've found. I don't have the problems with figureing out which county to load because I have a Ipaq 5550 which has an obscene amount of memory and I can load every county in multiple states at the same time. I also have multiple 512mb SD memory cards so bringing every map I could need with me is not an issue. I've d/l'd 20 states so far and its just over 500mb. They also have major road maps for each state so for long distance traveling its not necessary to take every detailed map with you. The autorouting is good and even dynamically re-routes if you miss a turn. I like the voice prompts. The maplets allow you to import your caches which is very cool. You could even import your caches with different symbles. Like traditional caches could be one symble on the map and micro's another and even have other symbles like for found caches or whatever. The online 1 year subscription to all the US maps in the highest level map pack they have is $99 a year direct from mapopolis. You can get it for $89 from http://semsons.com and if your a club member at http://gpspassion.com you can get an additional 10% off at Semsons. Mapopolis also has a cd option and a $30 PPC package. I don't think the $30 package does the voice navigating and autorouting but it would be a lot better than Pocket streets. I don't know what version of mapopolis Etrex Rose is using but the newest version supposedly made a lot of improvements to the menus. I didn't use the old version so I can't comment on the difference but I think the new menus are very easy to use. Especially when you remember that it is a pocket device and has to work within those limitations. I've only had mapopolis and my bluetooth gps for a week but I am in Love! The bluetooth works very well and is convenient since my ipaq has it built in. I'm ready to uninstall pocket streets and dump all those maps that I spent hours creating. There are a couple of quirks with the bluetooth but its more an issue or limitation of bluetooth than an actual problem with the GPS or the software. I have a fortuna bluetooth clip on GPS. I don't know how good other bluetooth receivers are but I love this one. Its size will surprise you. There is a reveiw of 16 bluetooth receivers here- http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=55. I bought mine at Semsons because they had the best price I could find plus the 10% discount because I'm a club member at gpspassion. Another bonus was a free Arkon PDA mount with the GPS. Another recomendation I would make is to get a waterproof ruggedized case for you ipaq. I found mine at http://www.watertightcase.com/Armorseries.html and am very happy with it. A peice of software called GPXsonar is something your going to want to get if you don't already have it. This is a cool peice of software can load a GPX file and give you portable access to all the information on the cache information page including recent logs and hints. Now if only you could click on a entry in GPXsonar and have it pop up in Mapopolis. There has been discussion on this and I think its only a matter of time before it happens. I've mentioned http://semsons.com a couple times in this message. I'm not afffialated in any way with them I'm just a very happy customer. My order came fast, well packaged, was exactly what I was expecting and they had the best price around. I sent them 3 emails in the days leading up to my purchase and each time they responded promptly with complete and thoughtfull responces.

Well if everyone agrees that the stats are just interesting numbers and are no reall measurement of anything why is it so important to opt out? Why not log your finds? So what if some putz logs 1000 virtual finds in a week. I think stats like how many caches a day have been found or which cache has been found the most, would be a lot of fun. The game is severely disadvantaged if finds aren't logged online. I respectfully disagree with those who feel it necessary to not log their finds because they can't opt out. I haven't been here long enough to understand why they feel this is necessary. I don't believe a opt out option will increase the number of logged finds. Happy caching to all, whether you log or not. My new goal is to make the world a nicer place one log entry at a time. I also want to try my hand at finding Team360's michigan micro's because reading those logs was interesting.