JeepCachr

If WAAS is important to you check out the foretrex 101. New its $125, the foretrex 201 is a really good deal at $140 considering it includes the data cable and rechargeable battery.

I'm not slamming Magellan for not supporting UTM back then. Boats were the thing using most of the GPS's. Handheld units were just coming down in price when I bought mine. I was just saying that UTM was the reason I bought my first Garmin and I will likely stick with Garmin since I've been happy with them. Why is it that the Magellan supporters are always a lot more defensive about their brand of GPS?

Which Magellan was it that did not support UTM? I don't remember the model but the garmin I bought was a 38. This was at least 10 years ago when consumer GPS's were still relatively new.

A geographic location and mileage would be exteremely helpfull information to know to help decide if more questions are necessary. Pictures are also good.

I like Garmin my first GPS was a Garmin (the magellan model in that price range didn't support UTM). I'd recomend you to buy a backup of the same unit you have or at least one that was compatible with the same cords and software.

I think it was only $30 when I registered it but it still seemed steep to me for a PPC application. Vito Navigator is only $20 but lacks some of the features found in Tuner. I think the advanced stuff in Tuner is worth it but it depends on what you need it for and how your going to use it. GPX Sonar for the PPC is an incredible program and its free. GSAK for the pc is also incredible and free. I think we as geocachers are spoiled with the amount of free and inexpensive software choices that we have.

I've been using a foretrex 201 for almost 2 months now and love it. It can not pass for a watch but it is realitivly stealthy. Most people think its some kind of stop watch or something. The rechargeable battery is very nice and makes it .3 inches thinner than the 101. I carry a AA battery extender pack in my bag that can charge the GPS or my PPC while on the trail so I always have backup power though I haven't needed it yet. The 15 hours the battery is supposed to last seems accurate with how much I'm using mine. If I was doing a week long caching marathon I could charge it in the car off the cig lighter. I'm looking to buy another GPS for the wife. I'm leaning towards another foretrex but struggle between getting the 101 or the 201. I'll probably go with the 201 again. If I get the 101 then I have to carry aaa's and aa's. Plus the data cable is not included with the 101.

Get a real GPS. I tried the bluetooth/PPC combo and was unhappy with it. I still use the blue tooth GPS with my PPC in the car and I love that combo and its lack of cords. If you do a card slot GPS with a PPC you need to mount the PPC in the car somewhere that the card can get a good view of the satellites. If your lucky this will be somewhere convenient for you to see it and use it if not it can be very ackward. The card also sticks out and can easily be broken or damaged. CF slots are not very thick. There are ruggedized PDA's but not an inexpensive readily available one. Putting your PDA in a otterbox or similar case protects it but makes it very bulky. I ended up buying a fortrex 201 and couldn't be happier. I still use the PPC in the field but not as a GPS. It may have something to do with having 2 small children (2 yrs and 2 months), I already have enough things to juggle and the wrist mounted foretrex is very convenient and reasonably priced at the low end of the range.

GPS Tuner and Vito Navigator II both are both good programs. GPS Tuner recent upgrade to being able to open GPX files is one less thing to convert. Combined with GPX Sonar's able to open GPX files you don't need to convert anything. Tuner also has an excellent averaging mode for taking accurate readings. My favorite programs are Mapopolis combined with GPX sonar. Mapopolis has excellent maps and routing along with spoken voice prompts for navigation. You can use the GPS view screen to get right to the cache. It doesn't give you as much information as some of the other GPS programs like tuner and navigator. To have your caches show up in mapopolis you do have to convert your GPX file to a maplet but they have a nice utility that does that for you and can even copy the maplet to your PPC at the same time.

No

Hey P3 welcome to Geocaching! Have you checked out the Michigan Geocaching Website yet? Theres a great group of people over there that love to welcome and assist new cachers. You mentioned you were from SW Michigan. We'd love to see you at our event in August! Age of Discovery Cacher Event Picnic and Social Its going to be a good time for everybody!

If your a premium member you can run a pocket query for the area where the hides are of the person you want to find. It may require multiple querys depending on how big of an area your trying to get. Take those PQ's and import them into a program like GSAK (geocaching swiss army knife) then you can filter out based on who hid them and sort them by distance to whatever point you pick. If your not already using GSAK get it and try it, its free, there is so much more that it can do!

All most all of them are waterproof. Simple is a matter of opinion but for the most part they are similar. What do you mean by tough? Most of them will survive a drop or impact. The most fragile part of all of them being the screen. The meridian line has a slightly resessed screen which some claim help protect it.

I don't see where st2gpx goes into Streets, I see where you can export from streets but not import into streets. Do you have a link to any directions?

Map point is just streets and trips with more data import capabilities. I've been creating maps for streets and trips with a seperate CSV for each cache type. I would love to be able to let S&T or map point be able to change the icon for the pushpin based on the cache type. It would also be nice if it exported found, not found, hidden status because then I could also create maps for those. Ultimately then it would be cool if it could differentiate by type and status. So that a traditional one I found would have a different icon than a traditional that I hadn't found. All that can be done today in S&T with a lot of manual exports from and imports into S&T. Is there a better mapping program to use that can do this? Is importing into Street Atlas or NG Topo easier or harder? I'm willing to switch mapping programs if someone has had better results with another one.

Size, power requirements, cost.... Plus the big advantage with an external is that you can place it where it gets the best coverage and not have to put it where you can see it. Have you ever noticed how much better reception your GPS will get if you hold it up high with a clear view of the sky?

Are you willing to sell without a trade?

Are you willing to sell without a trade? If so how much and exactly what software would it come with?

For $100 buy a new yellow E-trex. I don't know about some of those other models but the garmin 38 is very dissapointing for geocaching. Not that you can't do it with one of those but it will be frustrating.

Unless the cache is obvious I use a regular compass on most hunts. I always make a point to have a real compass with me any time I go somewhere bigger than just a local park. My GPS doesn't have one built in but I'd like one.

You can buy a battery extender pack (under $10) that takes AA's and recharge your foretrex on the run with it. Thats similar to what I did for mine. Just so that I always have a backup. I ordered a USB charging cord for it for $9 from Pc--Mobile then I ordered a universal battery extender with USB port, $17, from Semsons.com. I can then use the USB cable to charge off any computer or plug it into my car adapter and charge it off the cig lighter or plug it into my USB 110v adapter, or plug it into the battery pack and charge it. I ordered the battery pack with the USB plug because I have several devices that can charge off it. If all you want is a battery pack for your fortrex PC-mobile has one for $10.

Lots of reviews for pocket PC caching software here- Pocket Caching FAQ That site doesn't address using the pocketPC as your GPS. Here's the program I use with my blue tooth fortuna clip on- gps tuner and heres another program that I liked but didn't purchase- Navigator 2 While looking up the addresses to answer your question I noticed that gps tuner just updated their program. The ability to open GPX files is a huge step towards making that program easier to use for geocaching.

You can get a new basic model for $100. I'd recomend a new basic one over a fancier used older one.

If your considering the gecko and you don't need the compass look at the foretrex 101 or 201. They are based on the gecko 201 and have most of the same features only smaller. I like mine.

VERY COOL!