NeilFord

Unfortunately not, just the .mxf format. It's most useful for telling you the very limited number of icons it supports for marks. It's considerably less than are in the full Maptech spec. Whilst I'm here... Haggis Hunter, I will reply to your email once I get back from my client's in Herefordshire tonight (no nearby caches, so no detours :-) ). Didn't want you to think I was ignoring you. - Neil.

Your best bet is to stick with DGM, unless you are capable of doing the relevent conversion on the fly. Most multi or puzzle caches will require you to collect parts of co-ordinates in DGM and having the GPS working in OS grid would be a pain. I don't believe there is any accuracy difference. Happy to be proven incorrect on that one though :-) - Neil.

Okay, that is cheap. And as they come recommended, I'd say they were a safe bet. I have seen some really shoddy cables in the past, hence my suggestion of looking at reputable suppliers. - Neil.

Such beasties can be had from PC World, Maplins, etc. or bought online. You'll probably find it's just as cheap to buy on the high street once you take postage into account. http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.as...3491&Products=1 is a suitable cable, £4.99. - Neil.

Can't find much detail on Medion to work out the full spec of the machine on offer. Assuming it does come with Tom Tom 2, an upgrade to Tom Tom 3 should set you back no more than £100, which means that even at £370 it's still quite a bargain. The supplied memory card is 256Mb, which can currently be picked up for less than £40. A little more digging has produced http://www.medion.com/ and http://www.medion.co.uk/ but they aren't particularly helpful :-( Definitely a case of having a good look first before parting with your cash. - Neil.

It proudly proclaims on he box that it includes Manchester and Grimsby, so it goes a lot further North than you might imagine :-) And it's unregistered, we never got that far with it! - Neil.

Whoops! Teach me to try and do all the URL's from memory :-) As it happens I have a spare copy of Fugawi: Great Britian South (was £90, make us an offer :-) ) going spare as we took the plunge an bought the whole GB set from Memory Map. Useful for finding clients in out of the way places, as well as caches. One advantage of Fugawi is that there is a Palm OS app for it, and the cost of low-end Palms is less than equivilent Pocket PCs. - Neil.

Firstly, see the following two threads: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=68549 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=69694 If you are wanting to go down the Pocket PC route, then the essential software is probably the following: Geocaching Swiss Army Knife - http://gsak.net/ This is the Mutts Nutts of GPX file management applications. Windows only, but I suspect that's not a problem seeing as you're considering a Pocket PC. GPXSonar - http://gpxsonar.homeip.net/ This allows you to read GPX files on the Pocket PC. It can decrypt clues and display the cache page (including past log entries). Includes management of travel bugs as well. Both of these are free software. You may also want to consider some form of OS mapping software as you may well find the Autoroute Express maps not detailed enough. The front runners are Memory Map (http://www,memorymap.co.uk) and Fugawi (http://www.fugawi.com). You'll need to invest in a large SD card (I would recommend a 512Mb one) to really take advantage of these apps. And of course, you'll need Premium Membership to geocaching.com in order to run pocket queries to get the GPX files. I currently use an iPaq 3870 with both a bluetooth GPSr and a Garmin Geko. Fell free to ask any further questions. - Neil.

That is such a cool idea! Finding suitable locations close to airports, etc might be a little hard here in the UK, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't consider it. - Neil.

I don't think it's supported as the mxf format doesn't cater for it. I have the tech specs from Memory Map somewhere, so I'll check. - Neil.

Don't forget prices in the US will be exclusive os sales tax, whilst UK prices will be inclusive of VAT. Also if they have been importeed legally they will have had duty levied by Customs and Excise. And to keep stock, suppliers need to purchase stuff in advance and therefore you can't really apply todays favourable exchange rate as a comparison. I'm not saying price hiking doesn't happen, but the subject is a lot more complex than it first appears. - Neil.

Spottyspaniels is on it. There's a possibility that it might have been removed by someone in authority locally. One of the logs does mention that the location was easily viewable by muggles however..... - Neil.

The Fortuna Clip-On Bluetooth receiver does indeed us a mobile phone style battery, in actual fact it uses an identical battery to a number of Nokia Mobile phones. However, personal experience has been that it's not particularly usable in the field, due mainly to the instability of the bluetooth implementations on most handhelds. I use mine in the car alongside an iPaq and it works superbly. For locating caches I resort to a Geko 201, using the iPaq for cache details and static maps. I tried using the Fortuna and the iPaq wnen I tackled Hertfordshire with OzGuff and it just kept crashing and requiring a reboot far too often :-( Shame really, as it's actually a really good receiver. - Neil.

A distance radius around any point is a little to arbitory and if you were to do it, then measure from Charing Cross Station which is (if my memory serves me correctly) where london distances are measured from/to. Much better to say if the cache falls within the boundaries of a London borough, then it counts. As borough boundaries don't have a habit of moving i should be consistant for quite some time. It then also takes into account the not circular nature of London's sprawl. - Neil.

And to round out suppliers you can also check out Finger Technology run by Finger. - Neil.

That was kinda fun. Not sure I should log it though. - Neil.

Emailing younger cachers can cause all sorts of fun, as Nat and I discovered recently :-( TBs are fun, but sometimes one wonders if all the hassle is worth it. Good luck in getting yours moving. - Neil

Drop the bug off in a bug hotel near you. I'm sure someone will then pick it up and at least get it to the UK. Then it can wend it's merry way up the UK, visiting lots of attractions and other geocachers on the way. Posting bugs should really be avoided at all costs, IMHO. - Neil.

At least with a Palm III you can swap out the batteries for new ones. If you are quick enough you shouldn't lose any data. It's been a while since I used a III, but the capacitor holds charge for about 5 mins if I remember correctly. Best to have the replacements to hand though before removing the old ones. There is something to be said for a PDA that you can get batteries for an practically any street corner rather than having to remember to charge it up. It's a pain having to remember every charger when you travel (laptop, phone, PDA (sometimes x2), bluetooth GPSr, mp3 player, etc., etc. :-) ). The joys of modern technology. - Neil.

The only way seems to be to do the whole queries by center thing. I can see the PQ machine getting a complete hammering :-) - Neil.

If you are prepared to adopt the cache and maintain it, I can't see why it wouldn't get reactivated. First thing to do is probably check out the location and make sure it's still suitable for a cache. If it is, then talk to the reviewers about bringing it back. Wishing you every success in your endeavour. - Neil.

For a laptop user, I would recommend the following: Premier membership for GC.com to get the GPX files. Geocaching Swiss Army Knife to process said GPX files. GSAK can output in a whole mass of formats, including MXF files which can be used by Memory Map, or a TXT file for use with Fugawi, allowing you to import waypoints into the maps. Either of these are suitable products for giving you OS level mapping. You can then print out the maps as required (or transfer to a PDA should you so wish). As as alternative you can use the GeocacheUK website to do a search and then download a appropriate file including one for Autoroute Express. Hopefully that's given you some pointers. Shout if you need more. - Neil.

Have you successfully installed CacheMate on your Palm? Once you have done that, then you can use GSAK to create a cachemate file, which when synced with the Palm, Cachemate will load the next time it is run. Note however, the demo version is limited to 10 caches. If you need help getting Cachemate on to your Palm, shout. - Neil.

I'm not familiar with the Sharp phones (been a Nokia person for most of my mobile using time) but check out this thread here, as it may contain some useful info. It does seem that with the GX10i, WAP is the only option however. - Neil.

Wouldn't that be the default Nokia ring tone? "HELLO! I'M OUT CACHING!" :-) - Neil.