Birders

It's obviously flawed... Also interesting that the device(s) incorporate a GPS system and expect to sell for around £100.. Where can anyone buy a GPS for under £100?

<<I know people are having problems here but I have a question. How do you get a query to return almost immediately?>> I can't answer that as this particular technology is new to me (PC user for 30 years!). However, a couple of weeks ago when I first started downloading them they came back mega-fast. Now they don't work at all!! Can't win 'em all I guess.

<<That's still about 6:1>> You're right! Numbers confuse me (I didn't get 15% in my mock maths GCE for nothing you know). Bren

<<I've been doing it wrong then. I prised off the plate and the triangulation brass off the top >> That's why my new LR map is wrong.. it says Westminster Bridge is 2 miles northwest of Hartley Wintney!

Cor... must be lots of TBs where you are. We grab every one we can find but our ratio is a miserable 114:20 (found, that is)

Within seconds of my last posting I submitted a new request and it came back almost immediately. Another request submitted a little later is still pending. It could, of course, just be the usual Internet problems but we haven't experienced this much trouble in the past. Another little quirk... When we download a group of caches certain of those we have logged are omitted and our totals on GSAK are incorrect. This happens each time we download that a series covering those caches. However, if we download them individually and then load them all into GSAK the totals come our right and our logging details are all OK. Only one of the caches in question has been archived so why this occurs puzzles us!

You might like to look at http://wifi.aximsite.com/network.html and associated pages. We have an IPAQ PDA and were unable to find out how to link it to our wireless network but found the Axim pages and they solved the porblem..

After submitting half a dozen or so requests during the last week I received one reply overnight. It contained details of 17 caches whereas I had asked for 500! Plainly there is a glitch somewhere.

We have submitted half a dozen PQs in the last 5 days and have received nothing. Previously replies usually appeared within minutes, or at least on the same day... Anyone else experiencing problems or is it just us?

Stu & Sarah. I'm fairly sure its format is degrees minutes seconds. "Official" organisations usually use correct terminology.

Goodness... we thought geocaching was supposed to be fun, not an endurance test! We take: PDA GPS Walking/poking stick Swap items

Our IPAQ 4150 works similarly but it has a small press switch on the side. Pressing this sets the record cycle going and one just talks into the mike..

<<You just put 4 x AA batteries into it>> And don't forget to buy your batteries off the Internet where they're dramatically cheaper than they are in the shops...

<<Using Memory Map on the iPAQ it is easy to amend the co-ordinates of waypoints - although you may have to "unlock" the waypoint first>> Thanks for that "unlock" tip Humphrey - I didn't know that and it'll be a useful feature..

We've had a Garmin GPS12XL for many years and when we started geocaching a few months ago we thought we'd better update to a current model fearing that our GPS was well out of date. On the contrary, our old model appears to work very well for geocaching - at least as well if not better than some modern devices so we're sticking with it. We use Memory Map with a PDA and existing waypoints are "fixed" too so you can't move them. However, as Ullium suggests, it is dead easy to plot a new waypoint and the co-ords of that can be changed at will. We've never bothered to plot such waypoints, simply entering the new co-ords in the GPS and following that... at the same time keeping track of our movements on the map.

Hi Harold. Presumably you've tried throwing yourself off your GPS? We've tried lots of times... but couldn't find the bloomin' thing! We call it "geocaching doldrums" and learnt about it very early... Friends who had introduced us to the hobby came out with us for our first attempt: We visited 5 caches near us and found only 1!! Subsequently we went back and got them all so don't despair. Reading through lots of logs we suspect that some cachers don't rely on experience - they follow their GPS and expect it to lead them to the pot of old, which of course it rarely does. Get used to the ground clues - how do we tend to hide caches... what are typical methods of covering them, etc. You'll soon get the idea.. Five times out of ten when you get within 20 feet of a cache you should be able to spot it; four ,ore might take some searching and th last one you'll never find in ten thousand years (especially if it's GCF567).. Moral: DON'T give up.... unless, of course, there's something better on telly!

Someone told us you can buy "empty" rockery type stones but we haven't seen any yet. A cache near us - GCE775 - is a novel one but probably not unique. You just need a Master's degree in carpentry to make one!!

Hi Ozzy. Looking forward to reading your profile when it's updated because we suspect you're from a Land Down Under...? As has already been suggested, you don't have to be mad to do geocaching, but it's a considerable advantage!

Welcome in from the "cold"! We trust that you're all still enjoying blue string pudding!!

Zippadedoodah.... well done

Do check out Novatech who are located near Portsmouth. They have an excellent range of PCs (I'm using one now!) and provide excellent support and service and their prices are extremely competitive. I would generally echo what Neil said... only problem is that my son, who is a network engineer working from home, got through 3 Toshiba laptops before John Lewis gave him a full refund.. Remember if you buy from John Lewis you get an extra year of warranty.. My little Compaq notebook (333mhz and some years old) has been all round the world several times and has never given a hint of trouble. Same could not be said for the previous Compaq notebook I had, which ended up in a skip!! Pays your money and takes your choice..

Given that waypoints for all British caches are in the public domain what sort of waypoints did you have in mind, given that this is a geocaching forum?

We've met one or two only during the 100+ caches we've done (that excludes those who introduced us to the pastime). Continuing the theme... wouldn't it be nice if more people would complete their profile on gc.com? On many occasions we've looked up the page of someone who has visited a cache before us.... or maybe someone who has done one of our caches... to be greeted by a blank page. Do consider filling in some info about yourself; makes it much more interesting and it doesn't worry us if you're the King of Timbuktu or a dustman!

<<So why do you all use MM what do you use it for? >> We travel around the UK in pursuit of our hobbies geocaching and birding and over the years we have amassed a good number of OS Landranger maps but these seem to be more expensive every time we buy one. If you use LR maps, then MM is much cheaper than buying all the paper maps. For example, one segment of the UK we have on MM cost us £39.95. To buy all the paper maps would cost over £100. The whole of the UK can be obtained from MM for about £220. To do that with Landranger maps would cost nearly £1000. Our ageing eyes also appreciate the "blown up" picture which MM can provides by zooming in. Prior to using MM I always used to scan appropriate parts of LR maps and print them at doube size. That is no longer necessary. Lastly, there are various ways to have the caches marked on MM maps and by clicking the icon one can get all the info one needs to "do" the cache.

Yes... We acquired a PDA recently and loaded GPSSonar. It's totally brilliant and we wouldn't be without it.