gpsjeep

If your only purpose for the gps is for geocaching then I wouldn't spend the extra money for a unit that has the electronic compass. I camp and hike a lot in the north Ga mountains and I love my PN-40 for that use. Even so, I carry a magnetic compass with me.

Delorme PN-40- Love it Magellan Meridian platinum- Use to love it. Now I only like it . -Jeff

I have a coordinates question to ask you pros. Degrees, minutes, seconds Degrees, minutes Decimal, degrees What is the difference between them? Is one any more or less accurate than the other. And why have three different formats? Just curious if one would suit me any better than the other. Thanks for the replies. -Jeff

It's a crazy thing isn't it. I believe the accuracy is just an estimate. But a very, very close estimate. I have an older Magellan Meridian. Love it. Had it for years. I routinely get 7 foot and 10 foot accuracy readings. So one day I wanted to put it to the test. I went out to search for a survey marker. Found the marker and while standing directly over it my Meridian was reading 7 feet. That works for me. -Jeff

I usually get 10 feet and about 35-40% of the time as good as 7 feet. I've got an old meridian. -Jeff

Thanks, TeamCNJC I appreciate the response. Anybody else care to chime in? -Jeff

Question for you GpsMap 60cx / csx users. I have a Magellan meridian platinum as well as two meridian golds. I'm looking to upgrade my gpsr to a Garmin gpsmap 60cx or csx. My Meridians EPE/Accuracy is quite frequently 7 to 10 feet. I'm in the Atlanta, GA area. What is the usual accuracy that your experiencing with your GpsMap 60cx / csx? Also, how close is it getting you to your target waypoint? Your help is much appreciated. Thanks, -Jeff

sadly enough. It doesn't even have to be electronics. I've been in the auto glass business for many years and the bad people out their will break into your vehicle and steal ANYTHING. Even if you think the item is worthless. When I go out to replace a broken side window I ask the car owner what was stolen. It's seems unreal what gets stolen. Creeps will break your window to steal: Half pack of cigarettes. CD's lying on the seat. Loose change in the cup holder. (even 50 cents) Gym bags. You ladies that hide your purse under the seat, be sure to fully hide the shoulder straps too. Even if you think it's something not worth stealing, HIDE IT OUT OF SIGHT. Believe me. It's not worth the aggravation, cost, and hassle to have your door glass replaced because some chump wanted your old sneakers in the back seat more than you do. Hide your stuff. But if you need some auto glass replaced. Call me. My web site is in the sig line.

Great song by the doors.

How is your "North" setting on your gps? True or Magnetic. Perhaps yours is set to one and your husbands is set to the other. Not always, but sometimes this can make a difference. Check your set up and see if they differ. -Jeff

It could be the SD card. I first tried a sandisk card in my Meridian and I experienced the same problem that you describe here. I purchased a a different brand, Lexar, and then everything was as it should be. But before you go out and purchase another card, try formatting the SD card that you now have. That may do the trick. Maybe. But my guess is that you have a bum card. Good luck, -Jeff

What?

Hi LLudacrisboy, Welcome to GeoCaching. It really is a lot of fun. I don't have the Explorist 600 but I do have an older Meridian. Anyway. Your 600 will have a base map which should show most major highways and byways. The $150 program your talking about are maps that you can load into your GPS or onto an SD memory card which you can load into your Gps. Although it great to have maps it's not necessary to go GeoCaching. All you need to Geocache is a Gps and the co-ordinance which you get from the geocaching.com web site. Look at the Explorist 100. A model that one of my friends have. It doesn't even have a base map. No map at all. Yet he is able to locate the cache. Don't get me wrong. Having the maps are great. Really great. It makes it easier to see which side of the road, lake, creek, or stream the cache is on. Have fun with it. And when you have a few extra bucks ($150) get the map software. You'll really enjoy it. -Jeff

Hi GoBlue, Check it out this way. Instead of comparing the accuracy of your gps to that of a hidden cache, download the way point to a nearby benchmark and compare the accuracy to that. http://www.geocaching.com/mark/ benchmarks are accurate while caches are close to accurate. Hope this helps. -Jeff

You are funny. I haven't had tomatos in my ears since our last 4th of July picnic. True north and magnetic north are two different locations on the earth. Close, but not the same location. True north is a constant and refers to the geographic North Pole. Magnetic north tends to shift and refers to the pole of the Earth's magnetic field. Therefore, if you set a waypoint according to magnetic north and a waypoint according to true north the exact location will not be quite the same. -Jeff

If your searching for a cache and the cache owner had his gps set to true north when placing the cache and you are trying to find it with your gps set to magnetic north you can be off enough to where you won't find the cache. I went looking for a cache of mine to do some maintenance and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find it. Some how I had changed my gps from magnetic to true. After I fixed the problem and changed it back to magnetic, I found I was about 80 feet off. So it can matter. I would fare to say that I think most caches are hidden using magnetic north. You say tomato I say tomaaato. -Jeff

Does the 60CX allow you to send waypoints to the SD card? -Jeff

If I'm not mistaken, "Inventory" means to have it in your possession. Example. If I retreive a TB from a cach, it becomes part of my inventory. I don't own it of course but it is now in my inventory. If you place a TB in a cache, you are taking it out of your inventory. Even if you own the cache when you "drop off" your TB you are removing it from your inventory. Go to your cache page and click on the "log yout visit" link. If you want, select "write note" for for your type of log Scroll to the bottom of the page and it will show the travel bugs in your inventory. Click on the travel bug that's in your inventory that you want to release and then click submit. I hope this helps. -Jeff

A Walmart parking lot micro. Just kidding. Anything that takes me to really cool scenery. -Jeff

I have a merigold. Serves me well. The only "addon" I bring are extra batteries. Always. -Jeff.

For about $89 you can get an Explorist 100 which is a good basic GPSr that has good reception with no frills and for the compass, you can pick up a decent magnetic compass for about $12 (not to mention more reliable that one on a GPSr}. But if $300-350 is what your willing to spend, most GPSr will have the features that are not that important to you. My guess is that you will find it very pleasing with the extra features found in the GPSr that are in the $300-350 price range. -Jeff

I agree, most of the time I find a lot of broken unusable junk/trash. I still cache anyway. I'm in it for the thrill of the hunt. Sure, it is nice to find some neat things. The only time the junk stuff really dissapoints me is when I'm caching with my kids. They get dissapointed when their find is full of crap. They know the value of trading even or trading up. Just wished some others knew of that value also. I think I'm going to start searching for Members Only caches to see if it's any different. -Jeff

I've posted links to this in the past. Mainly because I like the Delorme maps. If only Magellan or Garmin had quality Topo maps like Delorme. I found another link on Gpsreview that talks a little more about Delorme's soon to be release handheld GPSr. It also includes a picture of it. It looks to be quite promising. http://www.gpsreview.net/delorme-earthmate-gps-pn-20/ I know every GPSr has it's drawbacks. They're all great, they all stink, it's a love/hate relationship. At least they'll be using new technology and I'm sure they just might give Magellan and Garmin a run for the money. -Jeff

Yes, the NMEA is turned off. and the GPS didn't have any software/drivers in the box. On'y the users manual on CD. Thanks, -Jeff

Hi there, I just got a new Meridian Gold. I use to have the Meridian Yellow that I used with GSAK and never had a problem uploading waypoints. After I try to upload waypoints to my Meridian Gold, after a few moments I get an error message that say's "No data received from GPSr" I'm not getting a comm error and My baud rate in GSAK and my GPSr are set to the same rate. How can I fix this? Thanks, -Jeff