alandb

My answer is "Have fun and don't worry about it."

There is one in my area where a traditional placed in 2012 is only 90 feet from the final of a 2 stage multi placed in 2009. I assume it is just an unintentional oversight by the reviewer, as there are no natural barriers between the 2 caches. The proximity issue has been noted in some user logs, but both caches remain active. It threw me off when I was searching for the multi. I thought I had entered the stage 2 coordinates incorrectly since it was so close to another cache. Other than that I don't think it has caused any problems or complaints.

Make sure the card is formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS.

my nuvi has all of North America, but if you only need the lower 49, that will serve you well. Then you can do a one time lifetime update purchase and apply it to the unit you put the lower 49 on and you'll get free updates once every quarter. True, but make sure you initially buy the DVD version of City Navigator if you want to apply a lifetime map update subscription. The lifetime subscription can't be applied to the download version of City Navigator. See the Garmin FAQ here: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={16315fb0-39b2-11de-5dd5-000000000000}

One other small difference is that the 450T has approximately 3 GB of additional internal storage to accommodate the Topo map. That said, I would not pay much extra for the "T" model as the 100K Topo maps are not very accurate. I have an Oregon 550T and have removed the pre-installed topo map and replaced it with free maps available from other sources.

There is nothing in the current nuvi lineup comparable to the 500/550 with the paperless geocaching support.

You also need to purchase the automotive mount (cradle). That gives you the speaker for voice prompts as well as the charging cradle and power connector. From what I have read in other forums, yes, the Montana makes an excellent although expensive automotive navigation device. Note that the Montana used for road navigation has lane assist arrows, but not the junction view images found on many high-end nuvis. It also has the legacy "custom multi-point routing" with via points instead of the multi-destination trip planner found on the newer nuvi's. Most users seem to prefer the legacy custom routing engine over the newer trip planner.

As far as I know, the only Garmin Nuvi's that natively do paperless geocaching are the old nuvi 500 and 550. They should directly accept Pocket Query GPX files. If you want something newer (and want to spend a lot of money), you can add voice prompted automotive navigation and City Navigator maps to the Garmin Montana.

I got this one for Christmas: http://shop.geocaching.com/default/starter-kits/packs-slings/maxpedition-fatboy-gtg.html. I have only used it a couple of times but like it so far. It is comfortable, holds everything I need with room to spare and came with Travelbug patch.

I bought the Oregon 550 instead of the 450, not because I wanted the camera but because of an online sale at the time I bought, it was only $3 more than the 450. Now that I have it, I find I use the Oregon camera frequently while caching to record finds and other interesting things I run across. I have stopped taking my Casio digital camera when caching ... one less thing to carry. The pictures from the Oregon aren't as nice as what you can get with a real camera, but they are good enough for uploading with your logs, and they are geotagged. So now that I have it, I am glad I have a GPS with a camera.

Try downloading from the Geocaching.com web site instead of using the e-mail attachment. Click on Your Profile > Pocket Queries > Pocket Queries ready for download. Edit: looks like you figured it out while I was typing. Some e-mail software or servers can corrupt certain attachments.

Yes, I see now. I misinterpreted the original message ... sorry. Assuming the CN NT 2011 map was originally licensed to the Oregon 450 and was purchased as a DVD (not download or SD card), you should then be able to associate the lifetime update subscription to it.

You are correct that the City Navigator maps are locked to a single unit. Also, you can't apply a map update subscription without first having the map licensed on the unit. You would need to buy City Navigator on DVD (010-11546-50) to get an original license for your 450T. Once you have that, you could apply a lifetime map update subscription if you wanted to.

Note that the little metal flip cover on the micro SD card holder locks in place by sliding it up or down with your fingernail. If you have it locked, it should prevent the problem of the micro card falling out when you change batteries.

No reason at all. I have used both 8 GB and 16 GB cards without a problem. The non-T and T models have the same capabilities in this regard. The automotive route calculation problem might be because you are selecting a destination (like a geocache) that is off a routable road. If the geocache you are traveling to has a Parking waypoint, try selecting it as a destination instead of the geocache.Otherwise, select a destination that is on or near a road.

You will want to use a different profile for geocaching than for road navigating and tailor the preferences for each activity. Most of the preferences "stick" with the profile being used. Most people start out with the Automotive profile for road navigation and the Geocaching profile for geocaching. In the geocaching profile setup, for routing make sure you have it set for "Direct Routing". As far as the Open Street Map USA, if you use the Kenroth map, it is just over 3 GB. I use an 8 GB SD card and it has plenty of room for my geocache and waypoint GPX files, OSM USA map, MyTrails map and several large Birds Eye satellite images; with plenty of room to spare for camera snapshot storage..

IMO, at the present time the "best bang for the buck" is the Garmin Oregon 450/550 which can be found in the $200 to $250 range.

You might want to consider a GPS with a camera ... like the Oregon 550 or Montana 650. These cameras geotag the image with the coordinates in the EXIF data. So you could do a quick point and shoot with the GPS camera to document the location, so it would be easy to match up with your professional photos.

Yes, to the SD card in the \garmin folder. Then you will need to go into the Oregon Map Settings and make sure the map is enabled for the profile you are using.

For a routable street map of the US, I suggest the Open Street Map USA generated by Ben Kenroth from this site: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download. I use this map on my Oregon 550 and am happy with it. It overlays nicely with the MyTrails map and Garmin's Birds Eye satellite images. It also works in BaseCamp. All you have to do is download it, unzip and copy it over to your SD card. It is a large file (over 3 GB) so it took several hours for me to download (using direct, not torrent).

Why not try the free Open Street Map US from this site: http://wiki.openstre...Garmin/Download . I use the version generated by Ben Kenroth and it works well on my Oregon 550T. I have found it to be reasonably up to date and accurate, and it is routable. Address lookup is a little wonky. It will get you to the right street, but not to a specific house number. The map is easy to install. Just download, unzip it and copy the gmapsupp.img file to the \garmin folder of your SD card. It is over 3 GB and the server is kind of slow, so the download takes several hours.I download with the direct method (not the torrent).

In my city, I sent an e-mail to the parks director (found address on the city's web site). He sent a reply outlining the procedures required to obtain permission for cache placement in a city park. The other thing you could do is contact a couple of local cachers who have placed caches in the areas you are interested in. They can tell you what permissions were obtained or required (if any).

On eBay today (2/19/13) there is a seller from Spain (ships worldwide) selling new Garmin Oregon 550T's for $199.

You can use Basecamp to edit the track while displaying/selecting specific trackpoints on the map and list. You can then save and send the edited partial track back to the Oregon storage. But on the Oregon 550 itself, the only partial track edit function I have found is for saving a portion of the current track. And all you can do is select the beginning and end segments from the list as you stated. I didn't know the Oregon 300 allowed track editing from the map display, but I don't think that is on the 550

The last firmware update on the Oregon 550 was in mid-November (version 6.10). I am sure there will be future updates, but they don't seem to come out as often now on the Oregon as they once did. I get an occasional unexplained glitch on my Oregon, but for the most part the firmware is pretty stable.