Alan2

The results you and your wife are getting do not seem unusual. Each of you are holding it differently. You may be blocking some sats that she is receiving and vice versa depending on which way you are standing. Your hands are blocking the antennas differently. Reflection of signals bounce differently off of trees and other nearby obstacles changing results from second to second.. These seemingly minor differences can cause big differences in what you are seeing at the same time. Notice that even on your own unit how the distance and directions can change so radically from one second to the next.

If you want to keep one hand free, getting a Bluetooth unit separate from the PPC defeats your original problem of two units. I use a PPC with a CF GPS that slips into the CF slot. It has the Sirf Star III chipset which is the latest type. I keep the files in my SD memory slot. There are units now that have SIRf Star III for SD slots with it's own slot on the GPS for a SD memory card but I have no personal experience with them. For software I use Mapopolis for voice and visual promted road autonavigation and navigating in the woods. Use gpxtomaplet to overlay the cache icon onto the Mapopolis street maps. You see all the caches on the street maps as you drive around. When you tap the icon you can set it up (using GSAK) so it will display the cache 10 digit smartname, cache type, D/T. miles from home, container type, hint, placer, etc. Hold the icon and you can start the auto navigation to the street nearest the cache. I use gpxsonar for paperless caching - not familiar with cachemate. I also use National Geographic Pocket Topo for real-time display of locations on 24K USGS quad topo maps. In the car I plug in the PPC to the lighter cable to charge while I'm driving to the cache or between caches. The PPC powers the CF GPS. My PPC came with Outlook for syncing to my office Outlook program. So I have telephones, addresses, appts, etc. I suppose you can use it for a tax deduction. Neat feature of Mapopolis is it also allows you to use the Outlook addresses so you can navigate to any of the people in your address book without having to re-enter their address.

"Members only" does define exclusiveness. Those words were picked deliberately. Who doesn't want to be on the inside, part of an exclusive club. Of course it costs money. That's the point. Jeez, geocaching dot com is a business.

I've used an Ipaq 2215 PPC for almost three years. Paperless caching with gpxsonar, autonavigation in my auto and off-road navigation in the woods with Mapopolis, cache icons overlaying the street maps using gpxtomaplet, 24K topo maps with National Geographic Pocket Topo. I have a Sirf Star III CF GPS that slips into the SF memory slot. I keep files in the memory card in the SD slot.

Since you already have a setup that you can use for caching, I would use it before spending more money on a separate unit. You might not like the sport. Just be careful ion the woods that you don't damage you PPC. WASS doesn't matter. You can find caches without it.

Another reason for management to have "free" service is to increase the number of people viewing the web pages. Remember, there are advertisements on these pages. Just like "free" braodcast TV where the TV stations make their money from the advertisers, the more people watching, the higher the ad rates. Without the "free" members, geocaching would have to charge the advertisers less money.

I don't try to transfer my notes back into GSAK so I can't really help you. I delete found caches from GSAK and stop uploading caches I've found in my PQ's to reduce the clutter. If I haven't found the cache and I'm still interesting in going back, my cache log and notes will be uploaded in the next PQ anyway. Why are people interested in moving notes back into GSAK? Maybe I'm missing a tool that would be handy.

Yes! Another problem I've noticed is when you lose the satellites. For example, I once drove through a tunnel under the East River that connects Queens to Manhattan. Naturally I lost the sats going through but the altimeter kept logging its correct barometric altitude. When I got home I transfered my Vista's tracks to my computer map and noticed that I was still minus -60 feet at the toll booth after exiting the tunnel. Apparently, the toll takers were collecting money 60 feet underwater. What actually happened though was the program kept the last altimeter reading until the GPS re-locked on the satellites and then updated the track and altimeter to above sea level at a point long after leaving the tunnel. This kind of thing would happen on the trail too with heavy foiliage as satellites lock in and out. Of course, Garmin may have changed the program since I tried this a few years ago, but it still seems like satellite locks effect the final results.

Yes. You can get a GPS to hook up to a Pocket PC that has Sirf Start III chipset. This is the best on the market currently and is the same used in all the top end Garmin GPS's like the 60csx.

I use a Pocket PC. I overlay all the cache icons on the voice promted mapopolis autonavigation system maps. Click on the icon once to get info about the cache like type, D/T, miles from home, cache type, etc. Hold the icon, hit navigate to, and Mapoplis provides voice turn-by-turn driving directions.

I think caching in cemeteries is tacky and disrespec....oops, that's another topic. Sorry. Carry-on.

I've used an Ipaq 2215 for almost three years. Paperless caching with gpxsonar, autonavigation in my auto and off-raod navigation in the woods with Mapopolis, cache icons overlaying the street maps using gpxtomaplet, 24K topo maps with National Geographic Pocket Topo. I have a Sirf Star III CF GPS that slips into the SF memory slot. I keep files in the memory card in the SD slot. I also use it for business but that's another story.

Nice guy. I think you should invite him to do your cache.

The idea that it's not fair that someone gets free basic service while I pay for special features I want makes about as much sense as complaining about my no cost Yahoo email account vs. people who buy additional Yahoo services. It's nice that everyone is looking out for the owners of geocaching.com by offering a "better" business plan. However, since the owners are in business to make money, if they felt they could make more money by changing their strategy to either "everyone pays" or"everyone pays after 2 months" or, ????, they would.

You can apply online with the FCC if you can make sense of their web site. I am probably the only one to pay the money to use my GMRS radios. On top of paying the money you are supposed to call out you call sign with each use. I must be the other idiot I haven't checked sinjce getting my license, but I believe my call sign is D-O-P-E.

I would highly advise against openly admitting in a public froum that you violate federal law. I live in a remote area, but still comply with all laws. My GMRS call sign is WPTZ415. Well, he doesn't have to worry about it. His avatar says he's From: Somewhere in NE CA Where's Somewhere?

If you carry USGS 24K quag topo maps, UTM coordinates will find your position on the paper map easily and quickly from the UTM coordinates shown on your GPS. Basically the UTM systems creates a grid indicating a spot within one meter anywhere on the map. Likewise if you want to enter into your GPS the coordinates of a spot on the quad paper map. Using Decimal minutes or Dgeree/minutes/seconds make it very difficult to do these operations.

Heree's a picture of my PPC with the NG Topo maps. I didn't have my GPS plugged in at the time so you don't see the cross hairs indicating actual position. (The blue cross lines that you see are the 1000 meter grid lines on the quad map as furnished by USGS and NG). The PPC screen is another advantage as it's larger than regular GPSr's

I use a Pocket PC with an GPS that slips into the PPC's CF memory slot. I use Mapopolis for auto-navigation while driving. Maps are from NavTech and show all the street and parks and some wateways but not topographic features. For that, I can load National Geographic Topo which contains the USGS 24K topo quad maps. These show real-time location of your position on the map. Since the PPC operates on Windows CE, you have many other mapping programs available. Since PPC are more susceptible to damage in the woods, you may wish to use a protective cover or waterproof "bag" I also carry my Vista as backup.

Some topics like equipment and software evolve so quickly, real-time responses are often better.

Speaking of 6 months, when I applied for my FRS, each time they bounced my appliation for some moronic reason. By the time I straightened it out, the application fee went up $10!

oops. just noticed it expired dec 31st however it's still on their web site so maybe you can make a deal.

Garmin has a $50 rebate on this an some of there other models.

The advantage to having an electronic compasss built into the GPS is for convenience and ease of use. Most people cannot get better than the 3 degree accuracy from a regular compass than you get from the magnetic compass/GPS combo anyway so that's a moot issue. Anyway, with waypoints, the GPS is taking you to the spot anyway, you're just following an arrow on the screen - which direction you're traveling is beside the point. A GPS without a built in compass will not tell you the direction you have to travel unless you are moving. Standing still you must use a separate magnetic compass to give you the direction, something I consider a PITA. I'd rather have the second hand free for hold a walking stick or a tree while going downhill. Another advantage to a combo unit is when you take a bearing, you can lock in the waypoint and direction automatically. No need to "transfer" info. In my opinion, combo units are the way to go. Whatever you use, you should always carry a backup regular compass regardless of the type of GPS you are using although I never had to use mine in the 5 years I've had my Vista, a combo type.

While the child waypoints box shows in the HTML and when shown"off line", it doesn't show in the PPC GPXSONAR file for that cache. GSAK says something about it showing in the first log but it does not show on mine. I uncheck the box in Tools>Options>HTML called "Remove Additional Waypoints from Long Description". Any suiggestions? Tks Alan2