BlackBeard Pirate

if i remember correctly from trig, for a 30 degree slope you would want to divide your indicated speed by cos(30) which does in fact = 1.1547... as the previous post states. 1 / cos(30) = 1.1547 or 62mph / cos(30) = 71.59mph so figure out the angle of the slope and your golden. if you dont know the angle of the slope but you do know the height of the slope, you could figure out the angle by measuring the distance from top to bottom with your gps (this would still be horizontal distance or the base of the triangle), then calculate tan(height/distance) to give the angle.

and if you are a cheap innovator, you could try what i do. When i was working in a grocery store, they had these clear vinyl freezer tag holders that would cling to the glass freezer door and hold a sale tag behind them. I got a few of those and i cut them to fit all my screens. A little soap and water sticks them down with no air bubbles. they look great on my garmins.... cant even see that they are there. best of all... FREE!

might be those rechargables.... they are lower voltage than alkalines. I think garmins like the alkalines.

Here is something I noticed while caching with a friend this week. We each have our own GPSr and are hunting the same cache, so we are walking in circles in the woods under moderate tree cover. I use a Vista with compass; he uses a pda with better reception. So, I let my unit lead me to a distance of zero, do a bit of walking around to confirm, see that my buddy is getting the same result. A bit more walking around and my unit is now leading me to a different spot maybe 20 or 30 feet away from the first spot. I figure this is expected as i am under tree cover and my accuracy is about 45 feet. Here is the interesting part: when my unit changes its mind and tells me that the cache is "over there" my buddy gets the same reading on his.... this goes on for 30 minutes or so... we are on a wild goose chase, but the SAME chase... when my unit changes its mind and leads me to a new location, my buddy's unit is now also pointing to this same new location. At this point we think that it's not a fluctuation in the recieving end, but a fluctuation in the transmit end (seems logical) because the fluctuations we observe are in unison. Now it is my understanding that the GPS satellites recieve ground signals, and determine their own relative locations. They send their location based on their calculation, and our reciever recieves this signal. So I'm thinking that this strange phenomenom is due to the satellites trying to auto-correct themselves. Anybody observe this? what are your thoughts? Rob St. Augustine Fl. P.S. Any geocaching societies in NE Florida?

also, the vista does not connect via usb -- it does with a serial cable which must be purchased seperately.

WAAS, ETE, & EPE are acronyms as well as an anagrams edit Woops.... those are palindromes not anagrams.... and i cant think of any gps/geocaching related acronyms that are anagrams as well.

Just my two cents worth, im a noob and it's not really my place to interject... but as a newb i even enjoy the funny comments.... if ya can't fight the urge (i usually can't cuz I'm a sarcastic sob but also like helping people) maybe a witty comment should be accompanied with the appropriate help? the humor also makes for fun reading... of course as long as it isnt rude or condescending. just airing thoughts.

How about rewarding them with a rope so they can get down easy..... make sure you tell them to return the rope, lol!

A gps class? now that is neat! that would be a good time killing elective and an easy A. so what do they teach? i mean what can be taught that would fill a whole semester? i wish my CC did a gps class.... and dumped humanities as well!!! lol

Thanks peter... I'm waitin for a cable to connect my etrex yellow to my pocketpc with mapopolis.... I think im gonna REALLY like mapopolis! especially for the $!

Don't get stuck with both!!! for that $ you could get a Legend. maps are fun! I just got a Vista to satisfy my "bells and whistles" jones.... but for geocaching there is something i like better about the yellow...... the "nearest waypoints" page.... it lists the 6 nearest caches and in realtime it tells you distance and direction to each cache, reordering the list in order of nearest to furthest. thats kinda cool... my Vista wont do that.... sure... it shows them on the map, provided they are within the field of view.... but that yellow's feature works great for caching i think. Actually caching without a map adds to the the fun of caching i think... maps take away a little of the mystery and challenge. ya might get real close to a cache and even see the spot but still have to find a way to "get" there via another path. thats fun when the caches are tricky like that! So did ya win the bids? which one ya get?

dang server froze then posted my message twice!

Wow, your pic is makin' me dizzy!!!! How did you get your kayak to fly over those bridges?

NightPilot... I have had the itch for an expensive nav tool this week, but I just couldnt justify the expense. I have a new Vista for hiking and caching and the old yellow etrex just waiting for its new purpose. I also have a PDA that hasn't found its purpose yet either (besides playing solitare, lol). I looked long and hard at all the nav software out there for pdas but still too expensive -- then I found Mapopolis -- I think it's time my pda met my cute lil etrex! The cable is in the mail as i speak. I figure it will now be my car PC and run mp3s or nav audio right into my stereo -- stop at caches on the way to... wherever I am going... as they show up on my mapopolis screen. Got 2 questions for ya though. What addon do you use to add your geocaches as maplets in mapopolis? and dont those chopper blades chop up your gps signals when ya fly? I cant even run the wipers without my etrex actin up.... i bet those blades play hel| on ya! lol j/k im sure that chopper has a fine gps onboard!

I've been trying Mapsource 3.02 with R&R maps version 2.01 on my Vista and its usually accurate, but they are outdated and inaccurate in places. What do you all think about Mapopolis maps? I haven't had a chance to try these maps out with my gps because I'm still waiting for a usb to pda cable, but these maps look really awesome!!! Where do these maps come from? I'm thinking that most companies get their maps from one of only two or three sources. Who makes the most accurate maps?

here are a few things not mentioned that ive noticed make it difficult to get a lock: batteries are old and low... unit seems to work fine just wont ever lock windshield wipers on.... shoulda been a warm start but after 10 minutes of not getting a lock while on the dash.... i turned the wipers off for a moment and it locked right away another time i shoulda had a warm start (was getting 10 satellites a couple hours ago) i walked out of a building and took my GPSr out of my pocket to discover it had been accidentally turned on, batteries were still good so i let it continue searching. 20 minutes later it was still finding nothing... and i was frustrated. I thought "maybe it has decided to ingnore/stop searching for the known satellites in my area" so i turned it off and then back on and it locked on immediately.

Well in reading some of the terms for geocaching.... looks like cachers wont like my name..... I found my first cache the day after Christmas with my young nephew..... when i signed the log, I asked him what we should call ourselves..... He picked the name, lol. oh well, i'm stuck with it now

for $200 a Legend or Vista would be nice.... they both do lots of maps and the vista comes with a compass and altimeter.... but for $400 you can have it all with the 60cs... in color!

My Garmin Mapsource Roads & Recreations USA maps have some errors too.... yesterday I was driving on a State Road and it was off by block and found a few side roads to be out by a 1/4 mile!

Olar, YOUDAMAN!!! that's just what I needed, thanks!! I just surveyed my property with this handy lil tool

To project a waypoint, you start from a waypoint. So, select a waypoint and you will see the option to project a new waypoint from that one as well as delete, goto, and map. Don't ya just love the way the manual leaves out some of the features? That way you can find hidden treasures in your Garmin!! When its off, try pressing up, page, and power at the same time... you'll see some interesting stuff, including temperature and test patterns for your display that look like screensavers!

I just bought the Vista from Wal-Mart.com for $219 Just a heads up though.... now I want the 60cs... shoulda spent more time researching..... I was looking for the best bang for my buck.... for around $200 the Vista is the ticket (compass, altimeter, 24Mb for maps).... but for an extra $150... I coulda got a whole lot more bang! That's just my opinion... but I'm a gadget junkie!

On a side note.... wouldnt it be nice if Garmin allowed for more decimal places in its distance and bearing fields for projecting waypoints? even better would be a choice for either feet, meters, miles, or kilometers instead of just miles. One decimal place on my basic etrex just doesn't cut it at all, and my Vista with two decimal places isn't that much better. Two decimal places in miles for a projection of a waypoint that is only 1500 feet away... puts my new waypoint off by 100 feet..... ughhhhh!!! (and yes, I'm converting feet to miles by division of 5,280 ) Ok... end rant..... Will the creater of GeoCalc.exe please step forward? lol

Care to share? lol... actually... thx to poindexter for explaining... but I'd really like to use geocalc.exe... it just looks so nice n simple (except it lacks instructions)

ooookkaaaaaaaayy? can anybody tell me the correct format for entering the coordinat data in geocalc.exe? hb'sbear? anybody?