theprospectors

To: teepeeayy Sent a reply -- I think -- it's in my sent box anyway. PM me again if you didn't get it. The Prospectors

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack. Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?) I can offer a solution for your current GPS at least. I use the carrying case with the belt clip (yes, ironic since if you put it on your belt it won't pick up satellites) and put it on my pack as shown in my profile picture. It is flat and level so the patch antenna works and it gets my body out of the way of most of the satellites. Glad it wasn't just me. I recently acquired the Legend myself and took it out for the first time last weekend for a good long walk - I intended to transfer the track of a new trail to a topo. Lo and behold I discovered that every time I clipped it to my belt it lost the sats so my track was sadly lacking. So I jumped on the Garmin web site to order a clip on antenna - oops - they don't offer one. Guess I check into the backpack strap application idea. Yours aye, The Prospectors "Roads? Where we're going we don't need - roads!" Dr. Emmett Brown

Hi, I've made several walking sticks here in New England. My personal choice for wood is witch hazel - light, sturdy and with an interesting grain. To cure/dry it I simply hang it in the eaves of my attic for the summer - it gets pretty hot up there during the day and is ventilated so it stays dry. I'm not very scientific about height - but shoulder height seems about right - certainly not much more than that. I like to 'carve' out a recess for a leather grip and I place this at whatever height seems comfortable for a natural grip and stance. If I strip the bark off, I like to treat the wood with a light walnut oil - does not get tacky and gives a low sheen to the wood. Smells ok too. Hope this helps a bit. Yours aye, The Prospectors

Thanks for all the replies. Here is what I have in mind--- I realize that I will not be able to obtain detailed maps to download into the Garmin. The Mapsource 'Worldmap' has major roads and towns on it so at least I will be able to tell if I'm on the right track. I have found a few sources for waypoints in Costa Rica - Bike clubs seem to be into GPS down there. So I'll use the basemap to just keep me going in the right direction. As I understand it there are few signs on the roads so if I get off course I can use the tracking feature to get me back to where I belong. I have found a source for topo's of Costa Rica. Omni mapping sells 1:200,000 and 1:50,000 maps. Some have relatively recent updates i.e. 1988 and 1993. I've ordered a couple just to see how they look. Hopefully between the two I can have some fun with my navigation and get to find a couple of the caches there. Thanks again for all the suggestions. The Prospectors "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads!" Dr. Emmett Brown

Hope this is on topic. We are planning a trip to Costa Rica and hope to use our Garmin ETrex Legend GPS Unit to help us navigate and do some geocaching. Does anyone have any experience with Mapsource maps for that area - are they worth getting? I assume satellite coverage is fine there but what about reception in the cloud forests etc. Thanks for any info. The Prospectors