bigbill25

Thanks Moun10bike! I'm heading into the Goat Rock Wilderness this weekend. Will report back on the accuracy. --Bill

The 60CSx is bigger and more expensive for no additional benefit. --Bill

Agree! Can't wait for Oregon and Washington! --Bill

I got this message from tvnav.com this morning: (bolding mine)... Very interesting! --Bill

Awesome finds, Pete! Can't wait to see the results --Bill

I'm assuming you already have Google Maps for non-geocaching stuff: http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html --Bill

That's not quite true. While the WAAS satellite can be used as an additional reference point to compute position, its biggest benefit is to give you local ionospheric delay corrections. These are determined by ground stations, then relayed through the WAAS satellites. In your case, there are ground stations in Maine and Newfoundland, so you should be getting reasonable corrections in Nova Scotia. --Bill

This is the standard way GPS systems work. When you do a go to, it gives you a direct course from your current location to the waypoint. Then, as you move off the course, you are moving from the "optimal" route. If you want something always pointing you toward the waypoint, I would suggest using the compass page and not the map page. --Bill

This guy did some testing: http://users.erols.com/dlwilson/gpswaas.htm Looks like 95% of the time he was within 3.2 meters using WAAS and 5.3 without it... --Bill

Yeah, eTrex Legend HCx or eTrex Vista HCx. There is no reason to spend more money for the 60CSx. The Vista HCx has every feature it has for less, in a smaller package, and runs longer on 2 AA batteries. --Bill

That's just a link to a pricegrabber mash-up... I don't see any $40 Geko... --Bill

Yup, they are there with the Topo 2008 loaded: Find Menu Option The only marine points are the tide stations Here are the ones closest to me (Oregon) And the chart Cool! --Bill

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I didn't know this! I just assumed I couldn't get tide data on my Legend HCx. I have Topo 2008 installed, so I'll have to check that out tonight. Thanks! --Bill

I haven't used either system for geocaching, but be aware that the PalmOS world is dieing. Even the latest Palm Tungsten devices now use Windows Mobile, and not PalmOS. If all you want to do is run a specific application, and you are not worried about updates or new things in the future, they are a fantastic deal. Many are available on the used market for very low prices. I use some older Palms (Palm V and a Visor Edge) for timing in a 12-person long distance relay race, and a Palm TX for moving map navigation while flying. For these single applications, they work great. --Bill

Just saw a good post on rechargeables: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001078.html --Bill

And once you have the multiple maps loaded, here's how to switch between them (Garmin does not document this): http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_mapset.html --Bill

Quite honestly, you really don't need any maps on your GPS to geocache. They are nice, but not required. Garmin says their Topo US 2008 has similar detail to USGS 1:100,000 maps. I'd say that's about right. For hiking, the detail of 1:24,000 scale maps would be nice to have. There is a effort going on now to get those detailed topo maps on the Garmin, and for free. See the following link and posts on this forum: http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_main.html As for the compass, I'll guess, as I am not a big geocacher. When you are hunting for a cache using the GPS's compass screen, I think it will be very useful. On a non-compass equipped GPS, it can only determine your orientation while you move, so if you just spin, the "compass" screen won't change. With the internal compass, it will continue to point in the proper direction. --Bill

You can do it online too: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert --Bill

Most of the third-party resellers on Amazon are rated, so you should be able to pull up customer reviews of them. I have ordered through several resellers via Amazon and never had a problem. Amazon does some nice things, like controlling shipping charges and will remove "bad" resellers, so there is some control versus bobsgps.com or something... --Bill

They only make the Forerunner in the 205/305/405 configurations, and not the Foretrex. The Forerunner series does not the "Navigation Page" that the Foretrex series has. I would assume that would be useful for geocaching. Chalk one up to Garmin's marketing department, as that would be an easy bit of software to enable on the Forerunners... --Bill

With the price of the City Navigator maps being soooo close the price of a Nuvi 200, I can't see going for the maps on the Vista. Having used a Legend HCx with City Select and a Nuvi 200 for auto navigation, the Nuvi wins hands down. Much easier to select a route with the touch screen, and the voice prompts means you can keep your eyes on the road. --Bill

I have a Forerunner 301 which uses the same GPS receiver as the Foretrex 201. It gets very poor reception in trees and hilly area. I personally would highly recommend against it and suggest something with a high sensitivity receiver. As for hunting, I doubt you would need to keep the GPS in your hand continually as you would for geocaching. Just keep it in a pocket and pull it out for reference from time to time. --Bill

You could try uploading that .gpx file to MotionBased (which will move to Garmin Connect) now: http://motionbased.com/ --Bill

39 Hours? Crazy! Question: Trail Data. Looking at Topo 2008, there are some trails marked in places, Glacier National Park for instance, but not in others, like the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. When you are building these new maps, are you finding trail info? --Bill