Parsa

Hehe. Way back in the mists of geocaching time, people actually used to walk to geocaches on trails, over hills and dales, and around lakes and such. I few of us still do.

Thanks QJ, They did a fair job with that page, too. I like sellers who clear things up for you, and gpscity has always seemed better than Garmin at explaining things to consumers. I wish they had Topo coming out as well... oh and while I'm wishing, I would like them to be a bit more liberal with their unlock codes too. Parsa

... also, why does the City Navigator NT Update software for 2008 say it is OS X compatible? If I buy the full version of City Navigator NT for 2008, is that also Mac compatible? I see no statement of this, so why is the Update compatible with OS X? On the Garmin site it only says that CN for North America and Europe will be released soon for Mac. Parsa

Hmmm... why would you buy it for $350 on ebay when it's $300 at Amazon? The extra $100 at REI should be considered an extended warranty and satisfaction guarantee. They'll take it back if there's a problem or if you aren't happy.

Actually, USB is serial, and I have received NMEA signals on my Macintosh from a Magellan eXplorist via the USB port. You can view the NMEA signals streaming in using Terminal. This fact let me contact software makers like GPSy to let them know their software could be modified to work with Magellan USB receivers for live tracking. No driver was needed. Parsa

British Ordnance Survey maps are awesome. Garmin should work with OS (and the Irish Ordnance Survey also) to produce better topographic display maps. Parsa

In the last year, Garmin has produced several pieces of Mac and PC software for making things better for Mac owners who use Garmin GPS receivers. Can users supply a summary of these Garmin apps for the forums? How do you use them and how well do they work? Has the release of Bobcat made some of these obsolete? What needs to be added or improved? How do they make caching easier? Links to the appropriate download pages would be welcome. The general Apple Macintosh page on Garmin's site is http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/. Parsa

I'm getting $19 no matter what I do. I guess the deal is gone? Maybe it was a misprint they corrected. Parsa

ebay electronics = caveat emptor

First question: When you connect the USB cable, does the unit show up in the System Profiler? Parsa

I'm in a good mood, so I'll answer before someone flames you. This is perhaps the most often asked question for this section of the forums. If you look back through several pages you will see people's answers. You have to be specific. In case other cachers want to ask this, it depends on: - if you need maps in your GPS. - where you live if you do want maps. - what you need the GPS for besides caching. - whether you need auto routing in an urban setting or need topographic maps (see above points). - how much you are willing to spend on map software and accessories. - where you like buttons on the unit. - etc., etc. Parsa

Send groupies. Robert, you must be going through mid-life crisis if you want groupies instead of money. Parsa

You may want to hold off if you have not bought City Navigator yet. Garmin has promised an OS X version of City Navigator 2008 for both North America and Europe. Hopefully it won't be in 2009. Parsa

We should go up in the chain of command and see if things can be decided in our favor. This should be done by geocaching.com reps and by local cachers who have connections and experience with the various parks services. If the issue is not resolved in this way we should: Stop events, including clean up events in the park. Let the rangers know we will no longer be helping them keep the park clean. Stop sponsoring cleanup of the highway on the east side of the park. Boycott the park, and write letters en masse to the officials from California State Parks saying why we are doing so. Cooperate with the many Jeep and 4WD groups on the boycott and picket at the park headquarters and park entrances for the rights of those who actually own the park. The impact of geocaches and geocachers in the ABDSP is so minimal it is not even funny. Perhaps we can make an impact in other ways they will feel.

I used a laptop hooked to a Garmin 12XL to guide me down all 2400+ miles of Route 66 in 2002. I mostly used 1:100000 digital raster graphic topographic map images. However, serial is basically "so 20th century." Now I would recommend buying an inexpensive bluetooth GPS as your dedicated laptop GPS. You won't need any cables as long as you have a Bluetooth enabled laptop. The GPS units are the size of matchboxes now. Semsons, a good company, has many BT GPSs on sale right now. Most of these come with both home and car chargers. My i-Blue 737, with its MTK chipset, is excellent and it works well with my MacGPS Pro software on my Mac. GpsPasSion has great reviews on most of these models, just do a search. They have an index of GPS reviews that leads to excellent review articles. Parsa

The Vista HCx is probably a good unit for you as it's small and you can put it around your neck with a lanyard while kayaking. Other units are good but are heavier. Another possibility is the Garmin 76 series. It's larger, but it floats in water. The Vista will do everything you probably need. Keep in mind that map software will cost extra. There are city, topographic, BlueChart marine navigation maps, and lakes for the US and individual states on software CDs. Parsa

OK Parsa, now we need "Music to Cruise Old 80" CD's! [] Ruscal Hehe. I did find two cool Mississippi Delta blues songs about US 80 on iTunes. I'd like to find any songs about towns on the route, but I don't know many right now. East Texas Red by Woody Guthrie talks about Longview, Texas which is on 80. Here's a map. Anyone know any?

For anyone going out along old US 80, I have created 6 different "cache along a route" paths for US 80 from San Diego to Yuma. They are locked onto 80 rather than I-8 in case people want to narrow the pockets queries closer to the old road (so as not to miss areas such as in Jacumba and El Centro-Holtville). The easiest way to find them is with a Keyword search for "US 80." You can find my California US 80 strip maps on my website as well as GPX, Topo! and other files. Let me tell you, Google Earth did not want to let me have a route on old 80, so I had to build these out of a lot of small routes and manually splice the files together. What a pain. I wish Google Earth had an "avoid highways" feature like Google Maps. In the future, there may be a cache series along old 80 placed by members of the California Historic Highway 80 board. I'm not the only cacher on the board. We may do an event someday too. Parsa

For anyone going out along old US 80, for instance to the Yuma event, I have created 6 different "cache along a route" paths for US 80 from San Diego to Yuma. They are locked onto 80 rather than I-8 in case people want to narrow the pockets queries closer to the old road (so as not to miss areas such as in Jacumba and El Centro-Holtville). The easiest way to find them is with a Keyword search for "US 80." Let me tell you, Google Earth did not want to let me have a route on old 80, so I had to build these out of a lot of small routes and manually spice the files together. What a pain. I wish Google Earth had an "avoid highways" feature like Google Maps. In the future, there may be a cache series along old 80 placed by members of the California Historic Highway 80 board. I'm not the only cacher on the board. We may do an event someday too. Parsa

Speaking of sock puppets, with the Anza and possible County Park bans, it may be time for Clyde Crashcup to make an appearance again.

Yes indeed, the same error message on the KML file downloads. I was able to post my own routes, though one had too many points and I had to edit some out in Google Earth. I'm still getting the cropped GPX files when I download though. Only the header seems to be included. Parsa

When I click on the KML link I get an error page saying: "Sorry! We encountered an error when requesting that page!" When I click on the GPX link, the file downloads to my hard drive, but it is basically empty. here is the code on the file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><gpx xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" version="1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.bw-a-tects.com/DotNet/Tools/CodeXS/WebClient/temp/CodeXS/d5n50k30nmtalijoz2nnz0rn/gpxSerializer11.xsd" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" /> Which is not much of a route. What gives? Also, what are the usual settings in the KML files uploaded to GC in regards to color, width and opacity of the Routes (actually tracks)? [Mac OS 10.4.11, Safari and Firefox, latest Google Earth (4.2.0205.5730).] Parsa

My cache reports and PQs are getting dumped into the Yahoo Bulk folder now. I had it set to automatically delete the spam, but when PQs started not showing up, I set it to allow Bulk mail for a week. I saw the geocaching.com mail in there. I can't figure out how to stop this from happening though. The various GC mail addresses are not in my banned list, so I don't know how to get the GC mail to stop getting flagged as spam. Parsa

Well, that's what they tell us. However, the problem is the waterproof rating is a lie. They are not waterproof (any more than the new Garmin Colorado). Look on the threads, and like me, you will find people whose eXplorists got wet and were damaged or died. As was mentioned, the battery compartment does not seal well. Water gets in. The 4 pin round connector on many Garmins is much better, and it lets no water into the unit.

Would changing the "Owner" name in Preferences to match the username on the desktop be enough? If they are already the same, I'd say try a fresh copy of Cachemate. Parsa