n2AZ
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Posts posted by n2AZ
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That is a good tip to delete the obsolete .gpx files and reboot it before putting new ones on. I am following that procedure and it's very clean
I thought a touch screen on a gps would be terrible but now I'm kinda wishing I would have given it a chance!
I won't put anymore than 2k caches total on this machine cuz I read somewhere a person put more on it and bricked it and had quite a bit of trouble getting back into a working state. It's too hard to sort through so many out in the field anyway.
Now I wish there was some way to lock the receiver in compass mode. I keep having to hit back and choose compass and I'm never going to use the tiny, dark screen in map mode when I have 2 large, bright easy to read and follow car navigation systems.
I did find 25 geocaches with the etrex30x today which is a personal record for me so I've accomplished something....
It's great to finally leave that .gs file type behind! I don't miss it. .gpx ftw.
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Thanks that helps a lot. That current.gpx file made me nervous cuz it is a bit of a pain on the nuvi and has to be cleared on the unit.
So far, as I've been trying to set up the new unit, I've been deleting the Current/current.gpx file. I will try to not do that and see how it goes.
Now I'm seeing I can only query for 1k caches at a time so I will have to have a few separate queries instead of one.
If I can just delete the gpx files from geocaching and replace them with new ones (like I did with the old .gs files) and not worry about the current.gpx file then I'm feeling MUCH better about the new machine!
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I have finally upgraded my magellin explorist 210 with the garmin etrex 30x. So I know how to use this site and download lists and queries but I'm confused about the newer capacity and file format on the etrex30x.
My old gps would only take .gs files of no more than 200 caches so I had all these queries by zip codes and I would convert the gpx to gs with easygps then choose which geocache file I was nearest to on the old gps receiver. Whenever I had found a few or was planning an outing, I would hook up the gps to my computer and delete the .gs files off the gps and replace them with the new ones converted off this site.
Now with my new machine, I can have a file of up to 2000 caches. This covers all of what I do so I have one query. But, given that I can filter out found caches on the new machine there's no reason to filter them in my pocket query anymore? But it looks like I should still filter for enabled?
Then, when new caches are added on this site, how do I update the gpx file I already have in the garmin etrex30x??? I can't really delete it cuz garmin pulls all the files into it's current.gpx file and, if I delete that, I'll delete any waypoints I've put in there I think including my home. If I just delete the gpx file and put the new one on there, will that replace the ones the garmin has pulled into current,gpx or will it make duplicates?
I have a garmin nuvi for my car and it has a menu item to clear all waypoints then I put a new file on that but this etrex30x doesn't seem to have that???
I don't know if I need to clear anything out of the etrex before putting a newer version of my pocket query in.
Really hard making the change to this new unit. I hope to get over this hump soon!
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Tiny Front Pocket:
Microfiber lens cleaning cloth for camera lens
tiny package of Kleenex.
Main Front Pocket:
(In Zipped net part)
SPARE CAR KEY incase I lock my keys in again
3” CERAMIC POCKET KNIFE in case I have to saw my hand or foot off
METAL LIFEGUARD WHISTLE so I don’t have to saw my hand or foot off with the 3” knife
COMPASS for the awful ones that require I use this dizzying device
CASH if I am low on trade items or am likely to be somewhere that offers tasty beverages for hot dirty hikers.
SHARPIE KEYCHAIN can be unclipped and taken without backpack for micros
(In small pocket)
3 SLIM JIMS enough to keep me and the dog alive for 3 weeks
Energy strips
Energy bar if I will be out all day.
(In large pocket)
8 or more fully charged AA’s in a special case so they don’t rub against each other and start a backpack fire.
Main Compartment:
(Behind the separator – my personal stuff)
2 SPACE BLANKETS – one to lay on and one to cover up with
PLASTIC PONCHO I will never use this. I just take a towel in the car to sit on afterwards.
FIRST AID KIT I will never use this either. The times I have been bloodied, I was too dirty to perform or accept first aid. The only first aid I need is a hot shower and you can’t get that in a bag.
CRANK FLASHLIGHT – good enough for looking in crannies and holes and little city park and grabs after dark.
COMPRESSED TOWELS – these are the best thing ever. Don’t forget to bring a towel.
CITO CONTAINER – If a nice area has been messed up by someone.
DOG’s LEASH
FOLDING DOG BOWL – stupid item. If dog is thirsty, it drinks water off the ground or eats snow. Dog has never drunk any water offered in this device. Save yourself the eight bucks it costs. Dogs like ice cubes from the cooler. Also the act of jamming their head into the cooler seems to make them happy.
(In front of the separator)
Plastic grocery bag of trades
Digital Camera
NEW! Dell AXIM Pocket PC I actually just discovered this otherwise fairly useless device in conjunction with the free GPXsonar software will display all the geocaching listings as they appear on the website! So I can access the hints and logs in the field. I have two of these stupid things and I really don’t care if I lose one or even both to the sport.
Whatever clothing likely or necessary that is not being worn at the exact moment may include, shoes, socks, (I take my socks and shoes off now if there is water.) headbands, scarves, mittens, gloves, hats, blaze things, dog’s coat, etc… I have a special large rip cord nylon pair of pants I will bring to an area if I have been unable to complete it wearing normal pants due to vicious thorns. (I have actually been to a few spots I had to retreat from and come back in head to toe rip cord.) The rip cord pants are hot and uncomfortable and make a loud switshy sound when you walk in them so I will carry them to the bad area and pull them on over my regular clothes. They are good in summer used this way over shorts but in an area that bad, my arms get all scratched up too. My hands are scratched up right now as a matter of fact. Is there anyway to avoid this? I must have 50 micro wounds on my hands.
The GPS I wear around my neck on a cloth lanyard and I also wear a SECOND car key around my neck on a metal ball chain.
In the car I have: hiking poles, cooler sometimes with beverages. In the winter, I will bury a beverage in the snow near the car and mark it before setting out! Leave purse in car. In bad condition will take dry, damp or both types of towels for me or for dog. Sometimes a large black garbage bag for the car mat if it’s very muddy out or spare shoes or slipper to wear on the way home and a bag for the dirty ones if it’s very wet or muddy.
Park and grab micros, I leave everything in the car just taking the GPS, and spare key around my neck and a sharpie. If it’s too hot for the backpack, I just take change and cash for trades and leave the bag entirely
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I went out in Wisconsin winter for a multi that had a lot of DNFs and appeared abandoned. I hiked around hilly, rocky terrain about 3 hours not finding any of the waypoints or the cache but enjoying the area, taking hundreds of photos. I finally decide that's enough and go back to my car and realize every set of car keys for my car is in the car and so is my cell phone which wouldn't do me any good anyway - since all the keys are in the car, even a ride home won't do me any good.
I try to make my human hands in to suction cup frog hands and pull the window down manually, figuring the drivers side motor is a known weak point in this car and likely to break soon anyway so it won't be so bad to just break the gears or whatever off it right now. I can get the window to bob about 1/32 of an inch but that's about it. I really hard look for wires or sticks to jam in the window. I find two working permanent magic makers and a pen but nothing else. There are many large rocks but I really don't want to drive around with a broken car window in winter.
The GPSr says it's 4 miles home. I start walking. The dog keeps looking back at the car in confusion. "Why don't we just go in the nice car like we normally do?" We walk 4 miles home diagonally across cornfields which are mowed to just under knee height so I have to do some weird monty python walk the entire way home - the equivalent of doing approximately 26,189 reverse crunches in a row. We stop once to share a slim jim and eat snow. The dog no longer believes in me and is only following me because it's January in Wisconsin, we're in the middle of a cornfield and there are honestly no other options. The 1 1/2" of slim jim briefly perks him up. It takes like 3 and a half hours to make it home. The dog is AMAZED when we suddenly step out of a cornfield onto the highway we live off of.
I ride my bike in 10 degree weather the next morning to meet a locksmith at the car for $70. My abs hurt and the trip on the road is easily twice as long - almost 8 miles. Then I go have half a dozen copies of my car key made for another $5.
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I started one just as I started geocaching last month:
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Without the search feature, I have no recourse but to ask and hope someone will help.
I see there are many recommended waterproof containers listed on the forums. I so far have ammo cans but I am wondering…. are they reliable for full time submersion?
I want to create a cache that will live underwater. Can anyone verify if ammo cans (gasket greased good) will hold up to the task or something else? It also must sink and not float and a lot of fancy plastic waterproof containers look like they are designed to float plus they are bright colors. I want mine to sink like a stone and blend and I doubt paint on plastic would hold up under water so I’m hoping someone can verify the ammo can will do the job! I need to be able to attach a rope to it too so it has to have a handle or something.
Thank you so much for any help you can give me!
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I am a newbie who just stumbled across geocaching less than 48 hours ago. I am waiting for my first GPS, a Lawrence iFinder Hunt to arrive, then I’ll be off. I am excited about looking for the local caches but I’m already thinking of where to place my own.
My specific question is what about Midwest winters? The first place I thought of is almost good enough to be a virtual cache but only May-Sept even though it would be accessible all winter, there’d really be no point in coming in winter. The other more traditional ideas I have the opposite problem with - if I hike off a trail and drop the thing in the woods or a meadow, won’t everyone easily be able to find it just from the obvious tracks in the snow? I can’t see anyway around that last one. Every location I think up seems it’d be either good in winter or summer but not both. I have some awesome ideas on places to put them in winter that would actually be much harder to get to in summer! I wish I could just do seasonal caches.
Any advice from the more experienced?
Lastly, I am thinking of drainpipe with caps for the containers but will the caps fit well enough just pressed on? I’ve gotten together swag and have it all bagged up but it seems like it’d still get moist and icky from the temperature changes alone.
Thanks for any help you can give me. I am really looking forward to it! - Lauren
Have 2 days to send eTrex30x back what else can I get to replace Magellan 210
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
I recently purchased a Garmin eTrex30x to replace my Magellan 210 which I could no longer send any files to.
I find the Garmin screen impossible to see in even the brightest sunlight and, when I contacted Garmin, they told me to keep the back light on all the time which leaves me maybe 3 hours of battery life.
With my old gps, I was able to see the screen unless I was in the car in a dark garage!
Either this device is malfunctioning or it has a very bizarre and ridiculous screen design.
I thought the compass on this unit would be nice but I cant' see the screen to use it! My $22 plastic compass is better for navigating
What other handheld can I look at that has a readable screen for geocaching???