Orienteering

You need a program that understands .loc files (and .gpx files). There are many of those programs available. Since you are using a Garmin I suggest you download BaseCamp from the Garmin website. You need at least Windows XP with SP 3 for it. In case you have a Mac you can download BaseCamp here. Once you installed it you can import .loc files into it and then send them to your Garmin. You can also receive information (tracks) from your Garmin. BaseCamp (and many other programs) are way more useful with maps for the region you are geocaching in. You have to decide whether you buy maps form Garmin or use free maps from other sources (like GPS File Depot. Have fun out there! Manfred

My son used recently (July 24 - August 12) a SPOT messenger so people could track him live during his fundraising hike along the John Muir Trail. Look at his website http://daniels-eagle-scout-project.webs.com for his hike report to the see the Garmin tracks and compare them with the SPOT tracks on the pages with the photos of his JMT hike. You will see that the SPOT transmits a location every 10 minutes. That was good enough for his three week fundraising hike and several hundred people followed his hike online while he was backpacking for over 200 miles. He needed two sets of three AAA batteries, so each set is good for at least 10 days.

You can "poll location" of any other unit that is on the same channel as you and allows polling of its location. So it is important that you set "Allow Polling" to "On" under "Setup" of "Radio". Once you allow that and set both your units to the same channel/code combination, you can poll the location of your father's unit. We have several Rino 530HCx in our family and keep track of our kids that way when we go camping/hiking/backpacking/geocaching. It's sort of a long leash for us. On the map display we went into the menu and clicked "Show ..." and selected "Contact Bar". That way we see little icons in the contact bar for each child. We can then sroll down to the child we want to look up, click on it and then in the menu click on "Poll Location". Our kids don't even know that we can poll their location. They think, that an update happens only when you talk or text, because they see their siblings positions updated when they talk.

I have the same problem in my area. Trails that are in the 100k mapset are not in the 24k mapset. The weird thing is that the 24k set shows the trail symbol and the trail name, but the trail itself is not there. Nevertheless I prefer the 24k for its routing capabilities, which allow me to use it for street navgation (and trail navigation if they are there -- like in National Parks).

The screenshot shows "Topo U.S. 2008" as the map that was used

Assuming that your 120 has the same interface as my Rino 530HCx you would do the following to enter a waypoint manually on your unit 1) Press "PAGE" button (lower of three buttons on left side) again and again until you see the "Main Menu" 2) Use the "toggle" stick in the middle to go down and right as need to ""Mark" 3) Press the "toggle" stick to select 4) Use "toggle" stick to move cursor down and left to symbol field. 5) Press toggle stick to select and now change the symbol to your choice (for example the tent symbol) by moving around and then pressing again to select your chosen symbol 5) Use toggle stick to move cursor right to name field, click to select in order to change the name from "001" to your choice of name by selecting letters one by one and clicking on "OK" when you are done 6) Use toggle stick to move cursor down to location field. Click to select and use arrows and numbers as needed You can also download pre-defined locations (for geocaching) from geocaching.com by selecting a geocache and clicking on "Send to My GPS" while your GPS is connected via USB cable to your computer. I hope that helps. Enjoy your Rino!

Hey Gary, I have the same issue with two of my three 530HCx. The kids just hold them so often on the antenna, that it happens. All I do is to push the rubber back into the unit and tell the kids not to hold it by the antenna. So far all units keep working for over a year with this issue and I have never bothered to do anything else. Please let me know if you figure something out to fix it permanently.

I'm happy with garminconnect.com You can manually upload GPS tracks from non-Garmin GPS receivers too.

I can only speak for the 550. It holds up to 5000.

Thanks. Your link works. Interesting enough Basemap 3.03 is right now gone from the Garmin/Support/Software/Mapping Programs site.

The link doesn't work for me. It just points me to the Garmin Software page. Even if I go on that page to Mapping Programs/BaseCamp 3.03, I end up again at the Software page.

BaseCamp is painfully slow. I downloaded 18 imageries (between 10 and 60 MB each) and everything came to a grinding halt. I needed to delete them (which was almost impossible becasue the UI didn't react any longer to mouse clicks) to be able to use BaseCamp again. So now I download only one imagery, save it to my Oregon and then delete it in BaseCamp. In the future I might make backups from my Oregon to the HD to keep them around -- although I wouldn't know how to use them on demand in BaseCamp. Where would I have to copy them to use them in BaseCamp?

We have three Garmin Forerunner 305 and love them for what we use them for. We do a lot of orienteering (running through the forest with a map and a compass in order to find control points as fast as possible). We use the Forerunner only for tracking our route choices and post-race analysis -- we don't use it at all to navigate with it. From time to time we have used it at an orienteering event after the race for close-by geocaches. The accuracy is comparable to our 60CSx (same chip SIRF III). Having said that I would normally not use the Forerunner for geocaching for several reasons. The two most important ones being that the battery life is way shorter (3-4 hours) and I prefer to have maps on my GPSr. Since you ask about the calorie counter I might also add that it gives a calories burned number that is based on distance, speed, and altitude gain/loss and doesn't use eart rate and total number of heart beats which it could since it is also a heart rate monitor.

I have both and love the 530HCx for geocaching with the kids. That way they can venture out by themselves into the forest. When the have a problem they can just talk to me and I can always check their location to see where they are. My 60CSx has the SIRF III chip, while the Rino uses the Mediatek. In our experience the Mediatek is not as "spot on" as the SIRF. I heard that the currently sold 60CSx now also use the Mediatek. If that is the case I would fully recommend the Rino over the 60CSx. Otherwise it depends on how precise you need your unit to be at all times. My kids have always found their geocaches with the 530HCx, so I don't see any major problem, but I wanted you to be aware that there can be "wandering" where the GPS shows you all of a sudden 50-200 feet off. The last firmware updates have improved the behavior, but once it happens to you, you are always double checking -- and I never double checked with the 60CSx.

On the taskbar go to the entry for Basecamp and do a right click to see what your options are. You might be able to get to see it from there.

I use an Oregon 400t. The visiblity on my bike is bad (not acceptable) and I prefer to take my 60CSx for biking. On the ATV I have a 12V outlet which does wonders for the vsibility of my Oregon 400t. So if your ATV offers a 12V outlet and this is the only/main use of your GPSr you will be fine with the Oregon.

We use three Rino 530 HCx for geocaching and none of our Rinos has been "automatically" populated with caches. We download the caches from GC.com You can send a geocache from one Rino to other Rinos that are on the same channel, We use that feature from time to time, but that is by far not what you are describing. We are only sending invidual geocaches from a Rino to another one. And that certainly doesn't happen automatically.

I own the Topo 24k West DVD and bought after using free maps from GPSFile Depot. The free maps are great and will serve you well for geocaching. My reason for buying Topo 24k West was that I wanted to have auto routing, which the free maps don't do. Since I don't need it for the whole US but only for a part of the West, I got Topo 24 K. That way I have only one map set that does it all. I downloaded almost all of the DVD to my 4 GB card. So it won't be possible to load both (CNNA and Topo 24K West) completely on a 4 GB card.

Just coming back from vacation. YES, I'm sure. I own the DVD. That is odd, mine is locked to one unit only. I believe due to the routing data. Do you own WEST or any of the other regions? How did the locking happen? When were you asked for a code? Mine never required a code.

I usually run with my Forerunner 305. For the last two weeks I was in Canada on vacation and used the Oregon 400t with Canadian Topo Maps loaded in addition. It was really fun. I used the heart rate monitor on both devices simultanously. For these "exploring" runs in an unknown territory it was great to have the Oregon. For runs at home I will stick with the Forerunner.

Just coming back from vacation. YES, I'm sure. I own the DVD.

Hi GeoSalmon, Glad, I could help. Did you consider DVD vs. SD and Topo 24k vs. City Navigator already? If you need the weather report in addition to the tides you should get the Rino 530HCx from Garmin. That GPS has a built-in walkie-talkie and a weather radio. My kids and I use them on hikes along the PCT. Unfortunately they don't support paperless caching like the Oregon. I can't wait for Garmin to offer a new Rino with touch screen and paperless caching. Have a great weekend, Orienteering

Hi Geosalmon, Congratulations to your new GPS! I have three comments 1) DVD vs. SD. I personally prefer the DVD since it allows me to plan longer trips on my computer, put routes together and then download everything to my Oregon 400t 2) Have you considered Topo 24K West? Right now you are looking into City Navigator to get auto-routing on streets. Topo 24k West gives you exactly that + routing on trails + more detailed maps when being out there. Furthermore it is not locked to one unit. Of course it covers only OR, WA, CA and NV, but if you don't travel beyond that it certainly would be worth looking into it. 3) I don't have my Oregon right now with me, but if I remember correctly you a) click on "Where to" click on "Tides" c) Select a location like "Half Moon Bay" d) Click on the the box on the top of the page that says "Half Moon Bay 12.03mi Now you should see a graphic and tide tables. You can touch the graphic and then change the date to see the tide tables for the day you want to go fishing.

We live in Northern California. So the terrain differs between open hills with some oak trees to lots of redwoods in deep canyons. As a result the range differs a lot. The best I have ever experienced was 5 miles while finding a geocache on a top of a mountain. The worst was less then a mile in redwoods down at a creek looking for a geocache. Usually we are still able to send/receive text messages when we can't understand each other any longer talking on the Rino. That gives some extra margin when slowly getting out of range.

We have three Rino 530HCx and love them. They work fine absolutely fine for geocaching (although I must admit that I prefer my Oregon 400t due to its paperless caching). With the Rino's we let the kids go geocaching on a "long" leash. The are allowed to go out by themselves. They can talk to us if they need help and we can see their location on our unit's screen. So far we didn't tell the kids about the "poll" function and they believe we can only see their position if they talk to us (because that is their experience that our position or their sibling's position is only updated whenever we talk). It is interesting when they don't answer on the radio and claim afterwards they were out of range - although we could poll their location and thus know they were clearly in range. So if you have kids or other people you go out with I would recommend to buy Rinos - in general it makes only sense if you buy at least two.