Orienteering

It would be great if we could enable and disable GPX files on our Oregons in the same way we can enable and disable maps. I frequently download several PQs to my Oregon and easily exceed the 2000 limit. If I could easily choose which GPX files to enable I could download everything that interests me and only show what is currently needed and stays under the 2000 limit.

I just downloaded it and there are two things I can't find/activate. 1) MOB. When I go itno Setup for Main Menu I see three new icons. But only Waypoint Avering and Sight 'N Go stay active when I go back to my menu. Man Overboard can be activated in the setup screen, but it won't show up in my main menu afterwards 2) I can't find where I can enter information for the Welcome Screen Any tips are appreciated

Our family uses three Garmin Rino 530 HCx for this purpose. The GPS display shows the location of the other two units. Whenever there is an issue we are in immediate radio contact and we can see right away each other's positions in the wood. This works of course only for distances that are supported by the radio (5W GMRS that has worked for us up to 7.5 miles, but can in many cases only reach roughly 2 miles due to trees, canyons, etc.) which has so far never been a problem for us.

There seems to be an Oregon 500 and 500t coming. You can find information about a leaked REI list here Oregon 500T

There seems to be an Oregon 500 and 500t coming. You can find information about a leaked REI list here http://www.geo2web.com/2009/03/16/garmin-oregon-500t/

This has nothing to do with your GPSr. The same thing happens on my Rhino and my Oregon. There is a whole discussion about that here Send to GPS problem In the meantime while GC.com fixes the problem you can just use "Download Waypoints" to load your selected caches into MapSource and then send them from there to your GPS.

I bought the 24K topo map (West) from Garmin. In my area it didn't even have the trails that were in Topo 2008. So I returned it to REI. Instead I'm now using the free 24k map you can download here http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/28/ It doesn't have routing like the Garmin map but it is free and has trails. I just took a screenshot in mapSource from that map in the area you gave as an example, but can't get it on here. It shows several trails although not all. In order to compare you might want to go to REI and ask to see the Garmin map on a GPS in that area.

I loved CacheBerry on my BlackBerry. It is a great program. Nowadays I'm using the Oregon 400t which does everything in one device which is even better.

Now I use the Oregon 400t and absolutely love it. You download the caches and you are done. Before I used the 60CSx and my Blackberry with Cacheberry which works really great. Before that I used the Vista C with a PalmPilot and MobiPocket Reader. In order to create the eBooks that can be read by MobiPocket Reader I used GSAK and MobiPocket Creator.

Hi there, I hope these answers clarify things 1) Verizon Network: CacheBerry is an application that runs on the BlackBerry independent of the cell phon provider 2) Premium Member: You don't need to be a premium member to download individual caches. If you want the convenience of pocket queries that allow you do download hundreds of geocaches at the same time you need to become a premium member 3) Cable: You need a USB cable to download a GPX file with the geocaches from your computer to the BlackBerry 4) No internet service, text messages etc. are needed on your BlackBerry to use CacheBerry 5) The program costs USD 14.95 and you can use it forever without any monthly fees. It can be downloaded for free use (30 days) at www.cacheberry.com

I think your general line of thought is correct. But you are mixing up the different topo maps that Garmin offers. In order to compare apples to apples you would need to purchase US Topo 2008 - which are 100K maps. This would give you the advantage of being able to download the maps from the DVD to your computer and use them in MapSource to bigger outings. Your assumption that the TOPO US 24K card gives you the same maps as what is loaded on the 400t is incorrect. The card provides more detailed maps (24K) for only two states (in your case CA and NV) while the preloaded maps cover the whole US in less detail (100k). To my surprise I discovered that the TOPO US 24K mapset contains way less trails (at least in my area) than the 100k mapset. As a result I returned the card to REI and continue to use the 100K mapset and the National Parks West 24 K mapsets. It was very disappointing to see that trails that were in the 100K mapset were not present in the 24K mapset. Also trails that were in the National Parks West 24K mapset didn't show up in the 24K CA/NV mapset. Garmin has a lot of work to do before the TOPO US 24k CA/NV mapset becomes useful for people like me. If you desire the most detail you might choose the 400t (to get the 100K maps pre-installed for the trails) and buy the 24K card to get the very detailed contour lines. I suggest you go to REI and have them show you in an area you know the 300 with the 24K card and the 400t side by side. I did that when I returned my 24K card. The staff at REI was completely surprised by all the missing trail in the "more detailed" mapset.

My geocaching activities are more or less centered around my 6 children (between 5 and 14 years old). It is a great activity to get even the youngest to go on hikes. My youngest has done several 5 and one 8 mile hike, by just looking for the next cache on the GPS. She would never even walk a mile if I would make her to. But if I give her the GPS she is just going and going and pressing "Found" and "Find Next" and keeps going. Of course she wants to be first at the "treasure box" and she knows that all her siblings have a GPS too and are looking too. So if your main intent is to go with your 4 year old son I can share some experiences with you in regard to the GPS receivers our family owns. 1) For our youngest it is important that she can hold the GPSr easily in her hand. For her the compass page with the big red arrow is the most important one. She loves to follow the arrow and decide at intersections which way to go. We use the Vista C (our first GPSr) for her. So from my point of view the Vista HCx is a great choice if you intend to let your child hold it. 2) Our 7 year old is slowly starting to look at maps and not just the electronic compass. We have found that the 60 CSx is a great unit for her. Not only does it have a bigger screen that allows her to see more on the map, but - more importantly - it has buttons that tell her what they are for. On the Vista she had a hard time to remember which button to press. On the 60 CSx she sees the 'Page', 'Find', 'In', 'Out' buttons and can easily push them to get where she wants to get. 3) Our older children are becoming more independent and like to go out by themselves - without mommy or daddy going with them. Especially when we are camping, they want to roam the forest and explore. For them we have three Rino 530HCx. These units combine a GPSr with a walkie-talkie. So the kids can talk with eachother and us and ask questions whenever they feel like it. More importantly the units can transmit their location to each other. So I have one unit and can see on its screen where each of the children is. We now let them go pretty freely because we see where they are and we can talk to them and for example call them back to the campground for dinner. As you can see all our units are Garmin units. So I can't say anything about DeLorme or other vendors. Paperless caching is certainly something you want to do - especially if you visit more than 1 or 2 caches during a hike. Since I have my cell phone, a BlackBerry, always with me, I use CacheBerry for paperless caching. I just tell the kids what they are looking for. When we go on a road trip I download caches along the route and don't even know upfront where we will go geocaching. We get the kids out of the car when they need a break and have them move around and have some fun before we continue the drive. In these situations paperless caching is essential for us. We couldn't possibly print cache descriptions upfront for hundreds of caches when we don't even know which ones we will visit. So if you are really intending to have your 4 year old go out with the GPSr in his hand, I would advice you to get the Vista HCx (same housing as the Legend HCx, but with an electronic compass, which has been very important for my children). If you think that you will hold it most of the time and your child will from time to time look at the screen I would get the 60CSx. It is a really great unit that you can get nowadays for under $300 and in 2-3 years your child would be able to hold it and operate its basic functions. If money is no issue and you don't have any other means of paperless caching (BlackBerry, PalmPilot, etc.) I would get the Oregon 300 and buy US Topo (instead of having it pre-installed on the Oregon 400T - that way you can also use it with MapSource on your computer and plan routes, etc. ). I hope that helps

I tried it in 5 different parks. In all 5 trails were displayed on the US TOPO maps (100K) but not on the TOPO US 24K CA/NV maps. That is extremly disappointing. I contacted Garmin and they told me that this is in fact correct and due to different data sources that are used. It still doesn't make sense to me to have a trail name in the list of POIs but not the actual trail shown on the map. I returned the 24K maps and while doing it showed it to the employees at REI. They were totally surprised and couldn't believe it. They were under the impression that you get all trails that are on a USGS map and have so far told their customers exactly that. For the people at REI it was an eye opener to see the 100 k maps and the 24 k maps displayed side by side and see trails on one and no trails on the other. It just doesn't make sense. So now I can just wait for Garmin to fix this. But given their answer about different data sources I don't even expect them to see this as a problem that needs to be fixed. For the same reason that Garmin's Colorado and Oregon series don't include all the tools available on the 60csx. Buy both! Maybe Garmin will soon release a "Super 24k Mt. Tam Mapset - Now with accuracy to within 100 feet of the actual trail!" What's another $80?

I'm aware of three reasons why this might happen. 1) You have different mapset loaded and one of them is laid on top of the other. For example you might have downloaded City Navigator maps and US Topo maps. Once you get to a park you will just see green (the City Navigator representation) and not the topo lines and footpaths that are in the US Topo mapset. In order to see that detail you first have to "hide" the City Navigator mapset 2) You hid the mapset you are trying to see. As described above you might have hidden City Navigator in order to see topo lines. You forgot about it and now you wonder why the streets don't have names anylonger. You have to "Show" that mapset again 3) You can select/deselect individual map segments. If you deselected a specific map segement then you could have a situation where you cross from one map segment into the next and all of a sudden you don't see detailed info. The settings for all three can be found under map setup. I hope this helps

Thanks for confirming. That is so disappointing. Why would Garmin delete information from the 24K maps? They should have more detailed information, not less! When planning a trip I need the information about the trails. It is beyond me that they wouldn't have trails on their maps. I have both US Topo 2008 and CA/NV Topo US 24K loaded on my Oregon 300. I can confirm that Mt. Tam trails are shown on Topo 2008, and Mt. Tam trails are not shown on Topo US 24K. .

Unfortunately it is not possible to view SD cards on the computer in MapSource. That is a major disadvantage. The setting when using the Garmin SD card with Topo 24k and when using my own SD card with downloaded Topo 100K data are the same. I see the trails on my personal SD card with the 100K data and I don't see them on the Gamin SD card with the 24K data. What is frustrating is that the POIs for the trails are there. So for example on Mount Tamalpais here in San Francisco I see a handful of blue/white POI symbols that stand for a trail. When I click on them I can see the trail name, but the trail itself is nowhere to see. It would be great if someone who also has the CA/NV 24K map could confirm that no trails are shown on Mount Tamalpais -- only POI symbols. In that case I would return the SD card. It would be even better if someone could tell me that trails are visible and what the settings are to see them.

I just got the Micro SD card with US Topo 24K for California and Nevada. I really like the detail compared to the US Topo 100K and the idea of routable trails intruiged me. BUT I had now already two instances where the trails I could see on my unit with the 100K data were not visible on my unit with the 24K data. Does anyone have similar experiences? The last time was at Point Reyes National Seashore. I was hiking on Cost Trail/Bear Valley Trail/Baldy Trail etc. The unit with the 24K maps showed them as POI (Blue hiking symbol) just like the unit with the 100K, BUT the trails themselves where only visible on the unit with the 100K map. May be I'm making a mistake and have to change a setting? Otherwise I will have to return the 24K map. Without the trails it is pretty much useless for my purposes.

Our family has three 530 HCx. We get the same static - for example when I poll for the location of one of the other units. Did you try to set your volume to 0 to see whether the static is still audible?

There are several posts about the drift problem. One is here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=186593. There are other posts discussing this problem on other GPS receivers like the Colorado which has the same GPS chip. I have not seen the functionality you are describing - getting an alarm when straying outside of a certain perimeter. The Rino offers the opposite function - a proximity alarm, where you get an alarm when you enter a perimeter. You can for example use that to be warned early on about red light cameras that you downloaded as POIs to your GPS Your question in regard to an alarm when straying outside of a certain parameter made me curious. There is actually functionality on the Rino that provides that. I was just not aware of it. It is called "Anchor Drag Alarm" and can be found under the Marine Setup. Since I don't sail I never ever looked there. This functionality makes sure that the unit warns you when you drift outside of a certain perimeter. So that iseems to be exactly what you were looking for.

There are several posts about the drift problem. One is here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=186593. There are other posts discussing this problem on other GPS receivers like the Colorado which has the same GPS chip. I have not seen the functionality you are describing - getting an alarm when straying outside of a certain perimeter. The Rino offers the opposite function - a proximity alarm, where you get an alarm when you enter a perimeter. You can for example use that to be warned early on about red light cameras that you downloaded as POIs to your GPS

Our family owns three Rino 530HCx since May. Since we bought them for Geocaching and the units show the "drift" problem that seems to affect models with the MediaTek chip (Vista HCx, Colorado) we are currently not that happy. Garmin is right now in the process of sending us replacement units and we hope that they won't show the "drift" problem. Taken that one BIG problem aside we like the units a lot. We allow our children to go geocaching for different caches at the same time. We can see their position on the screen and can talk to them on the walkie-talkie. That is a great experience. To answer your questions 1) There are three settings 0.5W (FRS), 2W (limit for Canada), 5W (GMRS). There is no 14W setting. The advertised range for the 5W setting is up to 14 miles. In our experience we have not been able to communicate beyond 2.5 miles (in a forest setting while geocaching) 2) You are supposed to get a GMRS license when using more than 0.5W. Technically nothing prevents you from using 5W. It is all up to your conscience 3) Yes. We actually use our Rinos together with Motorolas in situations where one parent is back at camp with a Motorola preparing dinner while the other parent is in the forest "watching" the kids geocaching while geocaching at the same time.

I tried the tool to convert a track I had saved in MapSource into a route. MapSource couldn't read the resulting GPX file with the route. Can you please trie to open the file with this online-Tool: Trackviewer @DiSiGot: The tool ist only available in German, but the text is not so important. It requires a gpx-File and converts every route in the file to a track and every track to a route, thats all! Chris I can open the file in Trackviewer but I can't open it in MapSource - which is necessary to transfer the track converted as a route back onto my Garmin

2.50/2.40 and as far as the chipset, how do I tell which one I have? I have two of the 520HCX units. When you use WebUpdater it will tell you that you have the latest version and then ask you whether you want to check for additional updates. If I click next I find an update for Chipset Type B. Now I wonder whether there might ne different Chipsets in different HCx units. My nuevi shows chipset M.

Speaking of your original problem, have you checked your datum setting and the position format? I didn't see that mentioned in any of the posts, but may have overlooked it. I have the same settings as on my 60CSx Datum: WGS 84 Position Format: hddd mm.mmm'

I don't really care for the speed either - it was just on observation that might have helped pinpointing the problem. What I care a lot about is my location. Did you take your two units geocaching? I have done it now several times and it is almost impossible for my children to find geocaches with them, while they find them easily with the 60CSx. The Rino 530 HCx is between 50 and 300 feet off and once we are at the cache (with the help of the 60CSx) we notice that the Rino's track is moving on the screen towards the cache. So while we are there for a couple of minutes the Rinos move to the right location. When we start to walk, they will drift away again. When we stop again, they will drift back to the right location. How is your geocaching experience? My family and I have log alot of Geocaches since we got our Rino's and I must say that they seem to be just as good as my 60CSX (which I sold) if not better. I can tell you that my "shown accuracy" reading is always better than the 60CSX would give me. Many of the Geocache's we have done were dead on if they were in an open area where the hider could also get a good reading. I always walk within 50ft. at a steady pace then look ahead in that direction at about 50ft. I still keep walking but yes once you get to what the GPS thinks is "ground zero" it will jump around 20 or 30 FT. Sometimes I walk at it from different angles and that will help me obtain the right location. So there is hope May be the lot my three units came from is bad. These units drift off from the true location by 100-200 feet and stay there while I keep walking slowly (around 2 miles/hour). When I stop for a couple of minutes they drift back to the correct location. But they show all the time lots of satellites with good reception and accuracy of +-20 feet and better (+-7 feet in open areas). That provides a totally wrong sense of "knowing where I am". Can you provide more details for your units. 530HCx? SW 2.5? GPS SW 2.4? Cipset Type B? There must be something that is different for my 3 Rinos.