JohnTee

No doubt about that. I have the fortune of owning Vista HCx since last Thanksgiving and a PN-20 which my dad gave me several weeks ago. He has a 60CSx and bought the PN-20. In using the two, he was not as happy with the function of the PN-20, so kept the 60CSx. Cache On! JohnTee

An initial qualifier would be your need for maps. If you buy a PN-20, you will get four discs containing: Topo 7.0/8.0?, which has surface streets and some topography; USGS Topo maps for the West, Central and EAstern U.S. It's a great deal for a GPS AND maps. The topo maps would be very useful for your trail riding. For a similar price, you will get a Map 60 CX (or are you looking at the CSx?) and no maps. Well, you get the Garmin basemap. Garmin's topo runs around $70 and Streets runs around $170? Other factors: Display: pretty comparable between size and resolution Processors: Garmin seem to be faster processors Sensitivity: The 60 has a QuadraHelix antenna which gives it excellent reception. You'll be able to get a satellite fix sitting in your living room, or under fairly dense tree canopy. The PN-20 has an internal antenna and does not have a 'High Sensitivity' chip like the Vista HCx models. In my living room, I might see some satellites, but won't get a lock. I haven't tried it under heavy tree cover, but suspect it won't be as good. There have been a LOT of reviews on both units, and probably some very in depth comparisons, here in the forums. Do a search for "+PN-20 +60CSx" and you should get a lot of information. That's a little bit to get started with the confusion! Cache On! JohnTee

The corollary to this is . . . Most geocachers are pretty lazy and don't want to bust a bunch of brush. Cache On! JohnTee

E-mail sent . . . Cache On! JohnTee

"Then head 283 degrees for approximately 366 Feet." Not all GPS units have the ability to 'Project a waypoint'. Quick and dirty way to do this in the field, on any GPS. Find the 'reciprocal heading' by adding or subtracting 180. 283 - 180 = 103 Go to the given waypoint. Walk West and a little North until your GPS shows a 103 degree heading TO the waypoint (you're walking away from the waypoint, but that would be the direction TO the waypoint, Walk until it shows you 366 feet from the waypoint, on a heading of 103 degrees. You should now be 283 degrees and 366 from the waypoint and at the cache. Cache On! JohnTee

I think you've got about the only 'best' way to do it. If you knew exactly where you were driving, you could set up routes and geocaches within 'x' miles of a route. Otherwise, if you want everything, that's probably it. How many caches in Norway, anyway? Oh! 4947 at the moment! That's ten PQ's if you want everything. I see your dilemma. Good luck! Cache On! JohnTee

Just wanted to add a picture to go with the description . . . JohnTee

Yes. MS Streets recognizes the GPS, in NIMEA In/NIMEA Out Interface Mode, which gives mapping a position. If you use something like GSAK, and I"m sure EasyGPS and others will do this also, you can export a MS Streets text file of your list of geocaches. The text file is imported to MS Streets as data and then each geocache shows on the map. I've done a lot of geocaching this way. Makes navigating to some of the geocaches much easier. Get on site, disconnect the GPS and you're off and running. John

For Sale $110 I have upgraded to a Garmin Vista HCx, have a DeLorme LT-20 and a DeLorme PN-20; one or two of these four GPS units has to go. For Sale as a package deal: Blue Garmin eTrex Legend (B&W Model): Comes with Owner's Manual, Quick Start Guide, Lanyard/carrying strap and serial data cable. Dynex® - 16" USB PDA/Serial Adapter Cable, Model: DX-UBDB9 MicroSoft Map - Streets & Trips 2004: Comes with Original Box, original Setup & Run Disks Garmin eTrex Legend eTrex Legend Owners Manual PDF This is essentially a 'new', unused unit. I recently sent my almost two year old eTrex Legend to Garmin International and received this refurbished eTrex Legend (New Serial Number, invoice says serviced 12/4/07). It has 53 minutes of total run time and has not left the house. Still has the protective plastic over the screen. Garmin software version 3.70 The Legend can receive position corrections from the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), which makes Legend's already-accurate positioning data even more reliable. In fact, when you turn on WAAS, you can increase the accuracy of Legend's position reporting to within three meters. The eTrex Legend is a great GPSr unit for hiking, driving, or geocaching. Comes with basic road maps; The Legend's basemap contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads and coastlines. Legend also comes preloaded with marine navigation aids. And, with Legend's 8 MB of memory, you can add even more map detail with data from Garmin's entire line of MapSource® mapping products (Garmin Maps not included). It can store 1000 waypoints, 20 routes, 10 saved tracks and 10,000 traveled track points. Runs up to 18 hours on two AA bateries. Dynex® - 16" USB PDA/Serial Adapter Cable, Model: DX-UBDB9 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1110263657278 This adapter cable is designed for easy plug-and-play connection of a device with a serial port to a device with a USB port. Product Features * Connects a device with a RS-232 (DB9) serial port to a USB hub or USB-equipped computer * Supports data transfer rate of more than 115 Kbps * PC and Mac compatible (New from bestbuy.com $36.99) MicroSoft Streets & Trips 2004 Loaded on my laptop, with my Garmin eTrex Legend GPSr plugged in, I have used this to assist in finding MANY geocaches and for navigating cross country. It's great to see city streets and have an idea how to navigate to that cache. On arrival, unplug your GPSr and go get that cache. GSAK, and, probably, other programs like EasyGPS, will export to MS Streets & Trips. On loading the imported data, all the geocaches in your imported file show up on the map! Features: Door to door directions for multiple destinations Optimize your route for multiple destinations Find points of interest, restaurants, hotels and more Plan your trip and calculate mileage, time, and fuel costs Import contacts from MS Outlook & MS Excel Real-time GPSr support ((requires a GPS device that supports NMEA 2.o or later, configured to use Com Port 20 or less System Requirements PC w/Pentium II or higher (Pentium III recommended) W98, WME, WNT 4.0, W2000 Pro, WXP or later OS MS IE 5 Browser (included) 64 MB of RAM for W98, WME, WNT 4.0 128 MB of RAM for W2000 Pro, WXP ! GB HDD space for standard installation 4x or faster CD-ROM SVGA or higher MS Mouse or compatible pointing device Cache On! JohnTee

Well, that's not actually a 'preform' any more, that's a soda bottle now. A preform all growed up! Do you have a bottler of carbonated beverages (soda, pop, coke, etc.) near you? If they bottle into the plastic bottles, they'll have probably have a sub-contractor that handles the preforms for them. The 'sub' takes the loose preforms and sends them through a processing system that aligns, runs through a heater, blow molds/inflates, labels and palletizes them to go to the bottler. If you search the forums for 'preform' you'll find a link to a teacher supply place that sells them. Cache On! JohnTee

Thought I'd share a little how to apply camo that I use for preforms, but could be adapted to many other shapes . . . I've used the Krylon ultra-flat camo paints and Krylon plastic paints and am not sure there has been a big difference in adhesion. Step 1 - preform sanded to scuff up the surface (improved adhesion) and wiped down with paint thinner (anything to remove oils that might affect adhesion) Step 2 - base coat. Any color, dark brown or black is my preference. Flat paint is best, but glossy paint would be muted by subsequent overspray to follow. Step 3 - wrap a coarse twine around the tube in a 'running stitch'; just a series of linked, overhand knots. Step 4 - after the first run of twine, go up and over the top, repeating the same thing down the tube. Run line down a different side Step 5 - Shoot a contrasting coat of paint OVER first coat AND twine Step 6 - Now, shoot again with a light color like gray. This coat should be thin, splotchy, irregular. You can also shoot a little bit of green here and there Step 7 - Place cache in the wild and enjoy! Cache On! JohnTee

A couple of pictures for you . . . Preform scuffed up for painting Camouflaged preform I leave unpainted preforms, containing a blank log, short note about what it is and a pencil as my signature/SWAG item - 'Cache Ready To Go'. Cache On! JohnTee

"Just one more thing" - Columbo By any small chance, do you have a PDA and are you using Palm's HotSync on this PC? That can bugger up the sharing of COM Ports. IF you do, exit HotSync and give it another try. Cache On! JohnTee

I've looked at Wherigo and being short a Colorado or a GPS enabled PDA, that's as far as I've gotten. On the other hand, I do have an LT-20 for my laptop . . . Any geocacher with a laptop and a GPS that can interface with it might be able to play this way. Go for it! JohnTee

Not Canadian, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Hmmm, that could be a U.S. colloquialism that gets lost in the translation . . . However, your subject caught my eye! We went to St. Thomas July of 2006, with a day trip to St. John. St. Thomas: There are two right down where the cruise ships dock in Charlotte Amalia, Top-O-The-Hill and Dock Sider. Basically numbers caches, rather than anything spectacular. There had been another in the market area of Charlotte Amalia, which was temporarily archived at the time of our visit. There is one on Kokie Beach, Sea Princess 4 Cache ,which is a fantastic place to waste the day. Our favorite place we visited there and I would recommend if you can find the time. You can read my Log Here. There were several on St. Thomas that involved hikes and or long drives that I didn't get to do. St. John: I missed doing any caches there, as we were on a bus tour of the island, with a stop at one of the beaches, Trunk Bay. The snorkeling was good at Trunk Bay, but I think it was better at Kokie. A single PQ will easily catch all the caches in the St. Thomas, St. John's and St. Croix area. Cache On! JohnTee (edited to complete my thoughts!)

Hi Phil, Glad you got manual entry figured out. The cable will make life good . . . You'll be able to use the "Send to GPS" button (You'll be prompted to download the associated Garmin plug-in) on cache descriptions and just send straight to the GPS. Cache On! JohnTee

It's probably more useful when running a GPS (or other device) from a laptop. If the device goes into power/battery saving mode, it also reduces power to the USB ports. Found this out from DeLorme in reference to using my DeLorme LT-20 with my laptop. Cache On! JohnTee

USB is supposed to be 5V standard across the board. Put a probe on the end of it and check and see what it's putting out. That's a pretty standard USB connector on the device end, so my guess is yes. Something useful is an IPOD type charger. I bought a generic IPOD set with 110V-USB, 12V-USB and IPOD charging cable. I use the chargers for my Palm, through its USB Cable and to run my Vista HCx by its USB Cable. Cache On! JohnTee

Just a thought . . . My Computer (Right Click) -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus controllers -> Click the '+' to expand -> Right Click on each 'USB Root Hub' -> Properties -> Power Management Tab -> uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' I can't say this will solve your problem, but it's worth a check . . . Cache On! JohnTee

Hi Raymond, If you would really like to manage your caches . . . Become a premium member - $30 Use a program like EasyGPS or GSAK - up to $28 Download up to 500 caches at a time, in the form of Pocket Queries (PQ's), for the area you are going to cache Use EasyGPS or GSAK to send from 1-1000 caches (depending on your GPS) to your GPS each time you go out. EasyGPS or GSAK will allow you to manipulate caches to your hearts content, filtering found, not found, active, archived, size, terrain, difficutly, etc., etc.. Then you can . . . Buy a Palm - $10-300 Buy CacheMate to run on your Palm - $8 Satisfied Geocacher - PRICELESS! Cache On!

Dohh! Wellllll, you DID say you're a NOOB! Sorry, I gave it my best shot TeamLyngaa! Cache On! JohnTee

Hi Baylakers, Go to 'My Account', then 'update home coordinates' near the top, right corner. Cache On! JohnTee

Have you checked your 'My Watchlist' to make sure they REALLY are gone? Cache On! JohnTee

"Just one more thing" . . . (said in his best Columbo voice) Ran across this rather comprehensive reply on troubleshooting serial and USB connections: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=162242 Cache On! JohnTee

Which interface mode are you using with the Garmin? MAIN MENU -> SETUP -> INTERFACE -> GARMIN or NMEA IN/NMEA OUT. The interface mode will depend on the software you are using to SEND to your Legend. If you're trying to use the geocaching.com/Garmin Communicator 'Send To GPS' from cache page descriptions, I believe you should use the GARMIN interface. Other software, you will have to check your manual. Er, did I mention above . . . if you use a Palm/Palm Desktop/Hotsync, you may have to exit Hotsync before using your GPS; at least with a USB/Serial adapter. Hotsync has a notorious and well documented habit of grabbing all com ports when it is running. Try shutting off Hotsync and try it again. In another thread, a poster said, "Specifically what I encountered was that when I clicked on "Send to GPS" it would search all of the USB devices and would not latch on to my eTrex. I did a work-around by unhooking all four of the USB devices from my PC and it worked like a charm." Just for reference, in yet another thread, a poster said, "The download problem is related to the fact that the Legend is working off of the Serial port (how antiquated is that?) and the download applet gets confused because it is looking for a USB port to use. Another thing Garmin is planning on fixing (soon????)." Cache On! JohnTee