G & E

Our seven year old twins love to go caching. Coincidentally I've been spending a lot more time with them since I bought the GPS. The only problem I've encountered is that boy twin gets very upset if girl twin finds the cache first. It's okay if I find it first, but not if she does. Girl twin, on the other hand, has no such hang ups but is more sensitive to the pain of thorns.

I also have the sharkskin case and it really does the job. This spring we were scrambling about in deep snow that was melting. We were all wet, and the water drops were all over the front of the case, but no moisture got in. I cut holes in the back and eventually cut one big hole in the back to make getting at the USB port and other connections easier. The nice thing I noticed is that none of the cuts I've intentially put in have spread. You can confidently customize it to your needs. The mouse button (or map panning button) is a little harder to use through the plastic but not signficantly so. I have no difficulty with just setting it down where I want to or throwing it into a backpack or glovebox.

I haven't used the system you are talking about but I have a Pioneer product at home. It is a DVD recorder with a hard drive for the TV. It didn't work properly after the first week or so. I made countless calls and still they could not help me. The dealer replaced it with another unit and it was the same for performance. Pioneer gave us some codes to "re-set" the unit and this helped for a day or two then then the problems came back. Finally I searched and searched and then in the back of the manual in fine print was another method for a total reset of everything. I did that, and it has worked flawlessly ever since. I think these new electronics are so sensitive that even the initial install can cause problems. I dont' know if this logic can help you with your built in navigation system, but you just never know.

Just to round out this topic, I have an observation on rechargables. I bought one of those standard Energizer 2500 mAh 7 hour rechargeable battery sets. I can't seem to get more than one days use out of them (say four hours - no light use) before the battery meter shows less than half charge left. Now to be fair, I haven't used them to the point of the GPS not working. For comparison I bought a couple of Panasonic 2300 mAh NiMH rechargeables and they last for several days of GPS use before the meter even shows a slight drop in charge. They did cost more than the Energizer but the difference is sure remarkable. I'm going to buy two more so I always have a set available. The Energizer's will find a new home in my seven year old's toothbrush. Has anybody else noticed a difference in the quality of their rechargeable batteries?

When I charge up my Energizer NiMH (the 24 hour variety) they reach 1.4 volts. So I am not worried about them being too strong, but they don't seem to last very long. I would estimate maybe seven hours befor the battery bars start to drop off. I've also used Panasonic non-rechargable batteries. They seem to last and last. Even when the bars start to drop on the meter, if I turn it off for a while, they come back at full strength. Does anybody have a better rechargeable battery recommendation?

1) Not finding the cache 2) Looking silly while looking for the cache 3) Making somebody else frightened while searching for the cache (i.e. voices coming from deep in a ravine, etc). We don't have snakes and I haven't been to the mountains lately so I'm not worried about bears. I do get annoyed with the insects at times, but that's a long way from fear.

I started with Easy GPS (everyone should start with Easy GPS because it is so easy). I then moved up to GSAK because it can make the most use of the limited text memory in my Garmin GPSMAP60C. Now that Mapsource reads loc files it is probably as easy as Easy GPS but doesn't replace GSAK. I will often load from GSAK into my GPS (never the other way around) and then from my GPS to Mapsource. That way I've got a bigger screen to view the map and caches.

One thing to consider between the two maps is the amount of memory you have access to. I have Garmin's TOPO Canada and when I look on the web site, the difference between this and the City maps in memory needs is huge. I have a GPSMAP60C with 56 Megs of built in memory (no card) and I was able to only load in part of Alberta and a very small part of BC. It holds nearly all of the places in Alberta that I would want to go to. However when vacation time comes around, most Alberta's head to BC. I'll have to rearrange things a bit and load just part of that Province. BC uses more memory than Alberta for obvious reasons. There are lots of topographic features in BC that we don't have in Alberta. Of course, that is why we go there. I could probably add all of Saskatchewan by only deleting a few BC mountains.

When it comes to equipment, you will get lots of opinions. As in most hobbies or sports, etc, it is usually best to buy the best that you can reasonably afford. You will quickly forget about spending an extra $50 but you won't forget about spending too little and having something that is not up to the job. I have the Garmin GPSMAP60C. I really like it! I can see the day where I would have preferred more memory, but I can work around that. I know somebody that just bought the Legend Etrex Cx. He was going to buy the Etrex C but was told it was no longer available. It is a well priced unit and it almost makes me wonder why mine costs more. He is totally satisfied with it. If you buy Etrex Cx you will be satified. If you find a Etrex C on sale, you will likely also be very happy with it, although it doesn't have the expandable memory. There is no right answer to your question. Etrex is one of Garmin's most popular units so you need not worry about buying one. The 60 series is also very popular. If you are on a budget, shop around for a non-colour version of the GPS of your choice. All non-colour units are on fire sale prices. I've seen the black and while Etrex selling for less than half of the new Etrex Cx. If you are not on a budget, go with colour.

Is there any other way? I loaded two provinces (one disk) and I don't have to use that disk again. I might have loaded more but my hard drive is old, small and unable to cope with such things.

Okay, since nobody answered my post, I will answer it myself. I downloaded the software and my unit works pretty much like it did before. If there are improvements, I haven't noticed them yet. If something doesn't work right, I haven't come across that either.

When I was looking at a Lowrance product the salesperson said that the reason they sold preloaded chips was because some people didn't want to have to deal with a computer. The pre-loaded chips cost a lot more money than buying the chip and software separately. By the fact that anybody reading this must first have a computer and must have some knowledge of how to use it, I would guess that the pre-loaded chips are meant for other people. In other words, it's nothing to get excited about unless you own shares in Garmin.

Has anybody installed the beta firmware for the MAPGPS60C? Any problems? Any advantages?

I had the same problem until somebody pointed out that I needed the newer version of Mapsource which you can download from the Garmin web site. Once you do that, you can download the *.loc files from the GeoCache site directly to your Mapsource program. You can do it one at a time, or by checking off the ones you want, download several at once. You can then send them to your Garmin etrec just by clicking the send button on Mapsend. Garmin made it really easy except that you have to get the new version first. That should take care of your problems.

I know somebody else that was going to buy a Legend C and when they went to buy it, the dealer said Garmin discontinued the Legend C. They now make the Legend Cs so it has the removable SD card. If you are looking for a barain, look for any non-colour Garmin such as the Legend or the MAP60. They are going at fire sale prices.

Our 7 year old twins are never disappointed with the contents of a cache. We consider finding the cache our reward and opening it is their reward. It makes for a great family outing. We try to put something in that somebody else would like just as much. It is hard to compete with some the the interesting things we have found though. Recently my son found some Central American currency. Pretty cool!

Garmin GPSMAP60C I started with a Legend that I bought on impulse but then discovered how few extra $$ would buy colour and returned it. I then discovered how much more memory the GPSMAP60C had, plus a few other things so I bought it instead of the Legend. I only had the Legend for four days so that probably doesn't count.

[if you download the latest version of MapSource from the Garmin website (it is free) you can download both .loc and .gpx files from the cache pages. I'm glad I read this post because I've been struggling with Mapsource and other programs because it wouldn't load *.loc files. Now that I have the new version, it does all that I need. It even loads several caches in one page so I don't have to copy them from one page to another. Very nice. Some day I'm sure I figure out why I would want to use GSAK but since I'm not a premium member, I don't see the need for it. I also find it quite hard to use. Mapsource is the right program for me.

Are you saying that Mapsource will accept downloaded caches? I've been using EasyGPS because I didn't think that Mapsource would load a *.loc file. When I use import, it lists all of the file types but *.loc is not one of them. This is the Mapsource that came with my 60C?

That shield looks like a great idea! However, today I UPS just delievered my new case for my GPSMAP60C. It is basically just to protect the screen. The problem is that it doesn't give access to the connections on the back so I will either cut a hole in the back or try removing it when I want to access the connections. It does add some protections to the sides of the unit though. http://www.thegpsstore.com/detail.asp?product_id=BE130

I hope that there isn't any protocol regarding how long the travel bug can be held in inventory. We've had ours for a couple of weeks. We want to keep it until later this month when we're going out of town. That way, the bug can move farther away rather than just bouncing around the local parks.

I don't want to sound overly sensitive, but when will the "tadpole" designation leave my profile? Does it have to do with topics posted or caches found? Just curious.

Reason to GeoCache: 1) Our twins love it. To them it is treasure hunting and there is no such thing as junk. If you could see their face when they find the Cache, you would understand! 2) To learn how to operate a GPS. I can't just read a manual and understand something, I need a reason. My GPS is not just a GeoCache toy, but also a window to future technologies. The better I understand this one, the easier it will be to understand whatever it is that comes next. 3) This has been a great family thing. It gets us out of the house together. Also, when I'm not responding to a forum etc, it gets me away from the computer.

I had a similar problem. GSAK would read USB but EasyGPS would not. EASYGPS would read Com 1. I downloaded a newer version and it seemed to help. I think just uninstalling completely and reinstalling can help too.

One difference is the battery life. Somehow Garmin has managed to squeeze 30 or so hours out of theirs and Lowrence is in the 12 hour range per their own specs. Perhaps the Lowrence screen is bigger and therefore uses more power. This may not matter to you if you can tap into 12 volt power from your ATV