gLOBALfINDER

One thing it's useful for is when you're placing a cache at a location with poor reception, but there's a place with good reception nearby ... get a solid location at the clear site, and project the waypoint.

No kidding. Here's a newbie goof (my own!). Loaded some cache coordinates into GPSr and took son for a hike to show him what fun it was. Hiked a mile or so and got to EXACT coordinates of first cache. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. We were in a parking lot. Spent a lot of time examining nearby lamp posts, trees, etc. Nothing. Finally gave up. Went home. Went to this cache's page and discovered that it was a puzzle cache, and we were supposed to park at the coordinate location, starting the search from there. Felt pretty stupid. All part of the learning curve. I really like "woods" caches. I spend a lot of time in the woods anyway, and now can generally spot a cache site from quite a distance. It's that "something's not quite right here" feeling. But really good, cleverly hidden micros are a lot of fun to search out. At the end of the day, it's about the search. Sort of like fishing. If you caught a fish every cast, you'd quickly get tired of it. And if you never caught a fish, you'd get tired of it. But if every so often you catch one, you keep coming back! So keep it up!

Well, I read it all, "cover to cover" and find it pretty useful, both in GPS theory and in cache coordinate - finding. Seems to me that from my limited experience, if the unit will average, as my Garmin will, just letting it "do its thing" is the simplest solution, assuming that one has enough sky visibility to have enough satellites to get a low EPE. The new chipsets are really quite good even through quite a bit of foliage, etc. Failing that, projecting a set of coordinates is pretty easy and would be a better solution in a lot of circumstances than repeatedly trying to get a reading in a poor-reception area. Overall, good work!

How about growing your own? ... pick a friend who likes the outdoors and take em' along for an outing or two. They'll soon be addicted. Bwahahaha!

I don't know if that model supports external data load. But I was out caching with a fellow this afternoon who had one, and he did just as suggested above: marked current location as a waypoint and then edited the lat./long. until it matched the to-be-found cache coordinates, and punched "go to." BTW it did a fine job in the field.

I'm pretty new at this but this afternoon I was out wading the edges of a marsh, thinking "I'm really glad that my GPSr is waterproof in case I stumble and drop it in the drink here." Then a little later it was starting to rain and I was thinking, "I'm really glad that my GPRs is waterproof ..." etc. And EVERYONE I've personally asked has dropped their GPSr at least once, despite tethers, clips, wrist bands, being careful, etc. So if I were you, as the addiction grows, I'd look into an inexpensive handheld dedicated machine!

Yes, but the OP specifically mentions a 60CSx and it indeed has a NiMH setting.

So, are you sayin' there's something wrong with drunken bumblebees?!! Hah!!? That's our mating dance you're dissin'! Watch out next time you go into the woods! I dunno - I'm pretty new at this, but as I get within a few hundred feet, I start to take directional sighings with the GPRr's compass and pick a target tree, rock, etc. which appears to be at about the right distance ... and then refine this sighting as I get closer to that target. (I've even gotten anal enough to consider using my laser rangefinder to pick a target at EXACTLY the right range once I've gotten and azimuth nailed down, but have never done so.)

I spend a lot of time in Europe, and having just taken up geocaching, I've started to do it over there too. The easiest way for me is to pick a location (such as my hotel or office) and do a search for caches centered on that location, by using coordinates. I use MapSource's European MetroGuide to get the coordinates. Biggest issue that I have is that a lot of the cache listings seem to be in languages I don't read or speak That is a big isue in offset or puzzle caches, but not such as issue with traditional caches. And I think you'll find enough in English in most places to satisfy the cache craving! Good luck!

If you have a Cabela's near you or want to pay shipping, they've got Cal. 30 cans for 19.95 for 6: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...o+can&noImage=0

Indeed, that's all my 60CSx has ever had in it; one set in the GPSr, one spare set in the bag, and one set in the charger, and you're always good to go!

5. Cheapest addiction I've ever heard of. 4. Good, clean fun. 3. Gets me outdoors, where life is just better. 2. Meet new people - some of whom sleep under bridges and in parks. 1. Helps me give away all those little goodies I've collected.

I'm really new at this myself, but am having a ball at it, and have an idea for you: I'd do some searches and find a person in your area who has placed a lot of quality caches (based on logs) and email them .... asking them to take you on a short outing. I'd almost guarantee that such a guy or gal is a) big time into caching; and wants to see others have as much fun as they have - so they'd get you "into the game" pretty quickly! Good luck!

You can get collapsible hiking sticks (and a lot of other outdoor gear, too - incluidng GPSrs - !) at REI ... www.rei.com ... usual disclaimers: no financial interest, etc. p.s. I carry a small auto inspection mirror - the kind that's about 1" diameter on an extendible shaft - it's quite useful for looking into odd crannies where you don't particluarly want to shove a hand at first; you know, the kind of cranny that might have a rattlesnake or scorpion or wasp nest in it!

I wish I shared your confidence. Not sure when my unit's warranty will expire, but I'm not going to let it expire before I take some action on this ... the "you don't need it" explanation has gotten me quite angry. I also haven't dropped the unit into water, so I don't really "need" the water resistance as of today, either, but you better believe I expect it will perform if I ever do.

WAAS is one of the primary reasons I bought this unit. The Garmin website says this (among other things) about the 6oCSx: "New high-sensitivity WAAS-capable GPS receiver by SiRF" If this technician knows what he's talking about, Garmin better fix this but fast! I am personally outraged.

Thanks for the advice!

How far off is "significantly?" A hundred feet or so ... I'm basing this on sitting right on top of a site and running a 50 reading average using the GPSr's averaging function, which reported accuracy of under ten feet at that point. Have other cachers also mentioned this in their logs? No. If others had mentioned it, I would have known the answer and wouldn't have asked the question.

Several caches I've found have coordinates that are significantly off. Is it bad form to P.M. the owner and advise the owner of this ... or (worse?) put the REAL coordinates in one's log of the site?