khaytsus

CacheMate works fine, but I personally prefer GeoNiche. It has hordes of features, looks great, and works very well for caching. Keep in mind when you're caching that the Treo is pretty fragile, so put it away when you're on something slippery, climbing, etc, and consider getting an Aquapac to keep it waterproof. I assume you have a bluetooth GPS unit; you can get Aquapacs for them as well. The "Keymaster" version works perfectly for my Holux 236. I just carefully hold the case against the GPS power switch and push the GPS forward or backward. So the case turns the GPS on or off, rather than taking the GPS out or possibly damaging the case doing so.

Curious. How often do you use your compass when your GPS is working? My GPS unit doesn't have an electronic compass, so I regularly use my compass when geocaching. A lot of times when I'm getting close, especially when trees/buildings/etc are around, I'll stand still, let things settle, then get out the compass and get a heading and a distance. Usually once or twice of that will put me right on top of the cache.

How old are the finds?? The two that I know of for certain are both in November. They were Nov 20, 2006 (GCYMPG) and Nov 18, 2006 (GCRJV4). I haven't changed anything in my pocket query and have used it for a long time. There are no unusual criteria. The main criteria that applies to this is that they are still active and not found by me. Most of my finds are not being returned (in other words, it's working properly for the most part) but it is really strange that those two would be sent as unfound caches when I've logged them. That's just never happened before. I think he was more curious how you didn't realize you'd already found them before..

Hi again sarhound, I noticed you mention Charter, I too use it and I think it may be the link. I have also talked to a couple of others who have these issues and they too use Charter. I talked to Charter and they do not show any problems, but they did 'confess' that they are having some latency issues. I was asked to see if GC could check and see if they are getting any 'bounced' emails and try and get the headers for one of those. Any GC techs lurking??? v/r O-Mega As I replied in the Website forum, this is not just Charter ISP with this issue.. But yes, if they could do some sort of sanity check on the email system that would be good. I've missed 5-6 emails from new caches or watched/bookmarked caches in the last few days.

I think I've been missing some emails from GC.com myself recently, and on a different ISP... I didn't receive one new cache notification, and at least 3-4 watched or bookmarked cache notifications.

Can you update the FW on the 236? I have yet to get it to see any WAAS birds, let alone do anything with them. I've tried SirfDemo as well as a few other programs. Works okay without WAAS but if it's getting fully operational it sure would be nice to be able to take advantage of it.

If you don't mind doing the GPX->Cachemate file conversion yourself, Cachemate has a program called cmconvert that you can get from the same website that'll convert the GPX files for you, no additional charge. For mapping, try Earthcomber. It's free and has excellent maps, and you can import GPX files into it to view any point of interest you like (through a web interface) and you can add temporary spots on the map in the PDA program itself. It also comes with a large array of points of interest associated with the maps/areas you download, eating, historical, scenic, etc. I have scripts that create all my Geocaching files (Geoniche PDB's, Google Earth KML's, and Earthcomber GPX**) automatically when I receive a PQ, and every so often I update Earthcomber and Google Earth. Whenever I'm going caching, I just download the latest file into Geoniche. Works great for me. ** In case you're wondering why I say "Earthcomber GPX", if you import the PQ GPX into Earthcomber it shows Waypoints instead of cache names, so I massage the data a little from the PQ GPX into one that Earthcomber is more compatable with. I don't believe it's an issue with either the PQ or Earthcomber, just different..

If you mean directly; no. There's nothing available that allows you to use a GPX file directly. However, you can use GPSBabel to convert into a format the Palm likes. If you're using the Palm itself as navigation I highly suggest GeoNiche, and it comes with a very nice Java program which converts the waypoints into a pdb file to install into the Palm. If you're just going paperless, Cachemate is a good suggestion, and it has an associated program called cmconvert that will convert gpx to pdb files for Cachemate to use.

Earthcomber is an excellent and FREE alternative to Tom Tom in this case.. I plan with it, and nail the cache with GeoNiche.

GeoNiche is the best GPS software you will find.. Check it out. don't worry about WAAS right now, I hear it usually makes things worse. Two years from now who knows.

Okay, so not by county, but it should be easy enough to pick 3-4 coordinates and a radius and then filter from there. I'll check out GSAK, but I believe it's Windows-only.. but I think gspbabel can delete duplicates and maybe split back out into multiple gpx files.. We'll see. Thanks everyone! Need to get my wife to pay for the membership, she has the Pay Pal account.

I plan on signing up, probably for a month at first just to make sure that my setup here will work (No Windows PCs in the house) then cancel and sign up for a non-renewing yearly subscription.. But I'm curious first, is there a description somewhere of how pocket queries can be made? Like I'm curious, can I make a pocket query that ONLY returns results for a specific county in a state, filtering out virtuals, etc? My ideal setup is that I visit several places in the state so those areas and the roads between I like to pick up all the caches in the neighboring counties, which basically amounts to a big triangle inside of central Kentucky with about 15 counties or so. I'd like to be able to specify each county so I can split up the databases on my Palm so I don't have one HUGE database. Alternatively, I suppose I could set up perhaps 3-4 PQ's that go out a certain radius, concatenate the results, then use gpsbabel to delete the duplicates. I assume that should work. But I'd still prefer to use mutliple databases. Any suggestions are appreciated

CacheMade also has cmconvert, a command-line tool, availble for *nix and Windows, which works pretty well. The arguments can be somewhat tricky, they go like: cmconvert -o file.pdb file1.loc,file2.loc,file3.loc Note the comma's, it won't accept spaces. It's available from http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate/tools.php

When you find yourself in the company of a halfling and an ill-tempered Dragon, remember, you do not have to outrun the Dragon... ...you just have to outrun the halfling.

Perhaps TMI... but last year after a hike through the woods (not Geocaching, just hiking) the next morning I got up and went to pee and the stream went two directions. After much confusion, cleaning up what had happened, I examined the.... area.. and found two of the 'seed ticks' right on the business end. I was *not* amused.

Well, maybe in MOST cases, but I have a AA camera that specifically states to NOT use alkalines. The recommend NiMH or something else which I can't remember and I'm too lazy to dig out the manual. Colour LCDs with backlight draw a LOT of power, plus flash units on cameras, and you get a bad situation for normal alkaline batteries. Alkalines have a really high internal resistance, which means that they can't provide very much current without a lot of internal loss (heat). They are really only good for low to moderate loads. Any rechargable is capable of a higher discharge, as are the expensive Lithium non-rechargables. Personally I think I would use rechargables in a GPSr and carry good alkalines with me for backup. I question if Lithium batteries are a good choice however. They are quite powerful, very light, and really last. However, some GPSr state that the battery compartment is NOT waterproof (Garmin Legend eTrex for instance) and I wonder if the batteries would go ballistic if they got wet.. Not sure. Non AA/AAA GPSr.... If you carry a second battery, perhaps. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd rely on it for your only source of navigation. Myself, I currently only do short trips (very little time...) so my GPS solution works fine for me right now (Palm Treo and a bluetooth Holux 236) but I plan on getting a Legend eTrex or something similar in the near future.

They are not that rare. Just go to any wall-mart parking lot, drive right up to the lamppost, lift up the skirt retrive cache, sign log, replace cache, no need to get out of you car. Yeah, there's at least a few of those here.. Literally could sign it in the car. I must admit though, the first one of those I found, I was a *little* throw by.. I was looking for something at the base (hole, etc) or stuck to the pole. Then I picked up the skirt. doh.

IF google earth/maps has a good high res imagary map for the area, then it actually is quite good, at least it is in my town. I've put in waypoints for known caches, my back yard, etc.. They're always spot-on. Finding the cache on a long overgrown fence row with google earth; not so good... Finding a cache hidden in a tree in a planter beside a store, yeah, no big deal. I sometimes "cheat" and look at Google Earth when picking which caches I want to hit. I try not so much to focus on exactly WHERE the cache is, but what the terrain is.. If it's a high field I'm going to avoid it (I HATE TICKS) and if it's a really high muggler or high traffic area I might avoid it or plan for a late/weekend time, etc.

That's how I had read it.. I only updated two descriptions, I'll fix them. I had assumed that this being the "geocaching.com" forum I would get an answer from someone in the know, but oh well. I figured I'd post here instead of an email, but I'll do that in the future if I have any questions of that sort. You did get an answer from someone in the know. Heck, you got it right from the owner's fingers... Yes, I did.. Which is why I said I was going to fix the error of copying the information over there. Read the thread from the top.

You have any problems with it crashing? My Treo 650 with GeoNiche is pretty flakey. It'll reset the Treo 2-3 times when I'm doing multiple hunts. I've gotten to where I'll switch waypoints, make a note, maybe change an icon color (to indicate DNF, Want to Visit, Found, etc), then exit. Then load it back up. Seems to keep it more stable by not running and messing with it a lot, plus I don't lose any changes that way. Oh well.

That's how I had read it.. I only updated two descriptions, I'll fix them. I had assumed that this being the "geocaching.com" forum I would get an answer from someone in the know, but oh well. I figured I'd post here instead of an email, but I'll do that in the future if I have any questions of that sort.

I've been loving using GeoNiche for my geocache database + navigation. Using its EasyCache software (java, runs on anything), I can export from Geocaching.com, merge into the existing database, mark or unmark caches of interest.. I've even started doing color coding.. Green found, white to find, cyan searched but not found, red needs maint/gone, etc.. As something is found, I uncheck it so it doesn't show on the 'radar'. Leads me right to the cache.. Then I gotta do that "look at the surroundings" thing, which I keep reminding myself is half the fun.

Cool.. Now I just gotta do all the copy and pasting and truncating down to 500 characters

I have set up a group for my town on Earth Comber which contains about 45 caches nearby my house, or ones that looked interesting. So far in the description, I've just placed a URL to the Geocaching site. Reading the site guidelines, I understood it to say I couldn't copy any information from the site, but wanted to check. Can I put the description of the cache on said Earthcomber group entries? Sometimes it's nice to home into a cache using Earthcomber, then whip out the normal GPS navigation tool on my Treo which contains the waypoint information imported from the GPX waypoint download. Thanks!