gelfling6

I might as well toss my 2-cents worth in... As others have said, the compass is very useful in orienting which way to go, when standing stationary.. a Non-Compassed GPS would not be able to distinguish north from south, until you had changed position for a few feet. (some, it required even more!) I've also found the electronic compass comes in handy, when you're on a trail, and right along side a rock face, or mountain side. there goes more than 1/2 of your GPS satellite signal, because it won't pass through.. your GPS will now start pointing well off, until you can get further away from the rock, and get a better signal. (this especially stinks, if your trail is only 3-feet wide, and the arrow, which was pointing straight forward suddenly decides to point to the opposite direction of the rock face, and says you need to go 530-feet that direction, when the original straight ahead was only 115..) Some GPSr's have fairly stable compasses, some, you practically need to re-calibrate it every time you turn the device on, or change the batteries. Most, it's simply a step of finding the 'calibrate...' menu, start it, and turn the device slowly, so the chip is capable of distinguishing magnetic north.. I've got 2 with compasses.. a Lowrance iFinder-Hunt, (fair.. stays calibrated pretty well.) and a Garmin Vista-HCx. (Some say it needs to be recalibrated every time you turn it on, but I've only had to recalibrate once since buying it, after replacing the batteries (which, I'm surprised, lasted 2 weeks of off/on use, before I needed to replace them.) Otherwise, I've been mostly leaving it off to conserve on battery life. These compass chips tend to have a nasty battery appetite. Stephen (gelfling6)

I can't give my opinion on the newer eTrex models (except they look mysteriously like the recent Magellan Explorist line..) I've owned several eTrex models for the past 6 years of caching.. (from the original yellow, to the most recent Vista HCx) .. I've been more impressed by their readability over others which rely too heavily on the back-lighting.. I've only had trouble with the Venture-HC, which began developing a weird random shut-down problem. I've always been impressed by their accuracy compared to other manufacturers. their multi-mode capability of being stand-alone, or easily linked to a computer (laptop) for feeding info to other programs (GSAK, Street Atlas-USA, Easy-GPS, etc.), compared to the constant need to set & reset modes on the magellan units. (with the exception of the Map-410, which ran pretty much like the Garmin GPS-72). My only gripe, with a recent Garmin product, is the need to do a total reset on a NuVi-40, to erase old tracks from the screen.. I left it on in the car on day, and it filled the whole screen with random tracks of the area I was.. The "Clear trip history" option, doesn't delete this anymore.. (which Garmin also says the only way, is to do a reset. (power-up holding the lower-right screen)

There was an older e-reader export, that exported them as a HTML file, along with various directories as if you were building a multi-layer webpage, that I've used on an old Compaq iPaq 3970, which pretty much converted the data from GSAK, to HTML pages.. Simply tag the country (in my case, United states), the State (Connecticut), then the GC#, which would then open to a page with the various cache ID#'s. I used to use the iPaq along side my eTrex GPS's for paperless by either typing the field notes on the on-screen keypad, or recording a voice note under Pocket-Word. (Which, I'm still unhappy, NOTHING is backward compatible to multi-content (Text & Recording) Pocket-Word .PWI files!) I often wondered if the Kindle was capable of being used as such.. the only e-Reader I own, is an original version Kobo (prior to Borders Bookseller going bankrupt, this was their e-Reader of choice. Alas, too little too late.) It's fairly rugged, but I still wouldn't put it in a backpack which could get crunched against a rock face or stone wall.. ( I always worried this could happen to the iPad owners out there.)

Scambled Eggs, From a cacher who started 5 years ago, and failed miserably the 1st time out (with a cache less than 2 miles up the road from me, mind you.. Okay, no-one told me it would be hard to find in the snow!) it takes a little time, and patience.. You're looking for something that looks out of the ordinary.. an nu-naturally pile of stones, a too neatly stack of sticks and branches. Or, why is there a plain steel outlet cover (click for example) on the side of a lamp post base? (Don't laugh.. I've run into 3 of these so-far. Amazing what rare-earth magnets will hold in place.) The GPS gets you within 20-feet (give or take 20 more.. Never rely on the 8-ft accuracy.) and from there, you use your eyes, and wits. Is it a ammo box? A lock-n-lock sandwich box? an old spice container? a BIG bison tube? a little bison tube? a nano? (those are the toughest to spot right off.) I've even seen people use empty SD memory card containers to contain the log book. (which would just be a simple strip of paper folded, inside.) One side note to remember, you're using a smart phone, and, their GPS antenna is pretty small in comparison to a hand-held dedicated GPS. (compare 1/4" square, where as most car GPS's are 1/2" square, and most hand-held are just under an inch squared. (Photo of an actual antenna) (note, the image of an example, has a mini-5pin USB, this one is roughly 2" square).. Accuracy is dependent on sensitivity of the receiver (the actual antenna & receiver radio, not just the computing & displaying), the weather (a cloudy day really DOES mess up the signal strength) and, back to the 1st, the handling of the signals received, computed, and displayed. WGS84, stands for World Geodetic System standard, from 1984 to 2004. (and extended to 2010), the benchmark standard for accuracy of measuring from longitude to latitude. Previous versions (WGS72, WGS66, WGS60 backward.) were off by a few degrees.. Most GPS receivers are default WGS84 accuracy, but have ability to use the older versions if coordinates were mapped to those older standard.(See Wikipedia page for info on the standard) Now, take those factors, and double them! remember the cache was hidden with possibly another type of GPS. you're now dealing with the accuracy of the hider's GPS, which could be off a few hundred feet, and yours which could be off only a 8-20 feet. (or vice versa.) Also, when looking for a cache, look for the difficulty rating.. difficulty goes from 1 (It's in plain site) to 5 (it's under something, and really well hidden.) in .5 gradients. Terrain, likewise. 1 (wheelchair accessible) to 5 (bring climbing gear!), again, in .5 gradients. Majority are 1.5 (walkable, but not entirely open space.) It's rare to have one a 1.0 difficulty.. (kinda takes the challenge out of searching, doesn't it?) the 5-terrain, are usually requiring additional equipment to access (climbing ropes, mountaineering gear, scuba gear.. Don't laugh.. there are a few underwater caches.) Here I am, 5 years later, (and quite a few GPSr's later) and I've only found 751.. (at time of writing this, I plan to find more today, I hope.) I've hidden 13, of which only 2 remain. (muggled, or personally archived because of hazards.) Also, at the bottom of the description, You'll see a ROT13 encoded hint.. Don't be afraid to decode it, it might actually give you some pointers on what to look for. It's not cheating! Some are pretty difficult to find, and even the seasoned cachers have a bad day. Hope this gives plenty of encouragement to stick to it! Stephen (gelfling6)

Dirty secret, but .LOC files are semi GPX format, so a simple run through EasyGPS, and re-saving them as .GPX should do the trick. If the 255w is like the old 205, and 1300, simply dropping them into the gpx folder won't do it that easily.. they need to be converted to Points Of Interest (POI) format, and so-far, only GPS-Babel & Garmin's POI loader are capable of that task, and they will show up in the the Extras once loaded those ways.

I have to concur with mpilchfamily, having tried a DeLorme BT-20 puck and a Compaq Ipaq 3970, it has it's drawbacks, to say nothing of battery life. (though, the BT-20 does have a fairly long battery life, the Ipaq was the killer. to say nothing of shutting down when idle, and needing to resync the connection between the GPS & the device.) Dedicated Handheld is the route to go.

As someone already pointed out, the selecting page, will only download in the .loc format, you'd have to download each individual gpx, and use something else to combine them. (EasyGPS, has a nice Merge function.) I've used a simple macro on GSAK to do this for new caches in my state, then once the .LOC file is loaded, update the cache info to create the GPX file. (Odd. Didn't it at one time, have .GPX format as a download selection? but would only work for premium members? or was that being abused?) One side note to Drrelli's reply, If you choose to download more than 500 in a query (up to 1000, and still up to 5 per day), They won't be attached and sent via email, rather, wait a few minutes, refresh your browser's page, and go to [Your Pocket Queries] along the top, you'll see files available to download. Anything above 500 items, need to be downloaded directly.

Before you connect the device, try the following.. wait for the GPS to power-up, then when the menu appears, go up to setup (top-right, above the map icon), center-click, scroll down to Connectivity, Center-click, it should show a mode, center-click again, scroll down to, then click on Connect To PC. this SHOULD put the device into a 'Flash-Drive' mode, when it is connected, and the device senses a computer connected to the USB port. Back out to the main menu again, and connect the USB cable.. the device should come up with a request to connect to PC, or if you scroll down, other items. Center-click on this, and wait.. the computer should then sense a new 'USB bulk storage device'. I don't rely on the "communicator" plug ins, because the browser security keeps changing. (and usually, needs a new plug-in.) Also, look for VantagePoint (yes, that link will take you to the download page) which will also give some additional functionality to the process. (It's Magellan's version of Garmin's Basecamp.) It's slow, bulky, but gives a GUI interface to managing the GPSr.

I see you found the answer. Though, I think you're limited to just how many by, I believe, 1000 absolute total. This means, if you have a GPX with 1000 cache locations, and 512 child waypoints, all you can fit is 1000, so somewhere once some of those caches with child waypoints occupy that 1000 spots, the rest will be ignored. (so, you could end-up with only 750 caches listed, but 250 child points.) Even the 'x' models are limited to 1000, tops. (HCx, etc.) which, I wish they could've integrated some of the external memory to the internal. I'd be able to put all 5000+ caches from Connecticut on the little 2gb card in my Legend HCx.

Honest truth, having owned several GPSr's (I'm serious, check my profile..) it's still a toss-up between Magellan & Garmin. Garmin does have it's pluses.. as others have pointed out, there are 3rd party distributors for additional maps, which is a big plus in my book. I've been able to intergrate a topo, city, and trail map together onto a eTrex Legend HCx. Garmin's ease of use (though, I've heard this varies from unit to unit).. I've been able to quickly enter new coordinates faster on the eTrex, than I have my Magellan Explorist-GC. Stability.. If you take a Magellan and a Garmin outside, and set them down, watch the compass screen. (mind you, this is not with a built-in electronic Compass). You'll notice the Magellan will jump all over the place! A little too sensitive on that case.. I've had it swing around just as I'm getting close, and suddenly I'm now headed the wrong direction. The eTrex, however, stayed true north (Magnetic, True, you know what I mean.) Again, unit dependent, I've had magellan units drain batteries faster than the Garmin. Mainly because the Magellan relies too heavily on the backlighting to view, whereas the Garmin had a better LCD design, which didn't require the backlight to view, unless it was dark at night. Magellan, however, does have its pluses. larger memory, larger viewing area (although I abhor the tiny font on the GC) Both are fair on accuracy (except Magellans constant changing compass). both have sirf-III, WAAS. I have to agree, Garmin made it easier to make custom maps, and many other brands do not have this. Some have their own map loading programs, but the maps aren't cross compatible to other brands, nor is it possible to grab a topo map for a device that doesn't have one, where as you can easily load a topo map from any source converted to Garmin. (I actually have two topo maps on my Garmin NuVi, besides the Citymap-US.) At least someone made a standard, Thank You TopoGraphix! Although not every GPSr understands it, there are freeware, shareware, and commercial utilities to convert it something that is.

I concur.. Never save the log to a file, as this tends to strip the timestamp data to conserve space.. Rather, use the active track (yes, it will stay in memory if you turn the device off.) which has the active track timestamps. You can also use EasyGPS to geotag photos. I've used it many times, and have been pleased with the results. One note, there is a advanced version, called ExpertGPS, But if all your doing is Geotagging photos, or simply quick transferring data to and from the GPS, EasyGPS should be all you'll need, unless you want maps included.

I've only had two encounters.. One, I was searching for a cache near a historic landmark here in Connecticut, and trying to figure the puzzle when a cruiser pulled into the commuter lot near me, came over and asked what I was doing.. I showed him the GPSr, and explained I was trying to find a geocache someone had hidden in the area, and the landmark was supposed to be part of the clue to finding it.. I had my laptop in the car (nearby), and showed him.. I also had a copy of the Geocaching pamphlet which I gave him. Satisfied with my explanation, he still took down my info (name, drivers license number), and headed off.. (I didn't find the cache til a week later, too much snow on the ground, and the cache was buried under it.) 2nd, I was searching in a cemetery, when a fellow cacher and his two sons appeared. we went about searching. Just as we were about to give up, we all heard a deep voice ask, "What're you doing here?" Looked up, to see a DOT conservation officer, standing and his hand at the ready on his revolver.. I simply kept looking, and said Looking for a Geocache. When one of the kids found it, he left, satisfied. (apparently we were also pretty close to a stream that feeds a local reservoir. No-one mentioned that the terror threat was at high, that day.) As I mentioned in a reply on night caching, keep your wits, stay calm, and keep a sense of humor. As has been shown, chances are, the officer is a fellow cacher, and hasn't found it yet, either. Stephen (gelfling6)

The 11-11-11 event we did in Burlington, CT., was an a-out night cache hunt, including one that wasn't intended as a night cache. You can still attempt regular caches at night, they're just a little more difficult to spot right off the bat. Some, are super easy! Most night caches have a way of marking the trail or cache so it'll stick out brightly in the night. mostly using firetacks as trail markers. Others, have covered the cache in Refexite tape so it'll show if you have a flashlight. Unless you're a real daredevil, A flashlight is a must! either hand-held, or one that's on a headband, or clips to a baseball cap or visor. Your GPS should have some form of back lighting, so it'll help show where you are in respect to the location of the cache. Spare batteries for Both the flashlight and the GPS! Don't laugh.. The last thing you need, is losing track of where you are, and your sight to get there. It's very easy to get disoriented, and lose which way back to the car. (as the group I was with on the 11th, found.. we were headed away from the car, till I recognized a sign to the park we met at.) I've been on a few group hunts, and one personal hunt.. Weapons of choice are a Everyready single white LED clip for the hat, and a generic 19-LED handheld as a backup. I also recommend a pair of safety glasses, as when branches come from out of nowhere, they tend to hurt! Plain clear pair from a variety store go for about $3.00 US. mainly keep your wits, and your sense of humor.. Just your luck, someone hid a cache, and the container was intended to scare. (saw One where it was a skeleton, holding the ammo box.. I imagine many saw it, and RAN!!) Stephen (gelfling6)

If this is the same clear-blue Legend, no, it cannot use GPX files directly.. Main reason, it is limited to Garmin's proprietary data, which would require converting data from the GPX file, to waypoint data the device would understand. (a simple utility like EasyGPS, for example.) but the data would just be the location, and a minimize name. Even detail info is limited. (I used to use GSAK to export the data as code for the waypoint name, the detail info was just the 1st few chars of the hint.) the Legend HCx, however was capable of storing track data in gpx format to the SD card, but that's as far as it went on GPX understanding. I'm not saying the legend is a bad GPS, Far from it! It was the 1st GPS I had, that had WAAS capability, and it helped is narrowing-down on cache locations. Garmin hadn't released the 'H" chipset yet, so it still wasn't perfect, but I think I found my 1st 100 caches with mine. Also, you're limited to a Serial I/O. the 4-pin flat connector, is power (+3V) & TTL RS-232 (older style serial I/O). if you're using a newer computer, you'll have to find either a RS-232-C to USB adapter, or I believe there is now a direct-line USB to Flat (has the RS-232C level converter built in.).. and it's super slow compared to USB! I read the manual again.. It had space for up to 1000 waypoints, but JUST that 1000! No child (parking, trailhead) additional waypoints., uness the combined data (caches & waypoints) equaled to 1000, max. Garmin retired the model years ago.. though, Old Blue (my Legend) still finds caches just fine!

We've got a 11/11/11 at 11:pm night cache hunt planned here in Connecticut.. GC352WX 11-11 at night Though, Alfred may've put a little extra difficulty on the ratings. Surprisingly, I was able to find quite a few caches further south, despite the rash of downed trees, limbs and branches. The CT Cachers (See Discussion) are raring to go!! Let's get out there and find it! Stephen (gefling6)

quick & dirty method.. Fire-up the GC, wait for the main menu to show. plug the cable from the GC's USB socket, into the device and a USB port on the computer the GC will ask Connect to PC, click the joy button inward to confirm. a display will show, then show a solid line between the computer & device. on your computer, it should show loading a new device, USB Mass storage. (if you haven't already connected it before..) You now have a new flash drive, called Compass. go to the My Computer folder, and you should now see the new drive called Compass Open it. In the list of folders inside, you should see Geocaches open that folder Now, back on the desktop of the computer, go to your personal foder, and open the Downloads folder, where the pocket query should be located. open the pocket query file, you should see two.. One with the number, another with the number, and Wpts. (waypoints file) extract them, then copy the number-only file (#########.gpx) to the Geocaches folder of the GC, then copy the #####_wpts.gpx file to Waypoints folder of the GC.. (back on the GC's main folder, same as the geocaches folder was.) Word of the wise, Even though the GC can handle up to 5000 cache listings, I recommend no more than 3000 as the higher number tends to bog down the GC during start-up (checking the integrity of the .gpx files, and building a database file from it.) Brutal, but effective transfer of the pocket query to the GC.

The icons are the standard set, which I'm guessing the Oregon & Astro do not use a standard set. I also use EasyGPS for quick downloads from the many GPSrs I own. Before I got GSAK, I used to use it exclusively to convert the many .loc files to a single .gpx, for importing into a mapping program, or loading them into the GPS for hunts. Limited as it is (which, the main limit is no map) it's still a powerful piece of software!

If you see the new version of the eTrex line, then look at Magellan's recent Explorist line, You wouldn't think that. the case design is almost identical (except the eTrex isn't concave faced) and I swear their new version of mounting bracket is similar to magellan's.

Don't feed it anything bigger than a 2GB Micro-SD, the device is not 'SD-HC' capable. You can feed the card maps though Mapsource, (I presently have the stock Topo-2008, IBYCUS-USA 2.1 for the north-east, and several trail maps, all saved to a .IMG file).. otherwise, the GPSr will save track data on a daily basis. (yyyymmdd.gpx) otherwise, nothing else used for the memory card.. If you have the GPS connected to your computer, go to set-up, interface, and click the joy-button once more, and it turns the GPSr into a reader for the SD card. (which will give you access to the .img file, and the stored .gpx record files.)

Most of us, who've contacted Garmin in the past year, have been told to send the unit for refurbish, which surprises me seeing they sent you a replacement. A few years back, I had the same happen when I had the band on a classic Legend (clear blue) actually split, once the glue let go. When I sent the email, I was asked for a shipping address, and UPS showed-up with a box big enough to contain a GPS-60s, with two air-pillows, the new band and a cad-cam cut (like they do for custom auto decals) tape strip. (which I had the hardest time getting the outside covering off,) Stephen (gelfling6)

From time to time, I head out with an occasional group jaunt, but majority of the time, I've been solo caching. As someone said, step back to the forum main menu, and look for a region close to you. Worse case, use a search engine (yahoo, google, etc.) to see if there are geocaching groups in your state. The group I go on the jaunts with, I actually learned about, from a business card one of the members left in a cache, with the website address. Using just the location from your profile, Sheila, and feeding just "Padgate Warrington geocaching" to Yahoo.com, I located this: http://www.warringtoncachers.co.uk/ It's worth a start! Enjoy!

From what I've heard in the forum here, owners of the eTrex line, are no-longer given the parts to repair the loose weather seal (the back rubber around the outside) and the double-sided tape (which apparently they need to cut with a CAD/CAM cutter machine.) Rather, the owners of these devices are instructed to return the device for service, and apparently given as you above, a replacement/refurbished. A few years back, I was actually shipped the replacement part for a Legend that the rubber piece had actually split (from "O" (closed) to "C" (open) fashion.).. The drawback is, the double-sided tape is both heat & moisture sensitive, which causes the separation from the device in the 1st place, (and usually starts right at the point where the data connector flap is pulled from the device, to access the data connector.) Yet, I also have a Garmin Quest, and for some reason, this separation of the weather seal never happens. (and I've left the quest on the dash, in the middle of summer!) It can't be because the case is metal, compared to the eTrex line, which is plastic... Very odd. And, it costs more to ship the device back, than them simply shipping the rubber & tape. (though, I imagine the CAD/CAM cutting of the tape, which is similar to how decals are cut for custom lettering/etc for cars, is pretty expensive.) The Legend, is still pretty well, but it's slowly separating from the end near the lanyard. It doesn't make sense needing to replace the whole device, for a simple replacement seal.

Along the top,above the map, there is a set of buttons, one shows a flat square, to it's right is a cube (sightly turned clockwise), and to its right, the two separated by a slash. If the map data has a altitude layer (such as most topo maps), the button with the two & the slash, should show both a 2D and a 3D map side by side. [ ][ ], with a data window to the left of the left-hand map. the cube, shows just the 3D map pane, and the flat square, shows the 90-degree straight from above view. (which, I'm guessing is the button that's tagged (darker than the others) You can then use the slider along the top of the left-corner navigation 'compass rose', to change the perspective from 90 to 45 degrees (90 being straight down, 45 being from fly-over view). If the map does not have an altitude layer, the 3D cube or the split screen buttons shouldn't work.

Honest truth, If Map Source is working, that's all you need. the only advantage BaseCamp gives, if the map data has an altitude data layer, is the 3D view (90 to 45 degree fly-over) Otherwise, Map Source is good enough for the 90-degree view (direct overhead) I too have a 1300, which does just fine with the topo data, I've actually got 5 different map datas filtered through MapSource, on the SD card in mine, I've also fed the same data to an eTrex Venture HCx, which doesn't show a 3D view, but handles the data quite well, showing Topo, rout-able streets, and 3 different trail maps from off GPS File Depot. (sure wish I could've gotten the North America' map update for the 1300, to also be loadable under Map Source. That was a quirk from when I updated the maps on an old 205 that got stolen.)

If you have the two maps side-by-side, slide the top slider on the right-hand map all the way to the right, You should now see a fly-over view of the map (3D mode). Under the [View] pull-down, make sure Basic Map is not checked, and you have a map that has altitude layer data (same pull-down, top of the list, Map Product, make sure Topo 8.0 is selected.) Also, in the tool bar, about the 3/4 point from left to right,past the Binoculars (Look), You'll see a flat square, a 3D cube, and a button with both separated by a slash. the flat square shows the 2D map only, the cube, 3D map only, the pair shows both side by side. click on either the 3D cube or the pair button, to see the 3D view on the right side. As I was typing this, and running BaseCamp in the background, it just updated to Version 3.2.2. all buttons are in the same place, and the 3D view only works with the Topo U.S. 2008 map product data.