Mosaic55

Another vote for that app and PQs. Both make things oh so EASY!! +1 One thing I really like is being able to take snapshots of the maps while on Wi-Fi and save them for later viewing. To do this, set a target and then click the GPS icon at the bottom left. When you have a map image you want to keep, just click the camera in the upper left.

Recognizing fellow geocachers seems to be pretty easy. Except for when they turn out to be mushroom hunters or letter-boxers.

Archived.

I really like the Oxford Stone notebooks, but they are lined on both sides. And rather dark lines at that.

No, but I do worry that people might notice the baggie full of cheap kids toys (swag) I carry in my backpack. Kinda hard to explain that with no other evidence of children with me. For possible clean-up/repair, I carry paper towels, baggies, log sheet of different sizes, pens and pencils.

I think I found that thread http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=268454 $1.50 a sheet, ouch!

I'm unclear how this paper is helpful if the ink tends to wash off of it when wet. I don't want the paper - i want what I wrote. What I'm trying to say is that I tried multiple pens, Uniball power tank, Sharpie, no name gel pens, G2, Pilot V7. The ones that are waterproof on regular paper were waterproof on this stuff too. The ones that are not waterproof (wash out of regular paper) washed off of the stone paper too. For instance, the Parker gel ink washed right off, while the Sharpie and Uni Power Tank ink stayed clear and easily legible.

I picked up one of these notebooks at Walgreens today. The "paper" is made of limestone and polypropylene. http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/oxford-earth-care-stone-paper-note-book/ID=prod6000650-product I'm not at all convinced of their environmental claims, but what they don't mention in the ad, is how fantastically waterproof this stuff is. Soaking a sheet in water for half an hour had essentially no effect on the "paper". Some ink washed off, but that's what you get with normal paper too when it gets soaked. And the dried off quickly afterwards. The texture of the sheet is very smooth, it's difficult to tear, it stretches a little almost like rubber when you try to tear it. I tried writing on it with about a dozen different pens, most wrote fine, one gel pen put down too much ink and it smeared a lot. At $3 for a 60 sheet 5 x 8 inch notebook, I'm thinking this stuff would be a cheap alternative to Rite in the Rain for log sheets or field notebooks.

To use the 295W to Geotag locations, get a gps fix so the gps knows where it is, go into the camera mode, click the thumbtack at the lower right and accept the terms, then take a few pictures. In the camera screen click the icon on the right which gets you to the thumbnails of the pictures you've taken, then choose one, and click the Thumbtack in the upper left and it'll show you where the picture was taken. The Track Log is viewed and enabled/disabled through Settings/Navigation/Menu/Choose Automobile or Pedestrian mode, scroll down and you'll see "Trip Log/Hide/Show" (on map). You can also clear it from one of these screens. When you plug the gps into your Mac (or PC for that matter), after you plug it in go to the gps and allow it to go into "Mass Storage Mode", then give it a minute to connect properly, then you can use Finder to get pictures and tracks off the unit. The Geotag information is stored in the EXIF info of each picture. The tracklog file name is "current.gpx" in case you want to copy it to your computer to use with some other program. I was able to import the log into delorme Street Atlas and check out my path for the day on a street map. I too purchased one during the sale. Thanks to this thread, I got it updated with current firmware and figured out most of it's functions in short order. Unfortunately, it's so cold and gloomy here I haven't really tested it for caching or photography yet.

A great name is one that's a subtle hint, a hint that you don't 100% understand until you see where the cache is hidden and then suddenly you get this big AH-HA feeling when you see the spot.

Without the USB cable you'd have to enter each set of coordinates by hand. That works, but gets very tedious after a while. I see some Explorist 210 cables on Ebay for $10 to $12 right now. I'd say it's well worth purchasing the cable. To transfer caches to my Exporist 210, I used GPS Babel to convert to Magellan Explorist format and then did a drag & drop of the file to the 210 while it was hooked up. It shows up as an external drive when you hook it up to the computer with the USB cable. Each file is limited to 200 caches, but you can have as many files on the unit as you have space for. Switching which cache file is loaded is pretty easy. I'm afraid I don't remember too much about loading maps, I did it once years ago. All I remember is that you need the MapSend CD.

How difficult is it to transfer a track file from the unit to a PC? The mixed reviews on Amazon make me think this is a cool gadget IF you get one that actually works correctly.

I received the PN-40 already today. It came with Topo version 9, which I haven't yet installed. I downloaded and installed Cache Register and upgraded the firmware to 2.8. I loaded maps from the pre-cut discs. All of northern Illinois, northern Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan took up just about 1 meg. I got my pocket queries loaded to the unit, the process is super easy. It's also very easy to switch between multiple .gpx files. I'm going to wait before getting a map subscription, so for now, the standard 2gig SD card will do just fine. Overall, I think it's pretty easy to use, I can't wait to try it out caching. ( But gosh, that orange color is hideously bright )

Thanks for the replies, I did order one earlier. Looks like I was just in time as they've increased the price already. How large an SD card do I need to hold all the Topo maps for northern Illinois?

I found one LPS cache last year that I actually enjoyed because the container was a visual pun on the title of the cache. Also I think it was there with actual permission (based on the write-up). Other than that exception, I sure wouldn't miss LPSes if they just went away.

Thanks. There is software that will geotag photos after the fact, if you provide it with a gpx format track log. My explorist 210 can produce a track log, but I never figured out how to translate that log to a gpx format that actually worked with the tagging program. So I guess my question is whether the PN-40 can save a track log in GPX format or if it uses some proprietary format.

Many times I've found parking a lot closer then the posted coords just by taking the time to Google the caches. I can remember one cache that I mentioned in the log that I had found closer parking, and received an email from the CO asking not to tell anyone where it was. Of course these were not urban caches, but even with urban caches you should be able to find parking spaces using Google earth. Take the time to look. Sheesh a 4 year old thread I did just that on one of my caches, I provided parking coordinates .5 mile away in a public lot instead of .1 mile away on a street in front of houses purposely. I was hoping people would enjoy the walk through the park. That's also why I made it an unknown cache type instead of a traditional. Driving around to find legal parking is not part of the fun for me. But with online aerial photos so easily available these days, I'm not concerned if I need to do a bit of armchair research to know where I'm going before heading out. Also, not ever cache needs to be a macho-man challenge. There should be room for some easy caches designed to give a family with kids an enjoyable outing.

The PN-40 is on sale for $174.22 at Amazon today. What do you think? Is there any better Geocaching GPS available for the same or less right now? This is already stretching my budget, so please don't propose anything more expensive. I have a car GPS that's old but still adequate for driving, so all I want is the hiking/geocache functions. This seems like a good price compared to what they were last year, but I really haven't been paying attention to prices lately. I like the idea of the electronic compass and hopefully better response under tree cover than my Magellan 210 or cell phone BT puck. How many caches can the pn-40 hold data for? (for some reason I'm having trouble finding this spec) One more question, can the pn-40 be used for geotagging photographs? how hard is it to do?

I agree. I've replaced a log (and baggie) in a cache that was otherwise in good shape. I didn't bother on one or two others where the container was in such bad shape a new log would just get soaked right away. And, if there was room for both old and new logs, I'd add a log and not remove the old.

Advanced search method gets me Total Records: 1378

Thanks! Your pocket query has been modified and currently results in 1000 caches. I max out a PQ at 9 miles now. Zoom out on this and you'll see why http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx...mp;lng=-87.8647

Do you know anyone who's diabetic? Ask them for their empty glucose test strip containers. About the size of a film can and waterproof. Or make some bottle cap micros http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=248516&hl=

If you are talking about the chicken fried bacon, I am with you, 100%.

I still don't get it. Somebody email me a clue please?

I got some camo tape from an amazon market place seller, but I wish I hadn't bothered. Paint turns out looking so much better, with no shine at all. I use a coat of Rustoleum paint for plastic first and then some Rustoleum camoflage colors, olive drab and/or brown.