topografix

I ordered one a month ago and will post a review if it ever arrives. It's not supposed to ship now until January.

Oh come on, you know the real answer, post it! We both know the solution is simple, but since I've been told that I don't have the why of the solution right, I'd like to. That's not so hard. Sorry about that - I got called away and cut my post short without addressing the technical details. The two posters above explained it well. Everything (geocaching.com, .loc or .gpx file, EasyGPS, Garmin handheld GPS) uses WGS84 internally - and only does a datum conversion if the display is set to a different datum. I wish there was a good analogy for this, but I've never been able to think of one. Maybe this: if I hand you a pot of 212 degree water, and it registers 100 degrees on your thermometer, it's still cooks an egg just as fast. The only difference is how we've set up our thermometers to display.

You're thinking too hard. The OP complained that the number on his GPS didn't match the number on the Web site, and then revealed that his GPS was set to NAD27. Last we heard from him, he was going to switch to WGS84, which ought to fix the discrepancy between the numbers. Even with his GPS set to NAD27, the GPS still has the right location for the geocache loaded, and will guide him to the correct location.

Jeremy Irish and I wrote the .loc format - a .loc file that you open in EasyGPS and send to your GPS will never have an incorrect location. I'm guessing that the OP is comparing the WGS84 deg.deg coordinates found in .loc and .gpx files (which are just text files) with the WGS84 deg min.min coordinates displayed on geocaching.com They are just two different ways of expressing the same location. In EasyGPS, click Edit/Preferences/My Coordinate Formats and add or switch to WGS84 deg min.min. If you see a discrepancy on your GPS, make sure it is also displaying WGS84 deg min.min coordinates.

No need for guns. We just lure them in with our liberal views about health care and civil unions and then tax them to death. Just for the record, how many tyrannical governments has your state overthrown? Happy Thanksgiving!

I bought a daypack designed for skateboarders. It has two huge velcro straps that work fine for strapping on snowshoes. You might look at snowboarder packs as well. One issue I've found is that with 30 or 36 inch snowshoes on a day pack, they either bop you in the head or butt, or if you turn them horizontal they snag on trees if you bushwhack. I try to get a fuller pack so they stick out further in back, and get them up high on the pack. We've use MSR Denali snowshoes a lot - detachable tails, and they fit easily in a suitcase for flights to Denver.

The original poster and I have been discussing this issue in this thread on the GeoBuddy support forum, where it belongs.

This feature will be available in GeoBuddy in the next month. It already has the ability to color code the caches on the map based on found/not found/unavailable, and I'll be adding an options window that lets you colorize caches in other ways so you can quickly distinguish caches that meet your criteria.

If you have any questions, I'll answer them by email at support2006@expertgps.com

Dogs running off-leash are probably the biggest threat to wildlife in the area. Lots of animals will avoid an area if there is canine scent. You might want to set the No Dogs attribute for your cache.

Uh, I wake up every morning in the fall to the sound of waterfowl hunting, so I think you're wrong about the "no guns in MA" part. I think you'd find plenty of landowners here who would would welcome hunting on their land - we've got plenty [too many] of deer and geese, and a rapidly growing turkey population.

I think you'll have to use a Web site or software like GeoBuddy or Mapsource to create such a map.

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy Thanksgiving! If you're travelling today, stay safe (and dry!) If you're shopping tomorrow, stay REALLY safe! [Link removed by moderator] Nov 23 & 24 only.

Vector basemaps for your GPS receiver are specific and proprietary to the manufacturer, and cannot be used outside their software.

I think that's a way to encourage you to go prepared for anything, and not hike alone. Not that it matters much. We got to the top of whichever peak that is across the Knife Edge from Katahdin, and celebrated by listening to some college kid talking to his friends a half mile down the trail on one of those FRS radios. He found it easier to just keep it clipped to his belt, turn the volume all the way up, and push the Talk button and shout to reply. This may have also been the trip where my father celebrated reaching the summit of a trailless peak by stuffing his compass in his back pocket and sitting down for some much needed rest. (Always bring a second compass!)

As I recall, Baxter State Park in Maine does not allow any communications equipment in the backcountry, even for emergency use. If you go in, you're responsible for your own survival and rescue - no calling for help. I found less stringent regulations using google: 25. AUDIO DEVICES: Audio devices such as radios, televisions, cassette players, or cellular telephones may not be operated within the Park. 26. POWER EQUIPMENT: Chainsaws, generators, and other power equipment may not be operated within the Park.

Organize Favorites is just a placeholder for now. I'll be implementing a way to rearrange and sort your favorite locations, much like Internet Explorer. If you hold Shift while selecting an item from the Favorites list, it will be removed from the list. (This is a temporary behavior until I get the Favorites feature completely implemented) Function key F3 creates a new waypoint in EasyGPS, ExpertGPS, and GeoBuddy. I've added a twist to GeoBuddy that you may find useful. Lots of older caches list coordinates for parking, or other important waypoints, in the geocache description. If you select the coordinates in the Web browser in GeoBuddy, and click F3 to create a new waypoint, GeoBuddy will recognize the coordinates automatically. I'm going to be adding some screen layout options to GeoBuddy, so let me know what kind of split screen and full screen views you'd like to see. For now, if you drag the vertical divider all the way to the right or left, you can make the geocache list or the map fullscreen. Double-clicking on a geocache or selecting it and right-clicking View on Map or View in List will let you quickly switch between a full-screen list view and a full-screen map view.

I've just uploaded GeoBuddy 2.05 to http://www.geobuddy.com/ - it should fix the problem that prevented the geocache name and hint from getting sent to your GPS. Thanks for pointing out the error! GeoBuddy (as well as EasyGPS and ExpertGPS) use the concept of an Active Point - the point from which all distances and bearings are calculated. You can set this by right-clicking any object (waypoint, geocache, etc) and clicking Set Active Point. There's a new feature in GeoBuddy that I've added specifically to address the "distance from Home" question. You can add any waypoint or geocache to the Favorites menu in GeoBuddy. The next time you want to go back to that point on the map, just select it from the Favorites list. (kinda like you'd use the Favorites or Bookmarks menu in your Web browser) http://www.geobuddy.com

You are using GPX pocket queries, not .loc files, correct? I'll double-check GeoBuddy 2.04 with my Garmin GPSMAP 60CS right now...

You can do all of that with EasyGPS (100% free). EasyGPS saves your data in the universal GPX file format. You use EasyGPS to retrieve data from your eXplorist, save to a GPX file, and email it to your friend. Your friend uses EasyGPS to open the file and send the data to his Garmin 76CS.

What GPS model are you using? Are you running GeoBuddy 2.04? There was a problem with earlier versions that caused the Geocaching Settings options to revert to the GCxxxx waypoint names when you closed the program. http://www.geobuddy.com/latest.asp I've been getting a ton of feedback on GeoBuddy (thanks, everyone!) and new features and improvements are being added every week. If there are other things that you'd like to see in GeoBuddy, please let me know.

I'll second that! As a programmer, I'd like to see an API for some very simple tasks, like: lookup a member name and return the geocaching.com ID lookup a cache and determine if it is currently archived or disabled (in the time since the last pocket query was generated) - ie, allow your geocaching software to double-check all caches before you head out on a cache hunt. submit a log for a geocache after you've found it. As a premium member, I'd be willing to pay for this access. Give us 1000 credits a month, and charge us a credit or two for each API call associated with our username, or 20 credits to generate a pocket query, etc.

You spelled missile wrong.

Terraserver is broken as of last night.

Amazon's latest: Bushnell Onix 200 GPS Navigation System Updated Shipping Estimate: December 20, 2006 - January 3, 2007 Updated Delivery Estimate: December 27, 2006 - January 11, 2007