EScout

I have a Garmin II that I bought in 1997. It is in perfect condition and works but I consider it outdated and ineffective because: It is an 8-channel sequential receiver. It takes a long time to acquire, is not very sensitive to sat signals, reacts slowly to direction changes, somewhat difficult to read screen. Newer GPSrs like my Legend are much superior in most aspects. When your GPSr stops being considered as a useable backup, then the life expectency is over.

After posting, I reread your post, and it appears that you are in Canada and talking about Canadian markers. I am sorry, I do not know about these and I thought they were listed to the second only (and no decimals).

I have a legend also, and I am impressed with the accuracy. However, I have two small suggestions. When you convert from seconds to decimals of a minute, I believe you should round to the hundredth (two places) only, which makes benchmarks measured in seconds not as useful. Also, for benchmarks, you should use the NGS "adjusted" benchmarks which are listed to the one hundred thousandth of a second, which is centimeter accuracy. (They use very highly accurate GPSr units). Please see my topics in the General and Benchmark forums regarding how to find and use these benchmarks. Our Legends allow one thousandth of a minute, which means rounding the coords of one of these benchmarks. Go to one of these benchmarks, use some trig to calculate where to place your GPSr in relationship to the benchmark and see your accuracy. For your calculations, go to Markwell's FAQ site to see the distance of one thousandth of a minute in longitude at your latitude.

If you want to use a benchmark, be sure it is an "adjusted" benchmark. These are accurate to the centimeter, and listed in one hundred thousandth of a second in lat and lon. See my posting:in the General section. http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=3000917383&m=2840994655 In this posting, you will find a link to the NGS site where you can get a list of these in your area. In a test of my Garmin Legend, I found the accuracy stunning, especially after adjusting for the rounding error when you enter the coords in your GPSr. Your GPSr only takes one thousandths of a minute. (This error should be less than four feet from the benchmark.)

With our nice state taxes, I am paying over $2, up to 2.25 recently for super. Hit a record of $40 to fill one car recently. I have been in a bad mood all day because I looked at our credit card bill this morning..... $367 for 12 fill-ups on this bill.

I like true north because maps and roads are generally set to true, and using my GPSr on true keeps everything consistent. My compass has a declination adjustment, so I read true on it also. Your GPSr will compensate for the area you are in if you set it to magnetic. In some areas like mine, at 13.5° E of true, it is significant.

329 divided by 5280= 0.062311 miles. Project the .06 miles. Then, the difference, 0.002311 times 5280= 12.2 feet. Go to the projected waypoint, then 12.2 feet further on the same bearing.

Thanks to solohiker for his thread on Calibrating in Benchmarks I learned some new fun stuff about super accurate benchmarks (to the centimeter) . A repeat of my post: Thanks for the info on these adjusted benchmarks. Found one today and tested my Garmin Legend for Lat and Lon. Over the mark, the Garmin said it should be 10' SE and satellite page showed 15' "accuracy". With WAAS on, the Garmin said it should be 6' E with 8' "accuracy". (over 10 minutes for reading) This mark, DY2499, is in a good open site, 165' elevation, near a steep cliff dropping to the ocean, with a good view of the sky and horizon. Rig: Garmin Legend, firmware 2.50 Time: 11:30 AM Local, 16Mar03 WX: very clear and sunny after a storm blew through. Sats: 8 received plus WAAS 47 Mark as listed: 33 44 29.32374N 118 24 05.66689W Converted to Min: 33 44.488729N 118 24.094448W Waypoint in Garmin: 33 44.489N 118 24.094W The NGS lists the adjusted location of this mark to the one hundred thousandth of a second. The Garmin only allows one thousandth of a minute. A quick calculation shows the the rounded coords in the Garmin should have the waypoint about 2.8' NE of the benchmark instead of showing it to be 6'E. Yikes, even closer. I am surprised and pleased. Go to this site for a list of Adjusted Benchmarks near you. http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheet.html At this site, NGS Data sheets: Retrieve Data Sheets>county(new)>state>get county>GPS sites only + your county. Have fun.

Thanks for the info on these adjusted benchmarks. Found one today and tested my Garmin Legend for Lat and Lon. Over the mark, the Garmin said it should be 10' SE and satellite page showed 15' "accuracy". With WAAS on, the Garmin said it should be 6' E with 8' "accuracy". (over 10 minutes for reading) This mark, DY2499, is in a good open site, 165' elevation, near a steep cliff dropping to the ocean, with a good view of the sky and horizon. Rig: Garmin Legend, firmware 2.50 Time: 11:30 AM Local, 16Mar03 WX: very clear and sunny after a storm blew through. Sats: 8 received plus WAAS 47 Mark as listed: 33 44 29.32374N 118 24 05.66689W Converted to Min: 33 44.488729N 118 24.094448W Waypoint in Garmin: 33 44.489N 118 24.094W The NGS lists the adjusted location of this mark to the one hundred thousandth of a second. The Garmin only allows one thousandth of a minute. A quick calculation shows the the rounded coords in the Garmin should have the waypoint about 2.8' NE of the benchmark instead of showing it to be 6'E. Yikes, even closer. I am surprised and pleased.

Try saving the file in EasyGPS in the .gpx format. Then convert to .csv (format: S&T 2002/2003) using GPSBabel. This should work. For some reason, if you open and save a .loc in EasyGPS it doesn't convert.

GPSBuddy has the advantage of letting you merge files, but makes you take the extra step of naming the fields in the .csv import in S&T. GPSBabel automatically names the field correctly and converts to many more formats.

I just figured out how to do this. From geocaching.com, save your checked caches in EasyGPS in a file with .loc suffix. Convert this file in GPSBabel to a .csv file in the format: MS Streets and Trips 2002/2003 (Babel gives you this choice; use gpsbabelfront.exe). In S&T, open in the Data menu. If you create waypoints in EasyGPS manually, or upload from your GPSr or consolidate waypoints, save the file in EasyGPS in the .gpx format. Then convert in GPSBabel. S&T 2003 for $14.84 at Sam's Club after rebate. TOPO! Southern California CD set at REI for $20. In TOPO! GPSBagel lets you convert the same way. Convert to a .tpg file in the National Geographic TOPO format. In TOPO!, open or merge the .tpg file. They are on the map and listed (with cache name) in the GPS waypoint list.

Just went to the HUGE fishing/boating show in Long Beach. Garmin and Lowrance had nice displays and you could hands-on all of their units. No other companies had displays. Had a long talk with the Garmin guy who was very informative and answered all my questions. He indicated: Rino: They are working on a high-end Rino with more memory, features, possibly compass, barometer. Not enough demand to make Rinos in amateur radio frequencies. Geko: A high-end unit in the works. (First time seeing these--extremely light, small GPSrs--OK only if size is your major concern.) eTrex: Plan to continue these as they are. Rebates: $50 continuing this year. A large percentage of people retrun the rebates. They have one person whose job is rebates. (They are quick based on my recently receiving one) Software: Big part of Garmin's revenues and plan more software products. Lowrance booth: Their products look pretty good and seem to have all the features that others brands have. They have 4 models in the iFinder series. Not sure about their prices, but any of these would be very usable. You can also buy their proprietary map CDs.

A local cache with a birdhouse used a black 35mm film canaster glued to the opening inside. It had a real hole with depth, but was blocked to birds or more likely hornets.

Some people like to have an opinion contrary to the majority in order to get reactions.

There appears to be two different rebates going. I found the $50 one by linking from the software listings at compuplus.com. It is $50 only. It says: "Buy one of these: Sportrak Pro, Sportrak Map or any Meridian GPS receiver plus one MapSend software product between January 2, 2003 and December 31, 2003."

I have had a Garmin II since 1997 and got a Legend in December and really like it. Two friends are asking advice on which GPSr to buy for travel and caching. I was recommending Garmin, but after researching, the following seems like you get a lot for your money. Please post comments, recommended changes, etc. Also, do all of the Meridians have the same screens and processors? $100 Meridian yellow at Fry's 24 Mapsend Streets at Comp-u-plus 20 32MB SD Card at above and others 13 card interface 15 shipping 8 tax $180 - 50 rebate from Magellan when you buy GPSr and software. $130 total

Bought Legend for $198 at Target and mailed in rebate before end of year. Received 15Feb03. Was concerned because Target did not advertise rebate. Rebate was quicker than most computer items and such. Garmin came through.

hello

again

testing, one two three...

Get a 12V Gell Cell battery. These are the type used in UPS and alarm system backups. Hook up a cigarette socket and plug in your car adapter. Avantages: 1. Easily charged in your car by directly hooking up to your cigarette socket. 2. Also easily charged at home with a typical 12V DC wall-wart. 3. The battery will power other devices such as cell phones, lanterns, radios, TVs. 4. The battery will recharge cell phone and other batteries that have a car adapter charge cord. Look for the smaller 1.2, 2 or 4 AHr sizes.

Being new to the sport I just found out what these are, by going through the list of 321 locationless this weekend. My observations: 1. Living in a large urban area, I can do dozens of these quickly and easily. 2. Living here my whole life, I can find these without a GPS. 3. Once found, there is no incentive for someone else to go there. (Also deprives new cachers a find) 4. I saw 10 listed that can be "found" within 1 to 4 miles of my house. 5 more have already been "found". And I only looked at a few dozen listings. 5. It didn't seem right to add these to my "regular" count of finds. 6. As I pondered locationless (before this thread), I came to the opinion that this should be a seperate category. My question: When/if new category is formed, will old finds be moved over in ones personal find list?

If you are blowing the fuse in the car and not the connector, it is probably a problem in the connnector or the shape of the connector itself.(By connector, I mean the piece that goes in the Cigarette lighter socket.) The fuse in the connector is proably only 2 to 5 amp and the fuse you are blowing is 15 to 20 amp, so if it were a short in the cord, the little fuse would go first. It might be the shape of the connector. I have a connector that goes to a cell phone speaker-phone that blows the fuse in my olds. The socket is constructed inside so as to let this happen easier than most.

What rig (GPSr) are you using it on? Have you tested that there is positive voltage bias on your antenna port. Is this the voltage ( and current) that your antenna requires? Some antennas have more or less gain, but you should see a big difference, especially with it on the roof. Perhaps the amplifier in the antenna is bad. Try another antenna and compare.