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I just downloaded a trio of PQs, but GSAK would not load them, saying they were in the wrong format, even though they were GPX files. When I opened them, the XML headers were fine, but after the headers, the guts of the XML files were not in the standard format (of PQs I received on Friday). What gives? Anyone else experiencing this?

Bump...

Tip for everyone: Remove the InvisibleShield before sending the unit to Magellan. When I sent my 400 in to Magellan, I didn't know if I was going to get a new unit or just get the same old one back with the screen problem fixed. I contacted InvisibleShield explaining my situation and they agreed to send me a replacement under warranty. To use their warranty, you pay something like $3 and have to send back the used/damaged shield. I wrote a note to Magellan's repair folks noting the presence of the Invisible Shield. I also said I'd be billing them if I didn't get it back. I specifically asked if the unit would be replaced entirely or repaired. Was told it would be repaired. When I later checked the status, I was told it was repaired, not replaced. Got back a new unit sans Shield. While that's nice that they replaced the unit entirely, they disregarded my note and didn't tell me the truth. I already ordered another Shield before I read this. :-( My 210 says that the firmware is 3.1.75 (dated August 30, 2005) with a NA background map of 1.12. I understand new firmware is out for Europe, but not NA. Still, I was able to clear the cache names while retaining the cache icons on my last unit and I believe it had this same firmware version. It's driving me crazy that I can't remember the sequence for doing so! :-(

Sad to say, but my fix above did not work in the long run. I turned my unit on today and all the names were back, nor could I turn them off again. I guess I'm back to square one. :-(

I figured it out, though it makes little intuitive sense. From the map, place the cursor over a cache so that the name shows in the info line at the bottom of the screen. Select the menu button. Regardless of the state of your map info setting, toggle it on then off. Go back to the map and the cache icons will be there without the names. This only worked for me if the cursor was directly over a cache when I made the state change. Hope that helps someone.

EScout, First of all, thanks for the help. Unfortunately it doesn't work for me. I don't get that option. Map+Menu button>Map Setup>Display gives me the following options: Mark All Clear All then checkboxes for Pts of Interest Track Lines Pos-Dest Lines Depart-Dest Lines Geocache Pts and no more. If I uncheck "Geocache Pts," it removes all the geocache icons, too. Then I see no caches at all. Gotta be something else OR there's a combination of settings that puts the "Geocache Names" in there like you note. But I scroll that list and have no other options than what I wrote above.

Folks, Had to send my eXplorist 210 in for warranty repairs. Rather than fix the button problem, they sent me a new unit (minus the Invisible Shield I had on the broken one--arrgh!) Before the problem, though, I'd set the unit so that it did not show the jumble of geocache names that clogged the screen. It just showed the cache icons. Now I can't figure out how I disabled the display of those names. Nor can I find that info online or in the manual. For some reason, I've read a couple posts saying this can't be done, but I most certainly did it on my original unit. Whenever I slid the cursor over the icon, it would display the name at the bottom of the screen, but not above the icon itself. What's the trick to this again? Thanks in advance.

Excellent! Thank you everyone. I was actually able to cut the queries down to three (and lose a few caches out on the very fringes of town that I would never get to anyway). My question should be a FAQ, I think. I didn't see one about this in the FAQ list. (And Jurgen, thanks for the GSAK macro. It helped much!)

By "date," do you mean the date the cache was placed?

I live in the Greater Cincinnati area. We have a particularly vibrant geocaching community, and as a result there are probably 1700+ caches within a sixty mile radius of downtown Cincinnati. I use GSAK to keep track of all the caches in the rough oval running E/W around Cincinnati, but I'm getting frustrated having to run nine queries to cover the area. At issue here are concentrations of caches and the 500 cache limit imposed on queries. You would think that four or five thirty mile radius circles would cover the area, but that simply doesn't work. Some query circles have far more than 500 caches in them, while others do not. Trying to find the right spot to center a circle is maddening, and I really don't want to have to run nine queries to blanket the area. Circles aren't a particularly effective search, either, since covering an area with circles necessitates a lot of overlap, compounding the 500 cache limit problem. As a result, I have nine circles of varying sizes, many of which are forced to overlap. GSAK allows one to search directionally, but the Geocaching.com queries don't. It would be nice to draw a rectangle around the area I wish to search, then search into the rectangle from the corners, using directionality. This would reduce the number of queries, the amount of overlap, and stray caches outside the search area. Increasing the 500 cache limit seems logical, too, since I suspect I could reduce the number of queries I run down to five or less, which has got to be better for the Geocaching.com query server than the nine I'm running right now. Does anyone have any good techniques for building queries that blanket an area while reducing overlap, also accounting for large pockets of cache concentration? Managing nine query results is wasting my time.

I can't physcially retrieve it since I'm no longer in that area. I can't retrieve it "virtually" since I did not write down the tag serial number. I notified the bug owner of the mistake and gave the right cache info. It's my logging that was a problem. I dropped the TB in the exact cache I wanted to, but I misread my notes and logged it on the Geocaching.com site in the wrong cache.

I can't physcially retrieve it since I'm no longer in that area. I can't retrieve it "virtually" since I did not write down the tag serial number. I notified the bug owner of the mistake and gave the right cache info. It's my logging that was a problem. I dropped the TB in the exact cache I wanted to, but I misread my notes and logged it on the Geocaching.com site in the wrong cache.

Despite copious notes and Cachemate on my Palm, human error prevailed: I logged a travel bug into the wrong cache. I can't see any way to rectify this problem. I left an e-mail for the TB owner noting the waypoint listing for the wrong cache and the cache it should have gone into. I deleted my log for the drop in the TB's log page, but I suspect that only made problems worse. Is this the best I can do? Or is there a better way?

Well, something's improved because my three scheduled queries have all run in the last two days. Right on time, too. Thanks for fixing whatever was not working!

If running the PQs is the real issue, then why does copying an old query then running it immediately work? And yes, none of mine scheduled for Sunday or today have run. But when I copied one of those and ran it, I got an immediate response. If the system is too clogged to work, then why does the copying work?

get rid of the "free service" that allows non-paying members to download loc files. It's got to be a big hit on the infrastructure (I used to regularly download about 30 pages of queries before "signing-up"). Let non- members key their coords or pay-up for file downloads! get rid of the "fixed" membership price - Infrastructure costs must rise with the user base and as the demand for better service rises... trying to keep infrastructure cost down by asking your users to "go easy" on the system just doesn't make sense!! As a new user, I don't think I would have even done anything with this site unless it had been free to some extent. After using the service free, I elected to upgrade to a premium membership. It's important to keep this free as a lure for new users. If they get hooked, then they'll bite for the premium membership. I've also got to believe that as this sport takes off, the sheer volume of new users will more than offsite any additional infrastructure costs. The store will also take in more money with the added volume. The system ain't broke. It just needs some fine tuning.

I'm a newbie, so maybe I should just hold my tongue, but it doesn't make sense to me that the PQ can generate a preview, but then you can't download that data right then and there. If the query runs well enough to generate a preview, why not just include a button to click in order to download the data in GPX format based on what the preview generated? I don't mind coming to the site to retrieve info. I'm not asking to eliminate the e-mailed queries, but I don't really need that feature. I'd just like to get the data when I request it, even if it takes a couple minutes to generate. I can always read the forums or tab-browse another site. I'll shut up now....

I'm a new premium member, so as with all newbies, I'm somewhat clueless. I've run a couple pocket queries and received results via e-mail. But I'm never quite sure what I've done to actually make them run. I've setup a couple to run and they did once, but now won't, even though I have the day correctly check. What's the actual process for making one run right now? Would be nice to have a big button that says, "Run Query Now!" Since I'm new, I have no experience with possibly flaky performance of the query system. Can't tell if something is wrong or not. I put in a query last night for today, but nothing's shown up. Wish this wasn't so cryptic in its operation.

I'm new to the whole geocaching thing, just getting my Magellan eXplorist 210 this last week. I purchased it for $146 and Magellan also had a $30 rebate running through July 7th. So all told, I paid $116. Pros: * Fully PC-connectable with included USB-to-Serial cable and software * Rugged and solid * Put me everywhere I wanted to go once I figured out how to use it * Fairly intuitive * 22MB of RAM is barely used with what I'm doing * Exceeds my expectations Cons: * Perhaps it could have had a power adapter socket, but I use rechargeable batteries anyway, so I'm not burning through batteries. Truthfully, for $116, I don't know how I could have done any better! My son and I have spent six hours the last two days geocaching and have had a blast. I'm no pro, but I'm highly satisfied with the eXplorist 210. One day I'll step up, I'm sure, but I like this unit.