rfriel1

i've only logged 5 finds so far with my merigreen. but with this limited experience, geocashing is to easy. 4 of the 5 finds, i've walked right to the cache with no searching involved. it's kind of disappointing that it's so easy. now maybe i'm in for a surprise the next finds, but the 5th cache LL was off by about 33ft. so i am writing the owner of the cache and let them know the new LL. now someone could have moved it to a better location and that's fine, cause sometimes the location may be to obvious, but if the cache is moved to a more secure location, they should let the owner know the new LL. now i realize that the LL may not show the same everyday. the gps sat constellation may change, the waas geosat may have different correction factors, the owner of the cache may or may not have used waas averaging, etc..... all of this plays into the accuracy of the LL location, but with waas averaging for about 3-5 minutes, a cacher should have a very good fix on the LL location when placing the cache. in north america, .001 degree change in lattitude is about 3-5 feet. in all but the last find mentioned above, i was only off my 3-5 feet from the cache and basically there was no searching involved. but the last cache, if the LL had been correct, again, i would have been on top of it. i sat on top of the listed LL for 5 mintues and did a waas average, then i sat at the LL where i found the cache and did a waas average, and i will notify the cache owner of the new LL. i've been wondering how good waas averaging really is so i am testing the LL location in my driveway over the past week and on different times of the day i always stand on the same spot and average for 3-5 mintues. so far over the last 6 days, with waas averaging, i've only been 5ft off of the LL that i saved on the first day i tested. i've read that a good way to test how good the LL are on the cache, go back to the cache at different times on different days and see if the LL change. if you are already doing a waas average for 3-5 minutes, i would suspect that the LL should not change by more than 5ft in each direction, if they do, then maybe you need to do some hand averaging as well. if geocaching is this easy, it's not going to be that much fun. now i know that some cachers may deliberately not give the true LL of the cache to make other cachers "search" for the cache, and that's possible, and that's part of the game, but i have to wonder, if i find a cache that is not where is supposed to be, did the owner purposefully not give the right LL or did the owner try to give the right LL but either waas averaging was not used or the sats that day gave a LL that was not quite right?? but, i personally believe the newer models of gpsr's both garmin and magellan have the capability to give accurate LL within 5ft with waas averaging and if a geocacher does not find the cache at the listed location using waas averaging, then the cache owner didnt' bother to average or purposefully listed a LL that was offset from the true cache location. now maybe i just live in a part of the country where waas averaging just happens to give very accurate results, maybe other parts of the country, waas averaging produces results that are not so good, maybe i'm just lucky and don't know it, but with my limited experience, when i stash some caches of my own, i don't want it to be so easy, something so small that even within 5ft, it will be difficult to find. is that being unfair to other cachers? i don't know, i just don't want it to be so easy, 'cause when it's to easy, it's not that much fun to walk right up to a cache. should i deliberately offset the LL and make cachers "search" for the cache? it that fair to other cachers?? i'm searching for answeres to these questions and hope that someone on this board can point me in the right direction. this discussion assumes waas averaging, if waas averaging is not available, then yes, 30-50ft search radius is very likely to occur.

in my first cache i plan on hiding after christmas, why not put some MRE food packets in the cache? the MRE food, Meal ready to eat, used my military and a myriad of other uses, hiking, camping, survival food etc,..... is nuclear, chemical, and biological warefare proof for 10 years. as long as there are not holes in the covering, i'd eat some MRE food found in a cache, but then again, someone would find some way to poison it so i'd better not.

does anyone know what the merigreen simulator mode is for? the manual devotes 1 page to the topic and only describes how to enter and exit the simulator mode, it doesn't explain what the mode does? any help would be appreciated.

http://www.magellangps.com/en/support/products/upgrades/upgrade_meridiangps.asp

what does a person gain by becoming a charter member of geocache and downloading the geocache websites into mobipocket reader format when there is free software available that will format the geocache webpages into palm memo format for downloading? am i missing something here?

what are the coordinates of daves orginal cache? i'd also like the webpage and zip of the daves orignal cache. thanks

i just bought a magellan meridian from frys for $99. you are comparing the garmin map76s which the lowest price i have ever seen is near $400. that is almost a 4 to 1 price difference between the two units that you were comparing. if you are going to do a real test, you should pick units that have similar prices, NOT a 4 to 1 price difference. who would drop almost $400 on their very first gpsr if they didn't even know if it would be useful to them. you can't beat dropping $99 for a new magellan meridian. if i don't like my magellan meridian, i'll chuck it out, no regrets, i'd have to choke down a big one to chuck out a $400 garmin gpsr.

come with a PC interface cable? anyone bother asking? how much was the shipping charge and to which state was it shipped? i called, and to ship to idaho, it was $20. pretty steep, but the price is worth it, if and only if it comes with a PC interface cable.

i want to connect my sony clie pda to my sportrak map gpsr. assuming i get the right connectors, what software do i need to upload/download way points and routes from my gpsr to my pda?

the rebate coupon only requires original receipt and UPC bar code. now i read on amazon.com website that their stipulation is that the gpsr and cd rom must be purchased at the same time. i think this is ploy by amazon to get more business, i don't believe that the software and hardware must be purchased together. the original rebate pdf file from magellan does not say anything about the unit being purchased at the same time. i'm emailing magellan right now and asking them to clarify the situation.

did a pc interface cable come with the gpsr bundle?

i'm new to gps recievers, looking to buy my first unit. what is a lanyard and what function does it perform? is it really needed? what is the average cost if a "lanyard" does not ship with the gpsr? also, are the wriststraps very useful if i buy a leather pouch or cover for my first gpsr?

i'm looking at buying a magellan sportrak map gpsr. if i buy the mapsend topo from amazon for $69.99 with free shipping and $50 rebate from magellan, i don't care how accurate the mapsend topo is, for $20 bucks, it's a steal especially when the magellan website wants $149 for the same software which is a totatlly stupid, who would pay $149 for the mapsend topo when it's not that accurate??

what's the difference between the sport trak and the sport trak pro? the sport trak pro is about $70 more than the sport trak. is the extra cost really worth the extra bucks?

does WAAS do anything in a gpsr? i haven't heard much talk about WAAS in this forum. is WAAS totally useless and not worth any gpsr that is WAAS enabled? any ideas or opinions?

the magellan 315 and 330 do not have WAAS. without WAAS, isn't the accuracy limited to 15M? with WAAS, the accuracy increases to 3M.

Anyone had any experience with the New Garmin 72? it has an internal quad helix antenna but only 1Meg internal memory. yeah, the limited memory sucks but for $143, how can you beat the price for the given functionality? any opinions or comments?

Is the Garmin V really all that good for hiking and backpacking? i don't own a gpsr yet but would like one for hiking, backpacking and the car. the V looks good for the car but to big and bulky for hiking/backpacking. the gpsmap76s looks small enough for hiking/backpacking yet has an external antenna connector for the car. what are the plus and minues of each for the car and for hiking?

fdsafdsa

why are you selling? the 76S is a great unit.

does anyone know if there is a connector available to connect my sony peg SL10 directly to a Garmin 76S?