Fuchsiamagic

All I do is use the pocket query from "My Finds" once I've updated the site and stick that straight into GSAK. It ovewrites the existing data with all your finds. Simple!

No, I use a manual key. The "lock on road" feature is definently the problem. I had the same thing happen to me last night for the first time. I pulled off in a parking lot next to a road and started to walk and looked at the map and nothing was happening. I then turned off the "lock on road" feature and the map started to move. Since turning off this feature, I can report that the problem is definitely better, but it has still done it a couple of times, however instead of turning it off and on again, I have just waited. It then started to work normally again after about a minute. Very odd.

I wish I'd started five years ago. I had a company car then and used to drive all over the country with fuel provided by my company! Sigh!

Forgive me if I appear to be ignorant, but what is the benefit of knowing where north is? Surely all you want to know is which direction the cache is in?

I can really relate to this. I have found over 150 caches now, but I still feel like a newbie with some of them. I had about ten DNF's along with my first ten caches! What I didn't know when I started was to look out for anything that doesn't look natural, like a pile of sticks laid in the same direction, or a group of large stones piled in a place which couldn't have occurred naturally. Wintertime is easier because there is less vegetation to search through, but on the other hand a popular cache can easily be found in summer just by looking out for flattened grass where previous cachers have been. If it doesn't look disturbed, it probably isn't there. I still hate micros though and don't really see the point of hiding something like a film cannister or a pill box in the woods when a nice plastic box makes for a much more fulfulling experience. Good luck and keep at it! Experience will make you an expert. (That's what I keep telling myself anyway)

I've never calibrated the compass on my 60CSx. I don't feel the need to use it. I simply walk in the direction of the cache and keep it's icon near the top of the map screen. You can soon see if you're off course. I thought that was the only way to do it for several months, but I'm still happy with using that method.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of time a research goes into setting a new cache. I have had people fall in water, get attacked by a bull, get stung and bitten, and all because they ignored my parking co-ords and route, then they have the cheek to complain about the location of the cache in their remarks! However, it's just a game, so if they want to do it their way, so be it!

Let me know how it turns out. It was set to "lock on road", so I have turned it off. Not sure when I will be going caching again, but I will let you know if that fixes it. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Most of our woodland caches here in the UK have Ivy on or near the cache. It never even occurred to me that it might be a problem (unless our ivy is different to that found in the States). I presume anyone who knows they're allegic to it will automatically take the necessary precautions. The biggest problem over here is stinging nettles!

I'll have a look. thanks.

I don't use the compass or the "goto" feature. I prefer to see the cache on the map screen as I move towards it. I don't use an in-car charger. It's the map screen which locks up. It goes just as if it was a printed picture. Moving about or rotating the GPSr makes no difference whatsoever. I can move through the different screens as normal. It's just the map page which seems to stop updating. I asked the question because I wondered if it was a common fault on this unit, but it seems not. I will try and keep a close watch on it next time and see exactly when it happens.

I can't see that that will make any difference. I only have to get out of the car with it my hand and stand beside the car - two feet from where it was on the dashboard, and it still does it!

How big is the image file? I don't know if there's a limit, but it should really be jpeg and under 200K in size.

Do you have the lock on road feature on? This might cause you position to stay on the road even when you are heading off road? No. It does it even when I park on the street.

I have a MAP60CSx and I love it, however one annoying little thing is starting to bug me. When I have it on in the car on the way to a cache site, it behaves perfectly. I stop the car, switch off the engine, get out and lock the car. When I next look at the GPSr, the display has locked. What I mean is whatever direction I walk in, the display doesn't move. Everything else is as normal. The only way to fix it that I have found is to switch it off and on again, then it tracks and works fine for the rest of the trip. So far, I haven't actually managed to catch it when it locks up, but it's always at the same point in proceedings. Am I accidently hitting a button? If so, which one would cause that and is there a simple cure? Quit doesn't do anything...

I have a 60 and a 60CSx and was trying to find a cache in a small town square this morning. The square had 2 and 3 story buildings surrounding it and was about 100 yards across. When I arrived and turned on both units, the 60CSx aquired within 30 seconds and although I was stationary in the middle of the square, the tracks it displayed where all over the place as signals bounced off the buildings. The map was actually moving on the display as though I was walking along! It did eventually settle down after a few minutes and led me to within a few feet of the cache site. Meanwhile, the 60 was still trying to aquire a signal. I know which one I prefer...

So a micro which I found wedged in a crack in a wall and which unfortunately disappeared down inside it when it tried to retrieve it counts as a DNF? It certainly will for any following cachers! I notified the owner and they replaced it so I suppose I had better go back and try again.

Well I can't match that last one, but as for a real embarrassing moment, this has to be hard to beat. While signing the cache log, I heard some horses approaching, so I quicky bundled the cache back into into it's hidey-hole and tried to look innocent by taking some photos down the lane. A surley old biddy on a horse came up and asked me what I was taking pictures of. I made up some story about the area being of historic interest and I needed some photos for my research. The response was "That's strange, I was born in that house over there and I have lived here all my life. I wasn't aware of anything historical about this area. Tell me about it" DOH!

I presume it's accurate when it comes to actually locating a cache and it's just the map overlay which is out? I find the same thing with my GPSMap60CSx. It's not out as far as 200m, but it's accuracy does vary from place to place by anything from 10m to 50m. I think it's more likely to be just a poor quality map rather than the GPS being out. I would see what Garmin have to say about it.

Doh! I've just read that again!

What's IDKT?...

Thanks folks. It's so obvious now!

I have often seen this term mentioned in cachers reports. Someone put me out of my misery please!

I have just noticed that some folks log a TB or GC as "Discovered" rather that "Retrieved". I have never done this yet. I presume you have to make a note of the tracking number, but leave it in the cache, maybe because you don't have anything to trade with it. Does that add to your score with the icon showing up in your profile the same way as retrieving it would?

Going a little off-topic, but if you are using Cachemate, there is a way to search for caches on the palm using coordinates and a radius. I don't know how to do it off hand because I use the GPSr to find caches near me and use the cache's name to look it up on the Palm. That's how I would do it, but the waypoints are displayed as GC numbers on the GPSr and by names on the Palm. There doesn't seem to be any way of cross-referencing them.