jarras

I just had success today using CacheMate on my Samsung BlackJack II. It has some of the same compass issues mentioned for your unit, but it should work in a pinch. I really like the idea of being able to utilize the built in GPS on the phone that I have with me all the time. See this posting here for a description http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=184981

btw... Anyone interested in how to use CacheMate to turn your BJII into a full featured Geocache ready GPSr? I just had a few comm's with CacheMate's developer this morning. I guess he wasn't aware that Microsoft had provided the needed interface in WM, but he had a plugin ready to go and sent to me. All I had to do was place the WM5GPS.dll file into the Cachemate plugins directory using ActiveSync. Then rebooted the phone. Then, under Menu/Options/Preferences/Plugin Config go to CacheNav and set the interface for "WM5 GPS Driver" and same under GPS Location. Then when you open a cache page, choose Menu/Actions/Navigate, and CacheNav pops up and will navigate you to the cache. I don't think it proper for me to post the dll file here since I don't own it. But if you really want it, you can probably get it at smittyware.com (home of CacheMate) Note: I haven't tricked out my phone with any hacks or anything else. The GPS has worked fine right out of the box for Google and MS LiveSearch.

Yeah what he/she said. Me too!

I struggled with this same question for a while. I'll add a little more detail to the previous response. The issue is the different map sets are in different layers. The most detailed layer shows by default, and that's usually the City Navigator. All the other layers are hidden below. To turn off the City Navigator, do the following. 1. Go to the Map Setup page (easiest way is show the map page, hit Menu, then choose Setup Map) 2. Scroll over to select the Information Icon (the "i") 3. Hit Menu button again 4. Choose Hide the City Navigator Map That should do it. At step 4 above, you have lots of choices. You can toggle the different map sets on and off (Hide and Show). I find it simplest to Show None, then Show US Topo when I'm offroad. Then when I go back to the streets, I choose Show All. Hope this helps.

This thread is a little old, so don't know if anyone will see this post. But I just stumbled on it, and had to give my area a try. I just started this sport a few months ago, and was amazed when I ran my first pocket query and found it pegged out so close to home. So I had to see how many within the 10 mile radius to compare to others listed in previous posts. This is part of Silicon Valley, near the hills, so lots of parks and trails, and lots of techies. Within 10 miles of zip code 95124: 1048 caches Lots of rich hunting around here.

I can not find a "include route calcultation data" ... When in MapSource, the very bottom left corner of the "User Data Tabs" section ("Maps" tab) has the checkbox for including the route calculation data. If you don't see the section, go to View\Show User Data Tabs. Below the checkbox is where you can give the selected mapset a name before exporting to the GPSr.

The .prc file is an e-book that can be read with the Mobipocket reader, available at http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp I'm still new to all this, but I already had Mobipocket on my pda, so I copied the pocket query .prc file over last night and it worked great. Wish I'd had the file and pda with me when I went cache hunting earlier in the day and didn't bother to take along the cache description. I might have actually found the cache. Good luck!

You're right about the spec in the manual that states 3-5m 95%. I found that this morning. However, I only received that manual and spec AFTER buying and receiving the unit. When shopping for the unit, I used Garmin's website. A link on the 76CSx page leads you to their "What is WAAS?" page where they say "A WAAS-capable receiver can give you a position accuracy of better than three meters 95 percent of the time." So it looks like I was misled into setting my expectations too high. Bottom line, if my unit is doing as well as it can and as well as what others experience, then I'm happy. It's really an incredible technology. My big concern was that maybe something was wrong and needed to be fixed. Thanks for the feedback. Here's the link to Garmin's WAAS explanation page. Note also that the manual says that the FAA confirmed WAAS accuracy to 1-2 meters throughout most of the USA. No promises, but again raising expectations. http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

Just got my first GPS unit yesterday. Jumped in with both feet on the Garmin 76CSx. I've read and understand that the Sirf chips give me a better chance of locking more satellites, and that seems to be as advertised. But I'm not getting the advertised WAAS-enabled position errors of < 3m 95% of the time. I only get < 3m about 1% of the time. Through this forum I've stumbled on a great description of WAAS, and specifically how to get locked onto the right satellites, which I've done. I'm able to lock one of the WAAS satellites, and get 8-10 others locked in differential mode. But still the positional error is always >10ft. So, is there something else I need to do, or are the Garmin claims totally bogus, or maybe my unit is just defective? What kind of experience are other users having? Thanks.

I ran into the same broken connections when using the automated update service within MapSource. Then I surfed to Garmin's web page at http://www.garmin.com/support/mappingsw.jsp Selected the manual download for MapSource and it ran much faster and all the way to completion just like normal downloads. Then, just run the saved executable, which will update MapSource. Then I had no problem bringing in the map data. Good Luck.