JohnnyVegas

I remember when I bought my first GPS, a used Garmin 45! It was painfully slow obtaining a signal lock and I could only fantasize about the very expensive Lowrance Eagle which I _think_ had a 12-channel parallel receiver. Not like the multi-plexing receiver on my '45. A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a Lowrance Eagle for free, which I accepted more for its curiosity value than its functionality. Upon turning it on and waiting...and waiting...and waiting for it to lock on some satellites, I realized how far GPS receiver technology had come. Nowadays, I wouldn't even use that unit as a backup GPS. GeoBC How true! I was working for a Magellan dealer when Magellen release the first consumer hand held GPS. As I recall The only display on the screen was cordinates. It had to be turned on for 20-30 minutes before it could be used. Garmin came on the seen a few years later. But all those early GPS units were slow. Now this was before SA was turned off. But even after SA was turned off most GPS units had to be one for at least 15 minutes before they would function. This made for very long demos. Those were the days!!!

thats a good point about saving maps.

happy to help

In my car a Garmin Nuvi. On Foot my first choice Magellan Explorist 710, Back up Explorist 500. In reserve Magellan Meridian gold and Magellan sport trak color Paper weight magellan Triton 500 (new in the box)

I do not know what may the reason for issue number one As far as issue number 2 I am thinking the GPS was returnd to the retailer that it was purchased from and the previou owner already registered it with Magellan.( this would mean that the warranty is already running. As far as number three. I have nevet used the black berry but as a premium member you could run a Pocket Quary of all your found caches and load that into your 310. Myself, I delete all my found caches form my GPS I use the Magellan Explorist 710. When I am out I do not want to have to scroll throungh a bunch of found caches because for me they just get in the way. You might contact Magellan reg the serial numbe problem, and problem numbe one. If it is a unit that was returned that may be why. Any GPS that I have ever bought from Magellan, and I have bought about 6 or 7 has had seals on the box.

The 2.18 is north amaerican version. I am not sure what would happen if you use the European version. My first thoughr is that unless you are going to europe there would be no reason to use the EU version, it may even damage your GPS. The 500 is a good GPS, I use my old 500 for a back up.

next time try an evergreen. you can only diable a cache for a limited amout of time. You might be able to change the container to something smaller or you could just forget about changing anything.

you can create a new geocache or a new waypoint. I set a new waypoint. Get to the screen that shows fours dots in the bottom left corner> tap the four dots> tap the flag on the top of the next screen>next tap the menu on the bottom right corner> select Add Waypoint>select coordinates>tap on the coordinates> select the coordinates to change> OK> chenge next coordinates>OK>back arrow, bottom left>next>menu>save way point. then you are done

I have block from the forums in the past for the way two of these poster are acting, maybe they have eased up a bit

It is a tube in a Bisons ear behind the ear drum in which sound travels

I have remove found logs ans well as notes that I did not feel were clear. It can get some cachers upset though. I alway look at the experiance of the cacher leaving the note. Hey if I went through lief being concerned that I might get some oun upset with me all the time, what fun would I be having.

My GPS was working find on the First. But then I use a Magellan Eplorist 710, no a Garmin

They are accurate enough for Geocacning!

I like the clause, many years ago I spent about 40 hours of my time, several tanks of gas in my truck, and drove a total of 400 miles to set up a puzzle/multi cache. So one cacher included all the information needed to solve my puzzle in her logs. Then she sent me a very nasty e-mail when I deleted her log. gee, what an idiot. If your are frustrated by puzzles just don't do them As an owner of a mystery cache which you spent many hours constructing, how do you feel about this other option. Instead of someone asking for help from someone that has already solved it, there is a somewhat common practice for two or more geocachers collaborating via email or some other backchannel mechanism to work on the solution together. The solution is never published and working together on a cache seems to be very much in the spirit of geocaching. I've seen some traditional caches and finding the actual cache on a mystery after the coordinates have been solved with as many as 14 geocaches searching for the container, or another cache in a tree that 15 geocachers found after an event when only one person actually climbed the tree. I don't see how that is any different from a couple of people exchanging email to solve a particularly difficult mystery cache. there is not much than can be done about cacher collaborating on a puzzle, this is not the same as a cacher posting the information required to find a cache in a log. People that log a puzzle cache that they did have a hand in solving? there is not way to prove they did not help with the puzzle so there is not a lot that can be done about. I have a bigger problem with groups experianced cachers that go out in a groups and place a cache container when they cannot find the cache because they are in a hurry. Ihave seen this happen.

With a budget of $150.00 I would buy a new GPS, you will have a waranty, you have more current version of the software, tou will have a better reciever. Garmin and Magellan both have good units for new geocachers. there are lots of features an older out of date GPS, those features are not going to make it any easier to find a cache. I have owned and used many GPS's over the years and when it comes right down to it most of those extra features I have had very little use for.

You have to buy the Topo map CD, then you selcted the area of the map that you want to have on your GPS. I would not recomend a large map. I tried to load most of the wetern US on mine and I slowed down the map refresh speed on my Exl 500. I have most of N cal on mine. But I have a S cal map on the SD card that I can change to when I the LA area.

I like the clause, many years ago I spent about 40 hours of my time, several tanks of gas in my truck, and drove a total of 400 miles to set up a puzzle/multi cache. So one cacher included all the information needed to solve my puzzle in her logs. Then she sent me a very nasty e-mail when I deleted her log. gee, what an idiot. If your are frustrated by puzzles just don't do them

never heard of cheater sites, I do not do a lot of puzzles though,. Most are on subjects that I am not interested in or that I do not understand., But I have been doing some puzzle that past few days that are based on movies that I like. They give something to do while home sick

This does help a bit, but in laymen terms, which is best setting for the following conditions: 1. Flying on an airplane and wanting to know the current altitude (the Garmin blog/explanation doesn't go into that detail) 2. Wanting to know my current elevation say, for example, when standing on a hill or mountain. The Montana offers "Elevation' and "Elevation above ground". This is the explanation I'm looking for. Any pilots out there? Thanks for any advice! re elevation: GPS elevation is determind with calculations from the GPS system, note barometric preasure. An altimiter make elevation calculations base on barometric preasure-but an alitmeter must be calibrated as the weather changes. On an aircraft it depends on the plane, on a commercial aircraft the cabin is pressurized to represent about 7,000 feet. So and altimeter will not be acurated. But to get a GPS reading you have to sit by the window and hold your GPS in the window to get a reading. I do this a lot and have never been not to do this by the in cabin flight crew. I own a hand held altimeter and have compared it to my GPS altitude readings and they have been within 6 feet of each other. I have never seen much use in an altitude reading as far as geocaching. I think it is one of many features that the GPS companies include because it looks good as far as marketing. it is late here 1:35 am. I to tired to correctr typos, going top bed one last thing, Elevation vs elevation above ground. Elevation is above sea level which veries with the tied.

It depends on the GPS you have. Unless your GPS has an electrronic magnetic compass built into it does not know which way you are holding it. If it does have an electronic compass it still needs to be calibrated. I have three GPS'rs with Triaxial compass but I do not bother with using the compass so none of mine are calibrated. In the early years of geocaching there was no such thing as a magnetic compass in a GPS. Once a cacher would walk a few feet the GPS would compass screen would work. As far as the arrow jumping around a lot at ground zero, that is normal. Keep in mind that GPS'rs that we use are going to be accurate to about 9 feet on average. Once your are within 10 or 15 feet just start looking. The Garmin 12 XL is older technology that dates back more than 4 years, I was selling those before I retired and I have been retired for a long time. I would put the accuracy on that unit at about 15-20 feet. I found this Data re. the Garmin 12 XL regarding updates that have been made, the most current update Was in Dec. 2001. I retired about nine years ago. I was a GPS buyer for a small chain of stored in N.Ca. I think A stoped ordering the 12XL soon after around 1999. Garmin tends to keep products in their product line for a very long time Revision 2/2/97 - (see mountain performance & antenna connector, ... ) Revision 2/7/97 - (Ext. Ant, Current Draw, Dead Reckoning, Data Smoothing, ... ) Revision 6/29/98-(New hardware platform, CityPoint database) Revision 3/8/99 - (Incorporate G-12CX Color GPS feature differences) Revision 3/28/99-(Review by Bob Kaemmerer) Revision 12/23/01-(Ver. 4.57 adds area-calculation feature)

I would delet her log. I have deleted logs by stupid cachers in the past, it pisses them off but I don't care. that is about the only way to deal with idiots.

After reading what some smart phone users have said I am wondering if some of the caches I have found by new cachers have coordinates that are not very good. Maybe they are using smart phones to hide caches

I keep my old computers. If need be I have a Windows 98 macine that I can use with my Explorist 500

Another advantage to a Dedicated (or real GPS) They are water proof, cellphons are not and even if you only go out on a sunny day you might drop the phone and it might land in water. I droped my GPS in a lake once while on my Kayak, I dove in after if but it was not harmed. Also if you drop a cell phone ion a bunch of rocks it will not survive that fall as well as a real GPS. You can get a dedicated GPS for about $125.00 from Garmin or Magellan.

Who? never heard of them!