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This site has a ton of navigation formulae: http://williams.best.vwh.net/avform.htm The "Ask Dr. Math" site http://mathforum.org/dr/math/ has some great explanations of some of these formulae. Ken

The GC is as close as I've seen to what I think a basic geocaching GPS should be. The price is still a little steep IMO. Dropping the mapping and replacing the color screen with a grayscale one would lower the price, but probably would decrease the market for the device. It seems that eople really like their color screens, even if they are hard to read in bright light. Ken

The only issue I have with having a lot of cache coordinates on a handheld device is having an efficient way to manage them. I seldom have need for more than 1 PQ worth at a time. A nice sensitive GPS chip is a definite yes. Ken

I'm not afraid of digging into complicated tech either, and I know what you mean about wanting something simple that gets the job done. Getting data on the device is often the most tedious part - what would be done to simplify that? Ken

I agree. Agreed here too. I find the Geomate way too limited in what it can do. The extra expense for the data cable to update the caches is hard to swallow. I have a few friends who have had Etrex screens fail after pretty light use. The screen size is more of a personal preference. My eyesight isn't all that good, so a larger screen means a lot to me. Ken

Say that by some twist of fate you became the head of product development at Garmin. You were then tasked with the development of a new budget GPSr targeted specifically at geocachers. What GPSr features would you include in a budget model and, perhaps more importantly, which features would you leave out? As for the meaning of "budget", I'd say somewhere in between the price of a Geomate and the mid-range Etrexes ($75 - $150). I've been thinking about this question for a while. I bought a GPSMAP 60 when I started caching a few years ago. It has served my needs well, and I see nothing on the market currently that I would replace it with. The offerings for geocaching-friendly GPSrs seem to be divided into the barest-bones special purpose Geomate, the $300+ touchscreen units (Oregon, Dakota, etc) with their screen brightness and firmware issues, and an aging Etrex line with questionable durability and small screens. I know other manufacturers make GPSrs, but I don't see anything in their product lines that excite me either. None of the other "non-traditional" GPSrs I've thought of (iPhone, etc) could be described as budget. I'll list my specifications later - what you you guys (and gals) think? Ken

I use the 2600 mAH Lacrosse NiMH batteries that came with my bc-9009 charger. They work great in my GPSMAP 60. I've also used my wife's low-self-discharge NiMH Rayovac rechargeables from Target with good results. Would like some Sanyos but haven't had enough reason to go out and buy some yet. Ken

If you have a laptop with wifi, you can set up a private adhoc network and use your computer as a server for downloading the file. If your computer doesn't have wifi, you can get a usb wifi adapter for ~$30. Ken

Not to be a nit picker, but the atomic clocks used in GPS don't use radioactivity. They use microwaves to set up oscillations between energy levels in the atoms of cesium or rubidium. It's the frequency of the oscillations they are measuring to determine the passage of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clocks Ken

The only cache hide I've made is named Byron Coulters Slept Here. The cache tells a local story that not many people know, and I was hoping that the name would entice people to an area where there aren't a ton of caches (yet). When I'm browsing a cache list, I always look for the imaginative names. Chances are, the cache itself is going to be more enjoyable if someone has invested time in it. A creative name shows me someone has given a cache hide some thought. Ken

Hmmmm, I'd try redownloading (and saving to the same location). It look like you've only got part of the file. Dale same results 3 times. its a looooong d/l . i am trying in IE instead of mozilla currently If you can, try using a download manager that will monitor the download and allow you to resume a failed download. I used the windows version of wget, which is a command line program that works really well. I got it here. Ken

I had no trouble installing either, once I got a whole file - my first download quit for some reason. I installed under Windows XP, then used Garmin's converter to convert the mapset to Mac format. This converted file worked well with Garmin's Mapmanager and Mapinstall on my Macbook. I've installed the Maine map tiles on my GPSMAP 60, and will report back later. Everything seemed to work great at first glance. Thanks again for taking the time to make these maps available. Ken

This, I like! I'd have to agree. This is the one feature I've wanted for a while. Ken

Sweet! Can't wait to try it out. Thanks again. Ken

I hope everything goes well with your dog! Great project you have going here. I'd like to request Maine be added to your list. Thanks. Ken

I put out my first hide a few days ago. It was found within a day. The nearest cache to mine is almost 10 miles away, so I guess folks in this area don't mind a drive to find a cache. I drove about 15 miles last night to locate three caches I'd been wanting to do. The area has a lot to do with how far people will drive to find caches. Ken