scotte

I have no problems with the magnetic compass on my 76CSx. I have it configured to turn on only when speed drops below 1MPH for 5 seconds. That way it's only on when I need it - i.e. standing still (or nearly so).

Correct, The timestamp is in the comment field, sounds like a bug in EasyGPS that it's not smart enough to figure that out? I don't know - maybe try another utility...

We also don't know if both units are using the same datum.

Actually, by default you'll see Degrees/Decimal minutes (DDD MM.MMM), which is neither Decimal degrees (DDD.DDDDD) nor Degrees/minutes/seconds (DD MM SS.SS).

Make sure everything (mapsource and your GPSr) are set with a datum of WGS84...

Me too. This post included. Anyway, it annoys me when people use their own cipher for hints on a traditional cache. If it's a puzzle cache, then that should be part of the puzzle, not part of hint. That's my opinion...

I bought mine from Amazon for $109, and got it the next day with free shipping. I chose the non-NT version. While the NT version is a smaller, apparently it is slower when doing searches (due to the different compression, and there some reports of other search problems with the NT version that doesn't occur with the non-NT version). Since every last bit of City Navigator NA fits on a 2GB card with space to spare, that's the route I went.

Yep, there's a setting... After you save the track, go into the properties for that track and turn on "Show on map". See screenshot 17a here: http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/gps76screens.html You can pick the display color for each individual track from there too...

Yep, it's providing WAAS corrections but is not used as part of the position solution (i.e. it's ignored for ranging), as I understand it. Not sure I agree with this statement. As a finder, your accuracy is as good as the sum of your error plus the error of the hider (and as a finder, certainly you have neither control nor knowledge of the latter). Whether or not WAAS was used in both cases is not really relevant - it may improve accuracy, but it's not portable (i.e. a WAAS correction only has meaning at a single point in time and space, but having a coordinate taken with WAAS enabled does not somehow become more useful only if that coordinate is subsequently used only with a WAAS enable receiver). (And maybe I completely missed your point. ). Oh, and of course you can't forget that as soon as you represent the coordinate as DDD MM.MMM you can be no more precise than ~6 feet, so add that to the error sum as well! I would say I've had the same experience between my GPSMAP 76 and my 76CSx. My 76 will routinely have EPEs of 7' with WAAS on, and my 76CSx never seems to get below 9-11' with it on or off - even with full bars, an external antenna, and clear view to the horizons. Maybe the EPE calculation is just more conservative in the CSx, or as you suggest the SirfIII is just so darn sensitive that WAAS may not matter. I admit I haven't played with it much on the CSx, as I did for the 76. Where I live, WAAS on the 76 was only effective fairly recently when they fixed the firmware to handle more than the first 2 WAAS enabled SVs.

Near the compass and tilt/zoom there should be a time slider, which by default is some narrow, seemingly random selection. It can be turned off with View->Show Time->Never, and this fortunately persists across sessions. Regardless of if you have the time slider, try the option above and just see if that resolves it for you. Depending on how it was generated, the KML file does contain time data, even though you may not think of it as such. It's been discussed http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=161518 and http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=155832 for a couple of references. It would be nice to have as an FAQ item... Or even better if Google Earth didn't default to that behavior in the first place!

I like it. Can you do a herd of stampeding elephants and various other beasties too? That would be cool, but does add slightly to the technical hurdles.

Don't forget a nano magnetically attached to the bottom of a bench. Not because they are (necessarily) good caches, but just because they are so darn common, at least around here. In fact, I'd like a class on how to roll the paper back up to get it in the container, I always have trouble with those 1/4" strip logs.

Would it make sense to report a Latitude or Longitude as Minutes Seconds Degrees? No, of course not, it's not logical as it mixes things up. A logical format goes from least to most specific. That's the problem with both MM-DD-YYYY and DD-MM-YYYY formats. A logical date format is YYYY-MM-DD, as it goes from least to most specific. When a time is added, it's just added as a natural extension YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (use whatever delimiters you like in place of - or : as they are irrelevant). It's numerically consistent, and that's the key. This provides for a natural sorting method as well. If you throw a list of dates in YYYY-MM-DD at a generic sorting mechanism you get a correct, chronologically ordered list, just like you do in looking at a list of coordinates in Degrees Minutes Seconds (or Degrees Minutes.Minutes or even Degrees.Degrees) formats. That's my opinion, worth what you paid for it.

Been discussed several times here. Expand the time slider in the upper-right corner, or disable the feature in Earth's settings...

Nope, the GPSMap 76 can hold 1000 waypoints. That's it.

Same problem for two TBs I dropped 4/29 - mileage has never updated... Hope this gets fixed.

Guess this explains why mileage hasn't been updated on two bugs I dropped on 4/29. Hope they get these issues resolved soon.

Just give a warning on the cache page that if people don't like surprises and have a good sense of humor that they should pass this cache by. There's a cache I know of with a fake snake in it. The cache description clearly states essentially what I've said above, without ruining the surprise - yet giving fair warning.

That's the #1 mistake people make... DDD.DDDDD != DD MM.MMM != DD MM SS.SS

I feel the same way about it. Maybe I'll start making all my logs say "Logged from Linux using the Firefox browser by Mozilla"...

Silly, isn't it? Even my 5 year old GPSMAP 76 has storage for 1000 waypoints... Somebody over on the gpsinformation forum had a similar issue, and with some digging through the manual I had posted the following. Hope it helps you. I don't know anything about Magellan units, but it's sometimes really helpful to look through the manuals and it's great when they are provided online:

I would check (and try as required) the following things: #1. Make sure your receiver device is not in mass storage mode. #2. Make sure you are using the latest USB drivers (download from garmin). #3. Make sure you are using the latest mapsource (download from garmin). #4. Make sure you are running the latest device firmware (download from garmin). Hope it helps...

skyhawk2, I live (and cache) in the same area as you, and I have yet to come across this, so I guess it's an isolated problem...

I'm working on something as well. Stay tuned!

Even more than that, if the feed gave out the real coordinates, you wouldn't need a premium membership to get them (it would be trivial to write a harvesting script to do so with the feed), so it's in Groundspeak's financial interest to do so.