Search the Community

And before that, just the manual way. I started caching in Germany, and mein Deutsch war nicht sehr gut. (Still isn't.) So I had to copy each listing, run it through Altavista's Babelfish for a crappy translation, then I'd distill it into notes in a little book and use that with the manually-entered waypoint on my Garmin 60CSx. So much easier with the app these days. But I had fun then.

I reached out to the prime instigator behind the original (Duckbill) Signal (Moose Mob) and learned that it made its first appearance at a kickoff event for the introduction of Wherigo in Las Vegas in January of 2008: Meet & Greet Groundspeak & Garmin in Vegas. You can see several photos of it in the logs for that event, such as here. It appeared at several other regional events over the next couple of years. I believe that the official Signal mascot was created for and first appeared at the 10-Year HQ Celebration event in Seattle on July 4, 2010: Lost & Found Celebration. Again, you can see images in the logs, such as this one. I need to investigate more to find out where the current iteration debuted.

A New Orleans newspaper had an article on geocaching in 2002 showing a cacher in the woods with a GPS unit and ammo can.....it was love at first sight .....I bought a yellow Garmin Etrex and we got started.

It really depends on what you want. As a premium member there are servers apps to choose from. Give them a try and form your own opinion. I love Locus Map — it is the reason I own a Pixel. The beautiful maps are second to none and the caching functions let me do almost everything. You can add turn by turn directions. It has great offline features that load graphics, logs, and full cache information. It also works well with my Garmin Watch. i write “almost” because it does not have Wherigo support. These days I use GC Droid for that, although there are others. GC Droid is a fine caching app but it does offer as much support for offline caching that I find in Locus. Some people like the all-in-one features of Geooh Go. I never adapted to its approach but that does not mean much if it works for you. Others use the app that improperly scrapes the Groundspeak site, but that is not something I want to do. In the end I keep going back to Locus. I like the looks of OSMAnd+ and sometimes use its mapping when I am on a trail, but it does not have specific caching functions. I have not used the Groundspeak android apps, perhaps because I got an Android in order to use Locus. The old advice sometimes holds true, leave with the one who brought you to the dance.

I use this site for maps for my Garmin GPSMAP 64sx. They work well. https://garmin.bbbike.org/

That's a good suggestion. I was vaguely wondering too if I already had too many maps on the Garmin (quite a lot), but didn't know about the limit. I will try removing and storing some maps, and then try again.

True -- the 600 hasn't been actively marketed since 2015. It's also been almost 4 years since Garmin discontinued the entire Montana 600 series. But there's still no harm in trying. I believe that Garmin still offers a device exchange program that allows users to replace malfunctioning devices with certified refurbished units at a reduced cost. Here's how it used to work: You could submit your current unit's details on Garmin’s exchange website to receive a quote for a replacement. The replacement would be the same model or a compatible alternative. In this case, probably 'compatible' because likely no 600's are available, even refurb'd. Then there were two return options: Standard exchange: 10–14 business days and required sending the old device before receiving the replacement. Immediate ship option: Delivered the replacement in 3–7 business days but requireed a $150 deposit, which was refunded once Garmin verified the returned device. https://support.garmin.com/en-US/exchange/

Strange, then I don't know what is wrong. Maybe something with my Garmin.

I downloaded the file https://alternativaslibres.org/en/download.php?file=gmapsupp_South-Africa.zip (OSM Base Map of South Africa), unzipped the file and put the gmapsupp.img file in the folder Garmin on a micro SD card. Inserted the SD card into an eTrex 30. It looks like this:

Thanks for trying this. Did you get minor roads, or only large roads, such a highways? I can see them. Can you please tell me the exact 'Download' you clicked on. Thanks. What Garmin are you using? I also tried to download a map for Cape Town using https://extract.bbbike.org/, as really, likely a couple of city maps would do, but that also failed. Nothing smaller on the map than highway level, so useless. Not sure that this isn't already in the Garmin and is not even the download. Once I know what you clicked on I will try again.

To be clear, this is about the Montana 760i, right? I don't have one regardless, but Garmin has run out of integers...I'm just trying to be sure you're seeking help in the right product family. I'd encourage you to edit the title if that's still an option. Once upon a time, if Garmin was unable to repair your unit, they offered some amount of trade-in if you could present a pile of soggy dust that had a recognizable Garmin logo on it. I don't know if that's still a thing, but it's worth playing the "since I'm your valued, long-term customer and YOU are the one that doesn't stock parts to repair my two-year-old device that costs as much as a mortgage payment..." card. It's worth pleaing your case before the Garmin support courts.

I have been trying to load maps for South Africa and Japan to my Garmin. (South Korea too if I can find a map for that.) I have never had this problem before, as I have loaded many maps in the past. (I wanted Botswana and Zimbabwe too, but figured printed out maps would do for them, as only visiting small areas.) I should have mobile for my phone for all of those, except Zimbabwe, as besides not finding a map for that, I also haven't found a Simcard for there. However I prefer to use my Garmin, and in some countries it's safer to use the Garmin too, as less snatchable; fitting and hiding in the hand better than the phone. I have tried OpenStreetMap, clicking on download under 'File for GPS / Android / QMapShack'. https://alternativaslibres.org/en/downloads.php#Africa I downloaded huge files, but after loading and after extracting all, no map appears and no file that looks like my other map files. Can anyone assist, or suggest another site with a link please?

Who has the 760I and is it good for Geocaching? My Montana 600 is no longer repairable so I'm in the market for a new GPS. Thanks for your answers.

You're right, the 64 does support the Garmin Explore app, I missed that when checking the specs. The Explore app has a limitation though, geocaches will be sent as plain waypoints. You will get the coordinates, but not the descriptions, hints and logs. See https://support.garmin.com/nl-NL/?faq=JB2oAqEgCU17c7IqE3yHvA

The Lists will be on the Geocaching.com website. Plug the Garmin into the computer via USB, and send the GPX files. There are automated ways to send them to save a few steps, but I usually send mine manually. I have a couple of Garmin Oregons that have a feature called "Geocaching Live", which allows a wireless connection between a phone and handheld GPS, to work with cache files and load them. The GPSMap 76st doesn't have that feature. I had some luck using "OTG", a portable wifi router, and some well-chosen utility Apps, where GPX files may be sent from my Android phone to the GPS. That's kind of tedious. I don't think I ever got that to work using an iPhone. I often don't have a phone signal, and even if I do, the wifi or Bluetooth connection is so finicky, I always plan ahead and load all caches in advance onto the Garmin. I use "Lists" on the phone App to organize cache hunts, and highlight caches I wish to try. In case of unplanned trip deviation, and if the phone has a data signal, I type the coordinates to a cache or two. In that case, if I'm feeling very lucky, I may just navigate using the App itself. But the Garmin has proven to be much better for the actual cache finding.

I finally bought some test gear and a few cables and got to the bottom of this. The USB mini plug has five pins. Power, ground, and two data lines are connected to pins at the other end of the cable, either old-fashioned USB A or the new USB C. The fifth pin, "ID", can be not connected at all or connected to ground or connected through a resistor to power. If ID is not connected, a handheld Garmin will configure for data transfer. If ID is connected to ground, it will not. Some automotive Garmins (Nuvis) use a resistor to select other configurations. When you buy a C to mini cable, you have no way to know what that cable does with the ID pin. For example, Amazon product B0D86TTNWS grounds the ID pin and cannot be used for data transfer, while Amazon product B00UUBS0SS leaves the ID pin disconnected and supports data transfer.

I've been into hiking and amateur radio direction-finding events since my university days. Back in the early 2000s, one of my friends bought an early GPSr and mentioned geocaching as something that could be done with it but I didn't really pay it much heed. In March 2013, I read an article in Wild magazine about it and thought it looked interesting, as it appeared to combine both those interests, so I signed up as a basic member. Looking at the map, I saw there was a cache in the sports field close to home and, using the satellite image and the hint, thought I knew where it would be so I wandered over there and made my first find. After that, I saw a local electronics shop had the Garmin GPSMAP 62S on special so I bought one. It took me a while to figure out how to use it properly, but I eventually got the hang of it and set about finding the caches in my local area. Back then, basic members could only download .loc files which were pretty limiting, containing just the cache name and coordinates, so in late April I signed up for premium membership and everything really came to life.

We were sitting around the campfire with friends back in March 2002. One of them was reading a newspaper when he ran across an article about geocaching. Needless to say, it sounded very interesting. I already had a basic Garmin gpsr which I used for fishing and such . Used it to make my first find,, Turkey Creek South, which I gladly adopted several years later.

On an unrelated matter. I have several Garmin GPS, I still like my small colored eTrex with limited RAM. Maps are basically very old but I use it mainly for geocaching or saving coordinates. I think for regular average consumer use, using your Android or iPhone is sufficient and just pay for a better app to save your coordinates as Google Maps is still stuck in 2005 in terms of waypoints including saving, naming, organizing, and retrieving waypoints/favorites.

I believe that Garmin limits the speed for some unknown reason (if the device is actually reporting as High-Speed USB 2.0 capable but performs at USB 1.0/1.1 speeds ), hence my comment above. Their implementation of disk access has always been slow at best. They were god-awful slow moving away from the original serial interface to USB even many, many years after USB was fully established and when they finally supported it, you can see the result. I have no experience with the newer/more current models that use USB-C but I would hazzard a guess that their bus speed capability is also hampered in some way by Garmin. You may want to return the unit (sadly, I cannot return mine) if you can (within the return period) and wait for something newer from Garmin. They have recently (within a few years...that's Garmin's "recently") released the eTrex SE and eTrex Solar units which have USB-C but are B&W and mapless. Something newer for the eTrex line (with color and maps) may be released soon. When, only Garmin knows.

Garmin has always been slow to adopt new technologies and stays with outdated hardware for a very long time. The 32x (as all the current eTrex series, and even the older eTrex color units like the Vista HCx) uses the dog-slow USB Mini-B (4-pin) cable with USB 2.0 data speed (*up to* 480 Mbps but in reality, never that). Along with whatever overhead Garmin's interface imposes with the internal storage as well as external, the transfer speed is dismally slow. Updating the unit's maps just yesterday on my 32x (from TopoActive 2024.20 to TopoActive 2025.10) took 3-4 hours, placing the map files on both the internal memory as well as the microSD card...both drives are equally slow. To get around this speed issue after a map update has been done and for backing up the files on the microSD card, I remove the card from the unit and use an external SD card card reader to backup mapsets as well as add already generated maps to the unit's external storage...really, any kind of file manipulation. There's no work-around for transferring maps to/from the unit's 8GB of internal storage. You will always be limited by USB 2.0 and Garmin's implementation of the interface. The speeds you are seeing are quite normal and your hardware (cables, ports and different computers) is likely perfectly fine.

I have a new Etrex 32x and when I attach it in mass storage mode to Windows 10 and start copying files, the maximum transfer speed I seem to reach is about 350 to 1000 KB/s. I tried multiple different cables, ports and a different computer. Worried that my device might be broken. Other than this it seems to work great though. Would be very grateful if some of you with this device (or other Garmin Etrex devices) could do a quick test for me, just connecting in Mass Storage USB mode and picking one of the big files in the Garmin folder, starting a copy onto the computer and report back what speeds you roughly get over the course of 1-2 minutes. Sorry if this is a much-discussed topic already, I googled for hours and could not find much beyond 1 or 2 random posts talking about USB transfer speeds of Garmin devices.

Are you willing to consider a phone? It doesn't have to be your daily-driver fragile phone, and it doesn't have to be the unspeakable app nor the default one. A rugged Android dedicated to the task, with a quality app, can run circles around many a Garmin... EDIT: ...even without a cell plan.

I have the eTrex 32x and while it's a great & compact GPS unit overall, if you're looking for speed (map rendering), this is not the unit for you. I've found the map rendering speed even slower than my elderly eTrex Vista HCx. The preloaded (shipped on the unit) TopoActive maps on the current 32x's (US version) are 2020.10. Updating those maps to the current 2024.20 version provides even slower map redraws and simply searching for saved waypoints near your location takes a few seconds with 2020.10...this increases to around 15-20 seconds with 2024.20. I don't know why this happens since you're not even searching the map POIs but your saved waypoints. This unit is known to be slower than even the eTrex 20 & 30 units. I've also returned the unit twice to Amazon thinking maybe I got a dud...but they are all the same. If you want to experiment with the unit's map version, make a full backup of the unit (this will take hours, thanks to the elderly and slow mini-USB data connection) and it's preloaded maps before you update. This way you can fall back on the original 2020.10 mapset. If you don't back them up, you can not download then again from Garmin and you'll be stuck with the newer (slower) 2024.20 maps. If you can tolerate the speed, it's otherwise a great unit, especially the 3-axis compass and barometer. You may want to wait for new eTrex's since there are bound to be new models released in the future...when that will be is anyone's guess. Seeing as there are the eTrex SE and eTrex Solar units out, maybe the wait won't be too long.

Hi everyone! I've been geocaching since college but went on a big break, and i was willing to comeback and start doing it as a family now. I own a Garmin GPS, the Oregon 550 model, however it might be a tad slow nowadays. It was one of the things that even at that time, i thought was frustrating. I'm thinking about purchasing a new GPS device, but am so indecise on wich model to choose. I know that there are not new models (only the solar panel one), but any upgrade to my device is more than welcome i guess. Iwas wondering if anyone could give me some advice between the Etrex Touch 35 or the Etrex 32x wich one do you find best? If you recommend any other model please do tell, although i'm not inclined to the high end models. Thanks in advance, looking forward to read some opinions.