+briansnat Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 (edited) A waypoint is any spot on the earth that is referenced by coordinates. Where you are standing right now is a waypoint. Where your car is parked is a waypoint and so is your house and your mailbox. A waypoint name is whatever name you give that spot. Its just a shorthand reference for the waypoint. A waypoint name could be "home", "work" or even "Dave". It makes waypoints easier to find in your GPS. Say the coordinates for your house are N42.22.123, W74.55.323, you don't want to have to remember that. Instead you will call it "home" and when you look up "home" on your GPS it will have the corresponding coordinates. Geocaching.com uses a waypoint name beginning with GC and followed by numbers and letters. These waypoint names are unique. There may be 200 caches called "A Walk in the Park", but only one can be GC453S. Edited April 13, 2006 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
+tozainamboku Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 The term waypoint when used with a GPS unit refers to geographic location that is stored in the GPS unit's memory. What gets stored, at a minimum is the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) and a name for the waypoint. Depending on your unit there may also be a waypoint type, an icon to display, notes about the waypoint, and other information. When you download coordinates from Geocaching.com (either in .LOC format or, for premium members, in .GPX format) and then load this into you GPS unit using EasyGPS or someother software, it will create a waypoint in your GPS unit. The name of the waypoint will be the GCxxxx code you see on the cache page. Quote Link to comment
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