Gpsr + Pda = ?

[CardinalCacher]

Hi Everyone,

 

Found this activity through a short documentary my friend made about Geocaching. Decided to go with my mom (has a handheld GPS she uses for auto navigation) while I was home for a week. Was great fun (though I did learn the merit of wearing a longsleeve shirt ). Ended up finding six caches within a few hours (6 for 8), including a cache in the local park I used to play teeball in many moons ago!

 

Anyway, I am back in CA and looking at starting out here. I am planning to get an eTrex Legend C or Cx, but was wondering about how people use the GPSr - PDA combo. I have a Treo 650 SmartPhone (Palm) and it would be nice not to have to print out the pages like my mom and I did.

 

Lemme know what I can do or what you do, and how that works for you.

 

Thanks

Troy

Edited May 29, 2006 by CardinalCacher

[+Groovy Cachin' Dude!]

A lot of cachers use Cachemate installed on their handheld unit. It only costs $8.00 to buy for either Palm OS 3.0 (or greater ) or Pocket PC. You can download a limited functionality trial copy here. It works great and is well worth the money to register your copy.

 

Also I use GSAK to organize my cache database and export in PDB (Palm Data Base) file. GSAK is a free download, but registering your copy for $20.00 adds functionality as well as removes the nag screen. Plus Clyde gives really good support and frequent updates for free.

Edited May 29, 2006 by Dude/Sweet

[+briansnat]

The Palm is used to load cache pages to so you don't have to carry around stacks of paper. Every week I load the closest 500 caches to my home into my GPS. I also load the same pages into my Palm, through Cachemate. That way I have the cache page for every waypoint loaded to my GPS.

[+Team 5150]

Yeah. What they said. I just got my PDA up and running. It sure beats carrying around a binder of pages!

[+Miragee]

To really use your PDA for caching, you need to become a Premium Member first so you can create Pocket Queries. Then you will get a file emailed to you that contains up to 500 caches.

 

Here is a link to software, some of which is free.

 

However, I use Cachemate on my Palm M500 and Export the data to it from GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) because their registration fees are so reasonable, considering how useful the programs are.

[+Travelinmatt76]

This is THE BEST article I've read about Paperless Caching. It explains everything you need to know to get started.

[+Kacky]

I use the e-book format on my Palm. I really like it.