Paperless Caching?

[+Bugler921]

How do you do paperless caching? I have a Palm TX, would that work? What programs would I have to get (are there any free ones that work well?), and what is the information you put on it to go 'paperless'? Can you get it from geocaching.com? One more thing... I'm going to buy a Magellan eXplorist 210. How would I go about downloading the .loc files from geocaching.com onto it? Thanks!

[+Jhwk]

Ho man, where to start...

 

TX is fine - if not way overkill. Would hate to drop that one on the trail. Make sure you protect it or go with an older model (M500,505,515 are my faves).

 

Programs - you Can get free programs (Plucker, Spinner, etc...) but you will quickly find that most folks recommend Cachemate (for Palm) and GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) for the PC to manage your files. they will set you back $28 and are good for upgrades for life. Cachemate is what you use on the palm to pull up all of the cache data (except photos) in the field and write your log notes. GSAK manages all of your waypoints, and spits out the files (.pdb?) for your palm/cachemate - plus a lot of other cool things, like loading the waypoints to your GPS in the proper format (Magellan .gs in your case)

 

ecome a premium member of geocaching.com ($3 a month) and you can do what are called Pocket Queries, or PQ's. These are files of up to 500 caches sent to you that has all of the information pertaining to the cache. Basically the Who, What, Where, Hints, past logs, etc... the .loc file has very crude data when compared to the .gpx file you can get as a member.

 

I'm sure I screwed up something above. For a easy to follow method to get up and running on paperless caching (that I learned from) go here.

 

Good luck

 

Yay I a geocacher am I

[+FamilyDNA]

I agree with the above, except I really rarely use GSAK. I can use the Magellan Geocache Manager (came with the unit) to go directly from pq file (after unzipping) to GPSr. I also use cmconvert to go straight from unzipped pq to cachemate on the Palm.

[+Miragee]

I don't know how I would do paperless caching without GSAK. It really is the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife.

 

I agree with Jhwk that your PDA is way more than you need for caching. If you decide to use it, get a good hard case for it since PDAs can be easily broken.

 

Here is a rudimentary GSAK tutorial that might help you navigate that extremely useful program.

[+BlueDeuce]

geocacher-u has a nice tutorial for Palms

 

Geocaching Without Paper

[+Bugler921]

I didn't buy my Palm TX for geocaching, I bought it mostly to keep track of my school and work stuff (and all other indoor activities.) Good point... I can't afford to have it broken. I'll probably use a really old Palm we have. Thanks for all the help!

[+The Driscoll's]

I didn't buy my Palm TX for geocaching, I bought it mostly to keep track of my school and work stuff (and all other indoor activities.) Good point... I can't afford to have it broken. I'll probably use a really old Palm we have. Thanks for all the help!

 

I downloaded MobiPocket Reader for my IPAQ 3800 series PDA and save PDF files to it. I am a premium member which allows ebooks and so far MobiPocket Reader saves all information I need when searching caches. I carry my PDA without printing the information anymore to avoid carrying all the paper.

[+70KMHK9S]

On the topic of Paperless caching.

I am going buy a Palm, now is colour screen neccesary?

I know 8mgs would be ideal.

I am lookin at a M500 or M125 will that do?

Edited July 30, 2006 by XTRACDN