UDEric Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 When you pick a geocache that you would like to search for do you punch the waypoint into your gps system? The way points on the websites seem to be like letters and numbers...does the gps device pick that up? I'm just unsure what to do...and I need some help because my girlfriend and I are going to try for our 1st time on saturday. Thanks in advance for any help. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Yes, you would key the coordinates in your unit. That way you can execute a Go To to the coordinates and get an arrow on your navigation screen that points towards the cache. The letters and numbers you see are the waypoint name. It is just a shorthand name for those coordinates. If you look at your GPS and see N74.43.593 W34.22.334 that really has no meaning to you. But if you give those coordinates a name (say "Cache") you'll know that those coordinates are for a geocache. Geocaching.com gives each cache a unique name beginning with GC and followed by numbers and letters. You can use that name or something more meaningful to you. Quote Link to comment
UDEric Posted November 1, 2006 Author Share Posted November 1, 2006 Yes, you would key the coordinates in your unit. That way you can execute a Go To to the coordinates and get an arrow on your navigation screen that points towards the cache. The letters and numbers you see are the waypoint name. It is just a shorthand name for those coordinates. If you look at your GPS and see N74.43.593 W34.22.334 that really has no meaning to you. But if you give those coordinates a name (say "Cache") you'll know that those coordinates are for a geocache. Geocaching.com gives each cache a unique name beginning with GC and followed by numbers and letters. You can use that name or something more meaningful to you. OK...so it's just a matter of punching in N40 and W34 or whatever it may happen to be? Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Yes, you would key the coordinates in your unit. That way you can execute a Go To to the coordinates and get an arrow on your navigation screen that points towards the cache. The letters and numbers you see are the waypoint name. It is just a shorthand name for those coordinates. If you look at your GPS and see N74.43.593 W34.22.334 that really has no meaning to you. But if you give those coordinates a name (say "Cache") you'll know that those coordinates are for a geocache. Geocaching.com gives each cache a unique name beginning with GC and followed by numbers and letters. You can use that name or something more meaningful to you. OK...so it's just a matter of punching in N40 and W34 or whatever it may happen to be? Yes. The usual way to do this is to mark a waypoint, then edit the coordinates to match the cache coordinates. While editing you will also see a waypoint name field on the page. It usually defaults to a number, 001, 002, 003, ect... This the waypoint name that I mentioned earlier. you can edit this field and change it to the actual cache's waypoint name, or some other name that is more meaningful to you. Quote Link to comment
+cimawr Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 I'm just unsure what to do...and I need some help because my girlfriend and I are going to try for our 1st time on saturday. Thanks in advance for any help. Well, first, have fun on Saturday! Second, your question about manually entering the waypoint has already been answered. However, I thought it might be worth mentioning that if your GPS has the capability to hook up to a computer (and most of them do), you can also download the waypoint information to your computer, then transfer it to the GPS by using EasyGPS or GSAK. Both programs are free to download, and can be found by going to geocaching.com, clicking on the link on the left side that says "Resources", then clicking on the link for Geocaching Software. EasyGPS is completely free, but doesn't have as many features as GSAK. GSAK is shareware, which will keep working after the trial period but give you brief delays at startup and when using some of the features. However, it's CHEAP if you decide to buy it - only $20. Quote Link to comment
+Stussy Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 I find EasyGPS to be an easy program to use. Using the Send a Receive buttons are very simple and user friendly. http://www.easygps.com/ Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 I find EasyGPS to be an easy program to use. Using the Send a Receive buttons are very simple and user friendly. http://www.easygps.com/ Ditto, I've never used anything else to upload cache waypoints to my GPS. Quote Link to comment
Living Stones Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Cool. That's good info. For EASYGPS, do you use the LOC Waypoint File *.loc? Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Cool. That's good info. For EASYGPS, do you use the LOC Waypoint File *.loc? LOC or GPX depending on which file type I have at the time. Quote Link to comment
Living Stones Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 So can you download that .loc file of the cache you'd like to seek directly from geocaching.com to easygps then? Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 So can you download that .loc file of the cache you'd like to seek directly from geocaching.com to easygps then? Clock on the LOC file and if asked tell it to "Open" the file. If you have run Easy GPS once it should open in EasyGPS and you can then load the file into your GPS. Quote Link to comment
Living Stones Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Cool. Thank you. Quote Link to comment
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