Newbie needs help

[NMYLMNT]

Yesterday went on a search with a friend. It was my first hunt. We were successful and now I am hooked. I have started to look at GPS units and quickly found that it might be a problem that I am a Mac user. I use an iBook and doesn't look like any of the units are Mac friendly.

Anyone care to share some expertise with this newbie about how I can start this obsession even if I am a Mac user?

Sorry if this has been covered many times, I didn't have much luck with the search function.

 

Thanks in advance

[+Thrak]

I'd suggest that you ask your question HERE since you will probably find the answer in that forum. Welcome to geocaching.

[NMYLMNT]

I'd suggest that you ask your question HERE since you will probably find the answer in that forum. Welcome to geocaching.

Thanks. I looked there, but didn't have much luck either, my problem is I don't know enough about geocaching yet...so i have quite a bit of research to do and will spend some more time lurking around here before asking anymore questions!

Thank you for your help

[+Miragee]

Here is a site for one program.

 

And, here is an interesting thread that may offer some hints . . . and then, maybe not . . .

 

Welcome to the addiction!

[+spotter/g]

I too am a Mac user!!!! This is how I have been participating in the 'obsession'. I am, however, not much of an ultra techie. I have a Magellen SporTrac Map, its about 4 years old and no longer for sale new.

If you don't mind an investment in time, its pretty easy to geocache. I just look for caches by using the Map it feature on the site. I can read about the cache to see if I would like to hut it. I print out the cache sheet and then enter by hand the coordinates into the GPSr. I double check the coordinates just to make sure, it's no fun going to the wrong place.

However, there are some pretty cool things that can be done if you use the 'power' features of the website. Many have said its easier to just get a real cheep windoze machine to cache with as all the GPSr software is only PC. I guess since I've never tried any of them I don't know what I'm missing.

I sure hope you have fun however you go about it!!!

 

[NMYLMNT]

Thanks everyone. I was wondering how much I would actually have to use the computer and gspotter sort of answered that. From what I understand it would be a huge time-saver to be able to connect the GPSr to the computer, but that I can survive without doing so?

[+DogboyPBM66]

I too an both a newbie and a Mac user. I am basically cheating in that I am running windows 2000 thru Parallels on my MacPro. This lets me use Topo USA to get all the data into and out of my GPS.

 

My GPS (Delorme PN-20) also has an external SD card that can be used to transfer data to/from the unit. The Mac will see this card and the internal memory depending on the units settings. You still need to get data to put on the card but this will be where Mac software can be some assistance I suppose. Haven't tried them yet.

 

Delorme also has a web based mapping program that is made for non-windows folks to get topo data into their units. I don't know if it supports more than just getting the maps (waypoints, routes, tracks, etc)

 

From what I read when evaluating GPS units most folks just run windows. There are limited mapping programs for the Mac but there are a bunch of programs to get waypoints onto the units.