true or magnetic

[jmythng]

i'm just starting out and i have an older magellan 2000. i've been using it for hunting and fishing and when i found out about geocaching i had to try it out. but i have an issue or two i need to understand for the setup. first, do i use true or magnetic for north reference? second, which datum do i use? it says you use wgs84, my manual says to use that for nautical and nad27 for land. also since the 2000 only goes in tenths--example-- 39o 43.05n 105o 07.04w is it going to make finding these caches much more difficult being the coordinates here are on thousandths?

i've tried a few and have had problems. one site i cannot get it to find satalites and i'm basically in an open fieldw/ no cloud cover. it seems to take awhile to settle down before it starts to get close. when i got close to one, my first and only find so far, it got the coordinates but when i tried to dial it in it walking around in tight cross pattern it moved me away and i had to start over. i'm having a hard time trying to find three that are close to me but seem o have problems now getting close to then and thought i may have messed up the settings. any thoughts, suggestions, comments could be helpful. thank you, jmy

[+RonFisk]

i'm just starting out and i have an older magellan 2000. i've been using it for hunting and fishing and when i found out about geocaching i had to try it out. but i have an issue or two i need to understand for the setup. first, do i use true or magnetic for north reference? second, which datum do i use? it says you use wgs84, my manual says to use that for nautical and nad27 for land. also since the 2000 only goes in tenths--example-- 39o 43.05n 105o 07.04w is it going to make finding these caches much more difficult being the coordinates here are on thousandths?

i've tried a few and have had problems. one site i cannot get it to find satalites and i'm basically in an open fieldw/ no cloud cover. it seems to take awhile to settle down before it starts to get close. when i got close to one, my first and only find so far, it got the coordinates but when i tried to dial it in it walking around in tight cross pattern it moved me away and i had to start over. i'm having a hard time trying to find three that are close to me but seem o have problems now getting close to then and thought i may have messed up the settings. any thoughts, suggestions, comments could be helpful. thank you, jmy

I don't really know much about the Magellan 2000, but I can tell you this much, For geocaching you want to use True North and WGS84. You should also be able to set it for degrees & decimal minutes. This is the standard geocaching format used in the US.

If you're using nad27 you are going to be off by several hundred feet. You should be getting a good sat lock no matter which datum you are using. That has nothing to do with your reception. You may need to rebuild your almanac. Generally this is accomplished by starting your GPS and allowing it to sit in one spot for 20 minutes or so with a good view of the sky on a clear day.

[+RonFisk]

i'm just starting out and i have an older magellan 2000. i've been using it for hunting and fishing and when i found out about geocaching i had to try it out. but i have an issue or two i need to understand for the setup. first, do i use true or magnetic for north reference? second, which datum do i use? it says you use wgs84, my manual says to use that for nautical and nad27 for land. also since the 2000 only goes in tenths--example-- 39o 43.05n 105o 07.04w is it going to make finding these caches much more difficult being the coordinates here are on thousandths?

i've tried a few and have had problems. one site i cannot get it to find satalites and i'm basically in an open fieldw/ no cloud cover. it seems to take awhile to settle down before it starts to get close. when i got close to one, my first and only find so far, it got the coordinates but when i tried to dial it in it walking around in tight cross pattern it moved me away and i had to start over. i'm having a hard time trying to find three that are close to me but seem o have problems now getting close to then and thought i may have messed up the settings. any thoughts, suggestions, comments could be helpful. thank you, jmy

I don't really know much about the Magellan 2000, but I can tell you this much, For geocaching you want to use True North and WGS84. You should also be able to set it for Position Format: hddd mm.mmm. This is the standard geocaching format used in the US.

If you're using nad27 you are going to be off by several hundred feet. You should be getting a good sat lock no matter which datum you are using. That has nothing to do with your reception. You may need to rebuild your almanac. Generally this is accomplished by starting your GPS and allowing it to sit in one spot for 20 minutes or so with a good view of the sky on a clear day.

Edited April 26, 2008 by RonFisk

[jmythng]

i'm just starting out and i have an older magellan 2000. i've been using it for hunting and fishing and when i found out about geocaching i had to try it out. but i have an issue or two i need to understand for the setup. first, do i use true or magnetic for north reference? second, which datum do i use? it says you use wgs84, my manual says to use that for nautical and nad27 for land. also since the 2000 only goes in tenths--example-- 39o 43.05n 105o 07.04w is it going to make finding these caches much more difficult being the coordinates here are on thousandths?

i've tried a few and have had problems. one site i cannot get it to find satalites and i'm basically in an open fieldw/ no cloud cover. it seems to take awhile to settle down before it starts to get close. when i got close to one, my first and only find so far, it got the coordinates but when i tried to dial it in it walking around in tight cross pattern it moved me away and i had to start over. i'm having a hard time trying to find three that are close to me but seem o have problems now getting close to then and thought i may have messed up the settings. any thoughts, suggestions, comments could be helpful. thank you, jmy

I don't really know much about the Magellan 2000, but I can tell you this much, For geocaching you want to use True North and WGS84. You should also be able to set it for degrees & decimal minutes. This is the standard geocaching format used in the US.

If you're using nad27 you are going to be off by several hundred feet. You should be getting a good sat lock no matter which datum you are using. That has nothing to do with your reception. You may need to rebuild your almanac. Generally this is accomplished by starting your GPS and allowing it to sit in one spot for 20 minutes or so with a good view of the sky on a clear day.

i can set it for degree/ minutes or degrees/ minutes/ seconds, but i haven't noticed a difference

[+Woodstramp]

jmythng,

 

The Magellan 2000 was my intro to GPSing. Bought it for cheap off a guy at work. It was enough to set the GPS hook. I now have a Magellan Explorist 400. I sent the 2000 to my brother in WY to try and get him hooked.

 

That unit is accurate for an old unit(less sats and no WAAS), but it's not very sensitive. If I was going to use it travelling I had to leave it on the dashboard or hang it out the window to get tracking locks. If driving or walking through timber it would not find sats at all. If it was not not intialized before starting the trip it wouldn't lock for several miles.

 

It seems to work much better in travelling in a car than on foot. Here in heavy timbered Alabama I could only get locks in the woods by going to clearcut hills. It would work, just real frustrating compared to the newer unit I have now.

 

I wasn't into caching yet when I had the 2000, but I think you would do much better with one of these newer sensitive units they make now. Any of the lower priced Garmins or Magellans would be a major improvement for caching. I've seen Gamin Gekos NIB for $50 on Ebay.

 

My Explorist was only $80 from Ebay. New in box, shipping included. ( It didn't have WAAS accuracy when new because of that Magellan/WAAS deal, but thanks to the folks here I was able to fix that.) This thing tracks sats in my shirt pocket in heavy timber, is mapping and memory expandable.

 

Your 2000 will find stuff, but it will be real challenging.

 

Good luck.

Edited April 26, 2008 by Woodstramp

[jmythng]

thanks for the help guys , i've had this unit for god knows how long and it has been good i just didn't know how to use itas well as i should. here in colorado it can be hit or miss w/ the mountains and trying to get a signal but i do get signals in some weird areas and get none in unobstructed areas. anyway i thought i'd try it out to see if this was something of interest and so far it has but until i upgrade it looks like a fun sorta challenge

jmythng,

 

The Magellan 2000 was my intro to GPSing. Bought it for cheap off a guy at work. It was enough to set the GPS hook. I now have a Magellan Explorist 400. I sent the 2000 to my brother in WY to try and get him hooked.

 

That unit is accurate for an old unit(less sats and no WAAS), but it's not very sensitive. If I was going to use it travelling I had to leave it on the dashboard or hang it out the window to get tracking locks. If driving or walking through timber it would not find sats at all. If it was not not intialized before starting the trip it wouldn't lock for several miles.

 

It seems to work much better in travelling in a car than on foot. Here in heavy timbered Alabama I could only get locks in the woods by going to clearcut hills. It would work, just real frustrating compared to the newer unit I have now.

 

I wasn't into caching yet when I had the 2000, but I think you would do much better with one of these newer sensitive units they make now. Any of the lower priced Garmins or Magellans would be a major improvement for caching. I've seen Gamin Gekos NIB for $50 on Ebay.

 

My Explorist was only $80 from Ebay. New in box, shipping included. ( It didn't have WAAS accuracy when new because of that Magellan/WAAS deal, but thanks to the folks here I was able to fix that.) This thing tracks sats in my shirt pocket in heavy timber, is mapping and memory expandable.

 

Your 2000 will find stuff, but it will be real challenging.

 

Good luck.

[+Woodstramp]

here in colorado it can be hit or miss w/ the mountains and trying to get a signal but i do get signals in some weird areas and get none in unobstructed areas.

 

That's sounds familiar. The 2000 I sent to Lil Bro in Wyoming does the same thing. He told me that he had to leave it out on the hood of his car all night to get a sat lock. There are no trees where he lives. I would have thought his area would've been perfect for that old unit.