a few questions

[+amiantos]

Hey. I just got my Venture HC (I am impressed with how fast it redraws the base map, I wonder if TOPO 2008 will re-draw as fast?) and I have a few questions.

 

I downloaded EasyGPS and GSAK. I've heard conflicting reports that one of these can decrypt the hint and put it in the comments for Geocaches. Which one of these does it? I like GSAK more (because I'm a geek) but EasyGPS is great, so either are good. I read that someone uses GSAK to filter/manage and then uses EasyGPS to transfer to their unit.

 

What does everyone recommend? And if it's GSAK, can you tell me what parameters you use? What works best for you when exporting to GPS? (Query strings and the like.) I'm going to try to be paperless from the beginning as I don't own a printer, but I don't know how much comment space the HC can hold, which brings me to my next question:

 

GSAK has a lot of great export options, HTML and the like. I have a SidekickLX so I can access the internet from my phone--just not in canyons or rural areas. It has a 'notes' function so I can easily copy and then search a document either from my notes page or from a .txt file I load in the browser in advance. The HTML export won't work because each cache is an individual page that I'd have to load when navigating between caches.

 

GSAK doesn't appear to have a text-only export, but maybe I am not paying attention. Does anyone understand what I mean?

 

Basically I want a straight text document that looks like this:

 

GC23402

"Awesome Hill Cache"

You're probably going to have to walk across a bridge yadda yadda

Hint: (not decrypted, because what is the fun in that?)

 

GC34942

"Yadda Yadda"

Etc etc etc

Hint: blah blah

 

So I can load it on my phone and then Find the cache I'm looking for so I can grab the info. Does anyone know of an easy way to do this? I'm sure there is someone who uses a PDA somewhere that does this.

 

Thank you SO MUCH in advance and I am looking forward to trying a couple of caches today.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Hey. I just got my Venture HC (I am impressed with how fast it redraws the base map, I wonder if TOPO 2008 will re-draw as fast?) and I have a few questions.

 

I downloaded EasyGPS and GSAK. I've heard conflicting reports that one of these can decrypt the hint and put it in the comments for Geocaches. Which one of these does it? I like GSAK more (because I'm a geek) but EasyGPS is great, so either are good. I read that someone uses GSAK to filter/manage and then uses EasyGPS to transfer to their unit.

 

What does everyone recommend? And if it's GSAK, can you tell me what parameters you use? What works best for you when exporting to GPS? (Query strings and the like.) I'm going to try to be paperless from the beginning as I don't own a printer, but I don't know how much comment space the HC can hold, which brings me to my next question:

 

GSAK has a lot of great export options, HTML and the like. I have a SidekickLX so I can access the internet from my phone--just not in canyons or rural areas. It has a 'notes' function so I can easily copy and then search a document either from my notes page or from a .txt file I load in the browser in advance. The HTML export won't work because each cache is an individual page that I'd have to load when navigating between caches.

 

GSAK doesn't appear to have a text-only export, but maybe I am not paying attention. Does anyone understand what I mean?

 

Basically I want a straight text document that looks like this:

 

GC23402

"Awesome Hill Cache"

You're probably going to have to walk across a bridge yadda yadda

Hint: (not decrypted, because what is the fun in that?)

 

GC34942

"Yadda Yadda"

Etc etc etc

Hint: blah blah

 

So I can load it on my phone and then Find the cache I'm looking for so I can grab the info. Does anyone know of an easy way to do this? I'm sure there is someone who uses a PDA somewhere that does this.

 

Thank you SO MUCH in advance and I am looking forward to trying a couple of caches today.

 

I use both GSAK and ExpertGPS (the pay version). If you use GSAK to download your waypoint you can use different icons for the different geocache types. Note that if you GPS has a Geocache feature (my Garmin 76Cx has it) it will only recognize the icon for a traditional geocache as an unfound cache. EasyGPS/ExpertGPS only support the traditional cache icon so all caches will look the same on your maps. I prefer to separate traditionals from unknown/multi caches, especially when traveling. You just need to remember to "Find Waypoint" as well as "Find Geocache" when looking for caches in an area.

 

For query strings, do a search in the forums as there have been former threads where many people posted the strings that they've found useful.

 

Rather than a text (or html) output for your Sidekick you might check to see if it supports Mobireader (.mobi) format. I use the "Mobi" macro for creating complete cache listings, including description, hints, and the five most recent logs. It also creates multiple indices so that you can find caches by name, owner, proximity and for each listing will show you the closest five caches. After loading up my pocket queries into a GSAK database I run the Mobi macro to create a file of all of the caches that I'm downloading to my GPS and send it to my Blackberry.

 

I still use ExpertGPS occastionally to print off a topo map of an area with geocache icons though the Google Maps or Google Earth macros for GSAK essentially do the same thing. With ExpertGPS it's just a little easier to create adhoc waypoints as reference points rather than creating markers in Google Earth and then doing the format translation. As a geek, you should look at GPSBabel (it's integrated with GSAK) and the myriad of command line options available. You can use it, for example, to create a route in Google Earth of an route you'll be driving, then convert the KML file to GPX format and send the turn-by-turn waypoints to your GPS.

[+amiantos]

Hey, thanks for your advice.

 

What I ended up doing:

 

I use GSAK for my databases of waypoints (totally awesome, GSAK is) and then export GPXes to EasyGPS to upload to my Garmin and then use that GPX in CacheMagnet to upload all the data to my iPod. Works brilliantly, and if I had used my phone to take notes the first time I went out I would have been totally paperless. Works like a charm.

 

Will probably end up buying ExpertGPS at some point, or just switch to GSAK full-time and pay for it. The transfer waypoints screen is scary.

 

Secondary question, if someone can answer this:

 

How do I get saved tracks off my Garmin and, say, load them in Google Earth so I can measure distance? I got the track off of my Garmin and into EasyGPS but it doesn't look like it can go anywhere after that.