I use Watcher, a FREE program for
manipulating the .gpx files and prepping them for transfer to CacheMate and
eventual download to the PDA. Watcher allows you to look at GC, name, coords,
difficulty, as well as see the status of the last 5 finds by icon. You can
call pretty much all the information up in smaller windows if you want cache
page description, etc, and the GC links directly to the gc.com page for the
cache itself. You can filter by direction/distance (I believe on the latter),
and difficulty as well to tailor the results to suit your needs. It saves the
updated .gpx, then CacheMate is used to convert it to a .pdb file for download
to the PDA.
The choice to convert to paperless was
easy. One week, I printed over 40 pages of cache info to go out and find.
Another week I printed another 50. Then I started looking for a way out of
that, because it would get too expensive too fast. Now, I couldn’t be
happier. Two pieces of electronic equipment are my staples now, along with
trinkets/water/talking sticks, but all much less cumbersome than all that PLUS
paper.
Brian
Team A.I.
From: az-geocaching-bounces@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-bounces@listserv.azgeocaching.com] On Behalf Of AZcachemeister
Sent: Wednesday, September 28,
2005 6:50 AM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] a
better way!!
You will need to become a 'premium member' ($3/Month
or $30/year) of Geocaching.com to receive .gpx files either individually for
each cache page, or in groups via Pocket Queries. The .gpx file contains all
the information found on the first page of a cache listing, including the five
most recent logs.
Geocaching Swiss Army
Knife (GSAK) is an awesome
program, available for a 30 day free trial, and now $20 to register (still WAY
worth the $20!) With GSAK you can sort, weed through, manipulate, view,
arrange, and modify cache listings into manageable groups for upload to your
GPSr and/or PDA (you could probably get a decent PDA off EBay for $25, or you
could spend $350 for the latest model) .
For the PDA, you will need a copy of CacheMate (also has free trial, currently
$8 to register) to view the information uploaded from GSAK. Again, you will
have the co-ordinates, difficulty, owner comments, and the first five finder
logs as well as a space to record the date, time and your comments for your
find on the cache.
Once registered both GSAK and CacheMate include free upgrades for life. Both
developers are constantly improving their products to include user-requested
features.
No trees are killed in this process, but a bunch of electrons are highly
inconvenienced!
Cache On!
Azpaul1 wrote:
Since you mentioned mapsource, I am assuming that you
have and using a Garmin gps unit. The only gps that I know off that lets
you download all the page info. is a Garmin I-Que.
Until just recently, I too used your method of
entering waypoints and in the last couple of months have, with
some help of close friends, I have gone paperless. The answer sounds very
complicated, but once everything is set up it is a snap to use.
First, I set up a series of pocket queries that I run
weekly. I then load them into a waypoint management database called
GSAK (the best $8.00 I have spent, I might add).
GSAK , allows me to load the waypoints into
my 60C and the page info. into a PDA.
Like I said earlier, it sounds complicated, but once
everything is set up it is a snap to use. With the PDA, I don't have to carry a
clip board full of printout's to rummage through for the info that I
need and I can enter notes about the cache I just found.
I hope this helps,
Paul aka "AZPAUL"