Help – need to upgrade my caching/ tech skills

[baileyhkMember]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to get to that great place where I can load my caches onto my handheld from gsak (OK I can do that!), have something which means I do not have to print anything out (no idea what to get – palm??) and have a decent car gps which also shows where the caches are. I hear this is all possible but whenever I try looking for info all I can find it a bunch of techno terms and there are so many options out there.

Can anyone tell me what they use and how they use it, what they like or dislike so I can get a better idea of what I should be looking for. I am normally pretty good technology wise but need some help here!!

Thanks in advance

Jo

[zumaParticipant]

Hi,

I am sure a lot of folks will offer a lot of tips in response to your question.

I did want to mention though, that I think that there are a lot of cachers like yourself that enjoy the game, but are not using the technology to greatest benefit. It is for this reason that I am trying to develop a Membership Committee to develop, plan and hold “Geocaching 201” classes around the state. The basic idea would be to provide hands on help with the items you mention, and learn some of the tricks of the trade that makes caching so enjoyable for those who do it a lot.

The advice you will get here in the forum will no doubt be helpful, but in my mind, there is no substitute for hands on learning and practical application of skills. I think the game can be a lot more fun, once you learn how to do more than print out paper cache pages and hand enter coords, and I want the WGA to help folks like you to learn those skills hands on.

So, stay tuned for this.

zuma

[cheezeheadMember]

Jo, I talk the wife into letting me buy an Ipod Nano, cuz it can is a muti-purpose, thou I have just used it for caching. All you need is free program called Cache Magnet. The program is pretty slick as has maps too. If you have any questions let me know. You can also load your GPSr with it too. You also need to be a premium member cuz it runs off of pocket quarys.

[RSplash40Member]

What gps do you have? I use gsak and push as much info as I can cram into the 60cx using the gsak short cuts for d/t, container size, hint, etc. Generally enough info can be garnered from that to make the find.

What cell phone? Get a internet package on that and read while in the field. Go iphone, get rid of gps altogether :>

For me, I use my laptop with gsak and delorme on a RAM Mount pedestal in the truck to get me close, then the 60 for the fine tuning. With that setup I almost always have all the info on the trip I need.

[GetMeOutdoorsParticipant]

For paperless caching, I have grown fond of CacheBerry but it only works on a blackberry. It’s like a portable GSAK in a way. It looks similar and holds all the cache information. It loads GPX files so you can either use the GPX that groundspeak sends you from your pocket query or you can use a GPX file exported from GSAK. I typically use the latter option becuase then I can use GSAK’s filters to get just the ones I want.

So by having one GSAK exported file for my GPS and one for the Blackberry, I’m ready to go. Cacheberry utilizes multiple “databases” the same way GSAK does and you can load a boat load (I’m sure there’s some limit) of caches in each database. I try to keep it under 500 in each database so it doesn’t go too slow.

I used to use a palm and plucker. From GSAK I would export a huge html version of the caches I wanted. This basically appended every cache page together to make one giant file. Then this plucker software turned it into a big file that the plucker reader on the palm could manage. The disadvantage to this was that it was slow and you had to search for each cache becuase the single file was so long. But all the software was free and it it was paperless, albeit a bit cumbersome. This also did not allow me to track finds or make field notes, which cacheberry does.

When we team up for that Buckets of rain final, I’ll show you cacheberry 😉

[amita17Participant]

@zuma wrote:

I think that there are a lot of cachers like yourself that enjoy the game, but are not using the technology to greatest benefit. It is for this reason that I am trying to develop a Membership Committee to develop, plan and hold “Geocaching 201” classes around the state. The basic idea would be to provide hands on help with the items you mention, and learn some of the tricks of the trade that makes caching so enjoyable for those who do it a lot.

The advice you will get here in the forum will no doubt be helpful, but in my mind, there is no substitute for hands on learning and practical application of skills. I think the game can be a lot more fun, once you learn how to do more than print out paper cache pages and hand enter coords, and I want the WGA to help folks like you to learn those skills hands on.

So, stay tuned for this.

zuma

I am staying tuned. I don’t use technology to its full extent, and would be grateful for a 201 class. I read all the forums, but it is Greek to me much of the time. Hands on, or at least a video, would be more helpful. Thanks for trying to get a plan in the works.

[baileyhkMember]

thanks for the help – downloaded cachemate and I now have a ton of caches on my ipod. Still need to figure out some mapping stuff though. I think the idea of a geo-tech event/ class is great – you can count me in for sure!!

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