[Team Deejay]

To save you from trying to find this thread the next time you need it, you should probably bookmark this link.

[Team Deejay]

@One Paddle Short wrote:

Navigator is missing some of the information that I liked from the Topo maps though. And I’ve tried to load both like some folks have suggested but that isn’t working for me. As soon as I load Topo maps the Navigator maps go away and vice versa. I can go in and turn off all the Topo maps and just see the base map (or if Navigator is loaded I can turn it off and see the base map). But I have not been able to load both Topo and Navigator (but sure would like to).

OK, its sort of a “trick” to get Mapsource to load both sets of maps. The secret is that you have to load BOTH sets on the same load. So….

1. Open up Mapsource. Select the Topo maps and select all the segments you are interested in loading.
2. Switch Mapsource to the City Navigator maps. Select all the segments you want here.
3. Just to be safe, switch back to Topo and make sure everything is still selected. It should be. If not, maybe this won’t work with your particular version of Mapsource.
4. (Optional) Save the selection to disk so that you can recall the selections without having to manually select everything.
5. Send the selection to the GPS.

Now, if you are in an area where you have both maps loaded, you should be able to switch back and forth (just like you could switch to the base map.) You should probably only load the TOPO segments for parks you are going to be in. As you know, the TOPO maps can be tricky for navigation. I have more than once tried to direct the driver down a power transmission line on the TOPO map. (She actually turned down the access road one time!)

[Team Deejay]

I can vouch for PDF995. We aren’t nonprofit, but nearly everyone uses it here. For some reason, our IT department has not set a standard for this particular app.

Be aware that this is not really freeware. This is “ad-supported” software. That means that when you go to “print” a document to a PDF file, you will get a a pop up window with an ad in it. If you don’t like the ads, you can pay a nominal fee (I think its $20) and they will send you a “kill the ads” keyword.

[Team Deejay]

While I think it would be a good thing to have every geocacher in Wisconsin join the WGA, I wouldn’t put a huge priority on this. We currently have around 900 members. I would guess that this includes nearly all of the non-casual (once a month or more) geocachers in WI. (There are less than 400 cachers in WI with 200 or more finds.) Perhaps we need to encourage our members to place the logo graphic and link on their cache page, but I do think most people find out about us early in the their geocaching life.

In terms of education, there are really 3 prongs we need to pursue:
1. New geocacher programs / Technical programs – We do a lot of this already, so little, if any, change is required.
2. Education of the various park / forestry / wildlife departments – We have done a nice job already with the WIDNR, but I think we can do more with education of the local / county parks departments. We are all only one bomb threat away from having a ban in our favorite parks.
3. Law enforcement education – In this area, we need to do much more.

I learned about Geocaching when I saw “Geocaching for Dummies” book at Barnes and Noble. After skimming the book, it only took me 3 years to actually give it a try.

[Team Deejay]

Just to answer the questions you didn’t ask yet.

1 degree = 60 minutes
1 minute = 60 seconds

Around here, a degree of latitude is about 69 miles. A degree of longitude is around 51 miles. So a minute of latitude is just over a mile and a minute of longitude is around 0.85 miles. Also, 0.001 minutes is around 6 feet in latitude and 4.5 feet in longitude.

To convert decimal degree coordinates (like N 42.12345 to “regular” geocaching coordinates multiply the fractional part of the number (.12345) to get the minutes, so .12345 * 60 = 7.407, so N42.12345 = N42 07.407.

If someone gives you coordinates that look like N42° 30′ 14.7″, this is degrees minutes seconds notation. To convert to “regular”, divide the seconds by 60 and add that to the minutes. So 14.7 / 60 = 0.245, so the coordinates are 42 30.245.

You may also run into coordinates that look like 16T 432345E 23456N. These are called UTM coordinates. You can convert them at jeeep.com. The 16T indicates a map page and the numbers are meters from the SW corner of the map.

Now that I’ve told you this, the very easiest way to make these conversion is to change the display format to the type of coordinates you have, then just navigate in that mode. If you need the actual numbers for some reason, change the display mode back to “regular” and your GPS will display them in that format instead.

Latitude (thats the North / South part) can range from 90°N (the North Pole) to 0° (The equator) to 90°S. If someone give you a latitude greater than 90, they are trying to trick you.

Longitude (Thats the east / west part) can 180°W (middle of the Pacific) to 0° (the prime meridian, runs through Greenwich, UK) to 180°E (which is the same as 180W). Starting at the prime meridian and going from east to west, the numbers start at 0, then go up to 180W. At 180W, the coordinates become E and start downward back to zero. So it goes 179W – 180 – 179E.

[/u]

[Team Deejay]

@SadowskiFamily wrote:

can you load both the topo and city nav on to the SD card then switch between the two different maps. ie use city nav to get to a cache area then swith to topo to assist getting to the cache itself.

Yes you can. You can also switch back to the basemap (why? I don’t know either), a Fishing Hot Spots map, or a Bluecharts water map. You switch in the map set up screen. You are still limited by the 2025 total map segments and your memory.

[Team Deejay]

As a dedicated TOPO user, I think I would recommend the City Navigator software. This is assuming that you are like most geocachers and spend more time driving to/between caches then you spend hiking to them (I include myself in this category). As far as I can see, the only disadvantages to the City Navigator package are:

• No contour lines which makes hiking in mountains and hills more challenging
• Fewer physical features (swamps, power lines, etc.)
• No trails
• More expensive and more frequent updates
• Limited to 2 GPSrs (TOPO has no restriction on number of GPSrs)

On the other hand, the CN road maps have more fewer missing streets (subdivisions can be a problem with TOPO), autorouting, and bigger map segments (so you can put more in your GPS if you have the memory). City Navigator also has coverage of Canada (this is in a separate package for TOPO). I would suggest that POIs provided in CN are a little better for the average person as well(more McDonalds and Starbucks, fewer cemeteries, schools and mountain peaks)

[Team Deejay]

Its pretty easy to find out who owns a particular piece of property by contacting the local town board /assessor. All this information is public, and many localities have this available online. Maybe putting the person’s name would make it a bit easier, but as long as they own property, they can be found. Its probably best that, if you hide on private property, you warn the owner that someone may call them on the phone or knock on the door asking about the cache.

[Team Deejay]

I’d like to add on to Anne’s suggestion, if I may, because I think it is a very good point. Another group I belong to has various teams (committees) to handle the various tasks, all of which have a board member as part of the team. Admittedly this makes the board meetings a little tedious, with all the team reports, but it does make it much easier to get a lot done. A set of teams which might work for us could include:

• Picnic
• Campout
• DNR/NFS Relations
• Local/County Parks Relations
• Law Enforcement/Fire Department Communications
• Membership / New member programs
• CITO
• …..

This would allow people to volunteer to work with the areas they are most interested in. Note that this would not need to be a “ByLaws” type of change to the organization, just a way to focus the efforts of our membership with leadership from the board. My experience with our group is that you can get help from a lot of people simply by asking. Most of our membership is anxious to give something back. We just need to channel this desire to accomplish big things.

[Team Deejay]

For me, the main motivation would be to see the highlights of the area, be they historical, geological, or whatever. It would be nice if there were a decent number of caches to find (say more than 10) which took us to those spots, but we don’t need to go all the way to Eagle River to get big numbers. The key is that the locations and the caches themselves need to be great.

The other items listed would have limited appeal for people traveling any significant distance, although a multiday geocaching event/party might draw us in. It is kind of silly to drive 5 hours each way to get a geocoin (although some would do it), and I don’t think lodging/food discounts would make a lot of difference to anyone.

[Team Deejay]

The problem is that most of your repair options for this unit are limited assuming your unit is out of warranty. Ideally, you could convince Garmin to send you a repair part, but I’m not sure they will do it. You could fabricate a small piece of plastic or metal to sit under the band, which would probably work for a while, but it will be challenging to keep the unit waterproof. You could send it in for refurbishment, at a cost of $59 + one way freight (the $59 includes return freight) on a unit that you can buy on Amazon for under $75. Not a lot of good options.

[Team Deejay]

Great job! Had it not been for IV and Everglade Pitch, you probably would have hit it 2 weeks ago!

[Team Deejay]

I think people are reading them, although the message volume is large, so some people may be just skimming.

[Team Deejay]

If you are looking to use this card in a Garmin x series GPS, there is a limitation you should be aware of (with the GPS, not this particular card). Most people are adding these cards to add more map capacity to their GPS. The current firmware limits you to loading 2030 map segments, regardless of how much memory they occupy. If you use the TOPO US maps, like I do, this is only about 500 MB (it depends on exactly which segments you select, but they are similar in size). The entire US was around 6000 segments, and about 1.5G. The rest of the memory can be used for track, routes, and POIs, but thats about it. (You cannot use it for waypoints, that also has a fixed number of 1000.)

The point of this is that you should check on Mapsource with your map package to see how much memory the 2030 map segments will occupy. (I don’t have access to City Navigator or City Select). If is under 512M and you only want more memory for TOPO maps, a 512M microSD card will do what you need at a lower price. When I talked to Garmin about this limit, they said there were no plans at this time to lift this limitation in the firmware.

The good news is that 2030 segments will cover all the eastern US down to just above the Georgia-Florida border, so I’m not likely to be wandering that far without planning enough to change the maps. That said, my 2G card is sitting 75% unused. Oh well.

[Team Deejay]

Interesting point. Before I replied, I checked all the candidates and, as far as I can tell, only one of the candidates is retired. (I’m always surprised that more retired people don’t get involved in boards like this.) I think in most cases, the issue is NOT the amount of time available, but, more accurately, their willingness to commit their free time to the organization. I’m certainly willing to commit the time needed to “give something back” to the sport and the organization. I get a great deal of enjoyment from this sport and would find the time to commit as needed.

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