MnGCA

Team Hooligan · Geocacher Joined: 22 Dec 2002 Posts: 94 Location: Hibbing

Okay, so I know nothing about this subject. I believe some geocachers use Palm Pilots to store geocaches information pages. Currently, I print out the pages of the geocaches I want to look from and lug them around with me. I don't own a palm pilot but would consider getting one if it would be useful for this sport. If you have one, what type is it and how do you use of geocaching.
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Lyverbird · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 4:33 pm Post subject:

Me too, me too. My book is getting heavy. I leave it in the car, and I don't like to take the lap out and leave it in the car. Now a palm piolet for x-mas. Shocked

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rickrich · Geocacher Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 673

There is plenty of software available for Palm and Handspring PDAs that will let you carry the cache descriptions in those. Here is a link to one of the many docs you can find on the web with Google that describe the general process...

http://home.mchsi.com/~b.hammond/paperless.html

There is a good bit of advice in there about buying a cheap, perhaps used PDA for this purpose. I second that advice, having left my PDA at Lake Calhoun a couple months ago. I replaced it with a very good condition Handspring Visor Deluxe which I got off of eBay for $41 including shipping. These are perfectly good PalmOS PDAs that go for right around the $50 mark on eBay, give or take.

Another piece of advice. There are two kinds of people in this world: organized and the rest of us. If you are an organized person, you will find that a PDA is a valuable assistant. If you are an unorganized person, you will use the PDA to organize yourself for awhile, then go back to your disorganized ways. I wouldn't spend a pile of dough on the latest whiz bang PDA until you can honestly say which kind of person you are or are likely to become. That advice comes from the school of hard knocks Smile

.

Many people selling PDAs for cheap on eBay are the disorganized people who bought PDAs and then discovered they never used them. Shop carefully and you will get one that is barely used for dirt cheap.

-Rick

tomslusher · Geocacher Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Posts: 182

It just so happens I have a Palm M125 for sale. I used to use it for Geocaching but I upgraded to a Palm Tungsteen with a color screen. It is a godsend to use for geocaching, especially if you are a Premium member.

I am selling the Palm M125. I was always gonna put it for sale on Ebay but never got around to it. It works perfectly and great for the person who wants one just for geocaching or other basic fucntions such as address book and notepad. Selling cheap at $50. That price includes the cradle, a flipcover and the unit with fresh batteries. I'll even throw in shipping.

One of the best features is that it has a slot for additional memory for those really big geocaching weekends.

Check it out at the link below. Email me at tomslusher@stonebarrier.com for more information.

Palm M125 Support page

15Tango · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:30 am Post subject:

I've gone with an iPAQ pocket PC myself--I've read enough horror stories about pocket queries, so I don't use them--I'll just download the printable version of cache pages to my pocket PC before I head out caching, rather than print out a hard copy.
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There comes a time in every young boy's life when he gets an irresistible urge to seek buried treasure.--Mark Twain

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

RJ · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 7:52 pm Post subject:

Cars full of printed cache description pages? Not for this frugal guy. I can't afford all that expensive printer ink ($25 a cartridge!) so I just write down the coordinates on a piece of paper and enter them into my gps by hand. Sound slow and ancient? You're right.

Centris · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 11:36 pm Post subject:

tomslusher · Geocacher Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Posts: 182

I have a Palm Tungsteen T now and it comes with a voice recorder. I use it to record all my notes of what I left and what I took and anything else I may want to note. It is much easier for me now. I found a small camera I can mount in the card port. That will be great for taking quick digital photos and not having to worry about dragging along an expensive camera.

Just my opinion, but I love geocaching much more now that I have a Palm Pilot.

tomslusher

towlebooth · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:18 am Post subject:

TimbreWlf · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 7:27 am Post subject:

I use a Palm m130. What is working for me currently is to use GPXSpinner to convert the pocket queries to html documents and then use Plucker to store and view the pages on the PDA. There are some drawbacks, but this is what is working for me. I can keep the PDA and GPSr in the truck and when the spirit moves me, I'm ready.
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Kitch · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:02 am Post subject:

i'm thinking this is why I have so many can't finds......i just download the cords to my gps......I don't have any idea if its a micro, reg, any clues, sometimes just a vitural, or terrain, or hardness levels.....but heck ....more of a challenge....
no paper.....ever!!!!

I did for the first week......like every other newbie would.

Centris · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 10:03 am Post subject:

Kitch · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:27 pm Post subject:

i'm sorry that came out wrong...

I meant to say it like this.....if your a newbie you'd make sure you have every piece of info at your side....(right).

hmmm.....that just sounds bad no matter how i say it

RJ · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:49 pm Post subject:

Kitch, in your defense I will say how I first started geocaching, the first couple days anyway.

I would type in the zipcode of where I wanted to look and then when a cache description page popped up, I would just scroll down far enough to get the coords and the difficulty level (I was trying to make it difficult), completely ignoring if it was a micro, regular, jumbo, or VIRTUAL! I was oblivious to all that stuff. I thought all caches were ammo cans. After getting stumped (if you can call it that) I went online and saw my error. Talk about not doing your homework. Needless to say, my cache finding to not-finding ratio went sky high after that.

I like this thread so far!