MnGCA

[RINO SHAWN]

I have had the Cingular 8125 pocket PC phone for over a year now....I have the unlimited data plan from Cingular....uh? AT&T now...again....

I've always wondered just how well it would work as a GPSr if I added a bluetooth GPS receiver to it. A few weeks ago, I downloaded (the free) micorosoft one search for it....The mapping seemed to work pretty well, and it supports GPS....so I finally bit the bullet and purchased the Holux240 Bluetooth GPS receiver. (SirfIII technology).....works VERY well for driving directions...has outstanding reception (I can get a lock on 7 satelittes most times INSIDE the house!) and it is nice and small..about the size of a usb memory stick.

about a week ago, I downloaded a free 30 day trial of BeeLineGps. Has anyone tried this software? I take my pocket querie email files and hotsync them to the pocket pc.....from BeeLineGps, I import the files...and off I go... as I see the geocaches coming up on the screen, 1 touch brings up the geocache basic info....if I hold the stylus on the geocache for a couple of seconds instead of tapping it, I get a list of several options:
go to
cancel go to
geocaching info
edit waypoint
delete waypoint
etc.

if you select the geocaching info, you get the html page of the cache from geocaching com and 5 logs.

after you find the geocache (hopefully you find it) you can also quick select ....found it .... and you can also leave a field note (what you took, what you left)....the icon on the map page will then show up as the open geocache symbol
on the geocache info html page, there is also a hyper link of the gcxxxxx code....one touch there, and you are linked to geocaching.com to log your find.

Everything works well ....for the most part

The only issue I am finding, and I am not sure if the problem lies with the BeeLine software, or the Holux gps receiver hardware:

Seems to work well right up until the last 100 feet or so...(when I need it the most)...as I am walking towards the waypoint, I see the data for distance to cache dwindling down lower and lower...than it just freezes and stops updating... usually won't start registering again until I move around for awhile again.

As I am typing this, it just occurred to me that the BeeLine software has an alert set at 100 feet to let you know you "have arrived at destination".....hmmmm? I think I will check and see what happens if I change that setting to 0

otherwise, as it stands right now.....excellent setup for getting you to the cache...with all the tools at your fingertips....just might not be the tool of choice in the woods.

Shawn
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Everyone has a photographic memory..some, like me, just don't have any film.