Geocaching Australia

Does anyone know if there's a way to see how many satellites you're picking up with the Etrex H?

I googled this site http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/eTrex_OwnersManual.pdf
It has basic info on number of satelites

Thanks nibbler! I didn't google for a manual because I already have one but it seems mine is missing half the content of the online version. The advanced skyview page is what I was looking for. On the weekend when GZ kept changing I wondered how many satellites we had but couldn't work out how to find out...

Does anyone know if there's a way to find a location on google maps or nearmaps by entering co-ordinates?

normally if you just google the coordinates, you can get google maps to display a map in the results


wait, that doesnt make sence, sorry. give me a second
Like this?



No idea how this would work with nearmaps!

If you enter loc: S35 AA.BBB E149 CC.DDD you will get the exact location and not the nearest street address

Do people have road GPS units they can enter coords into? Would be a handy way to get to the right street. I generally have to use the maps to look it up online or use "driving directions" on Gc.com to get that info.

What models would have this? My Navman doesn't.

Yurt wrote:Do people have road GPS units they can enter coords into? Would be a handy way to get to the right street. I generally have to use the maps to look it up online or use "driving directions" on Gc.com to get that info.

What models would have this? My Navman doesn't.

My somewhat old TomTom OneXL allows you to enter destination coords which seem to be in WGS84. You can enter as dd mm.mmm and it works fine. The only trick with the thing is that if it knows about a path that gets nearer to the cache it will take you there to where that meets the road, even if it is 4km away. It doesn't realise I can walk over 20m of grass to the path. But for 95% of caches it works OK.

Our Garmain Nuvi (can't recall model but it looks like an iphone) does it fine - same input as Richary's, just enter co-ordinates in "where to". It was the main GPS unit we used until I realised just how non-droppable it was and got a 'real' handheld and left it in the car. Just let it know that your "walking" route can be offroad and swap over (from drive to walk) when you get nearby, it will recalculate and drop you pretty much on it.

I found my first 1200 caches on a TomTom OneXL With Multi or Mystery Hides which needed co-ords plugged in I just created the waypoints as POIs on the fly, very easy.

Yeah I wouldn't want to use one for finding a cache but it would be nice to put coords in and have it guide me to the nearest jumping off point. Sometimes I have to drive around the streets in ever decreasing circles to get close! A bit dodgy on the driving front, one step up from texting I reckon, that's why I normally work out the street before going.
Of course as has been noted, the nearest road may not be the easiest approach to some caches! We learnt this early on using "driving directions" and finding ourselves crossing gorges to get to GZ!

I once tried finding a cache using my Nuvi (no idea what the number is, guessing it's an older model than GGau's?) , (i was waiting for either my iPhone or eTrex to find satilites or something?) and that was a bad idea. Never again.

It's quite good at telling me to take trails that dont exist, or to drive through a fence, onto a trail. Hmm, i think i'll just walk?
(a 'nearest EASY access point' would be a wonderful feature. sigh)

bubbles_baby123 wrote:normally if you just google the coordinates, you can get google maps to display a map in the results

Black Bunny wrote:If you enter loc: S35 AA.BBB E149 CC.DDD you will get the exact location and not the nearest street address

Not sure if I'm doing it right but I can only get an approximation. Degrees are right but there is some variation in minutes and/or seconds of the point marked on the map to what I typed in. Does it only come up with the nearest point that has been marked as a waypoint by someone else?

I think your problem revolves around google maps trying to assist you with your search. Google maps will try to find the nearest business/residence/park etc. To your coords, and drop the pin there. Have a play around by entering "a@s37 12.345 e143 56.789" and see if you can spot what google maps is doing.

Richary wrote: My somewhat old TomTom OneXL allows you to enter destination coords which seem to be in WGS84. You can enter as dd mm.mmm and it works fine. The only trick with the thing is that if it knows about a path that gets nearer to the cache it will take you there to where that meets the road, even if it is 4km away. It doesn't realise I can walk over 20m of grass to the path. But for 95% of caches it works OK.

Same with my newer Tom Tom. After using it for a year now, I don't know what I'd do without it. Needs care, as you say, but mostly excellent.