Santa brought you a brand new GPS receiver (GPSr). Now what?If you have a friend who is into geocaching, he or she is the person that can be of most help. But if not, here are few tips.
Garmin has an interesting page, "What Is GPS?" This page is a little technical, but does explain how a GPSr works.
Garmin has also produced a good document, "GPS Beginner's Guide." It is not very specific, but is worth reading.
One of the best documents is provided on wikiHow. It is titled, "How To Go Geocaching" and should be read completely. Many questions can be answered there.
Take a while to become familiar with your new GPSr. Learn the basic functions, especially how to add waypoints. Most new GPSr's come with a USB cable that allows you to transfer coordinates, but if not, you will have to enter them manually. This can be time consuming and I don't recommend it unless you don't have any other means of entering the information.
Take your GPSr into the back yard or a nearby park and walk around with it. Switch to the compass screen. On most models, the compass screen doesn't work exactly like a compass. A real compass will point north even when standing still. Your GPSr changes only if you are actually moving. This is because the computer inside is looking at several coordinates and calculating where you are, what direction you are heading, and your speed.
Explore all of the features of you new toy. You will find it can be very useful for things other than geocaching!
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1 comment:
I have had my GPS for quite awhile but decided to start Geocaching a few months back... Needless to say I am hooked... Unfortunately with about 3 feet of snow I don't find myself doing much caching right now... just lots of longing to be out caching.
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