Urban Geocaching? Use your auto GPS.

If you ever go geocaching in an urban environment that you are unfamiliar with, you will quickly find that even with your handheld GPSr, you can find yourself a little lost in the city.  I found this out one day geocaching in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Luckily, I had a solution right under my nose…Uh…I mean in front of my eyes.  I had an automobile GPS receiver.  I am sure you have seen them.  Some popular units are TomTom, Garmin, and Magellan.  I have one called the Mio C230.  It is a basic unit, but, does help me get around unfamiliar areas.

Handheld GPS receivers are, by design, to function at its best while being carried while walking.  Automobile GPSr’s, on the other hand, don’t work very well in the woods, but, are great for getting you around town.  Most automotive GPSr’s will allow you to input coordinates.  You will have to adjust the way you input your geocache coordinates. 

We are all used to seeing a GPS coordinate in this format:

N 35° 37.017 W 081° 16.962

This is the standard format used on Geocaching.com and other geocaching listing services.  This format works great in your handheld GPSr, but, most automotive GPSr’s require the digital format like this:

35.61695 -81.2827

Both coordinates are exactly the same, but, in different formats.  Since your geocache coordinates will be loaded into your GPSr, you can simply tell your handheld GPSr to display the digital format.  I have had several handheld GPSr’s and all have allowed me to do this.  Here is how it looks on the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx:

The format highlighted in yellow is the decimal format.  Now when you view all of your waypoints on your handheld GPSr, it will show them in the format compatible with your automotive GPSr.  Don’t worry.  You can always change the format back.

Now all you have to do is look at the coordinates of the geocache you are trying to find and enter the decimal format into your automotive GPSr.  You can use your automotive GPSr to take you to the area of your geocache hunt!  It is easier and quicker than using your handheld unit.  This saves time and gasoline…And time and gas are money.