Sunday, February 22, 2009

Delorme Geocaching: I Like Where They're Going

I've been looking for an excuse to get the PN-40 out and try the new software. Unfortunately the only option right now for loading the caches into the GPS as Geocaches is through the "Send to GPS" button on geocaching.com. Last night we had three new caches publish, a perfect opportunity to give it a try. I was very impressed with their connection as it was much faster than the Garmin. There were no buttons to press, it just found the unit and loaded up the unit. As finding caches from the unit I real couldn't say as we were not the first to find any of these park and grab caches in the freshly fallen snow. I logged all the finds through the iPhone, but went through the in GPS logging on the PN-40. Between the Garmin and Delorme models, the Delorme looks to be the winner. It features a pop-up with short, common messages (i.e. "TFTC"), a field to enter extended notes, and a signature. The cache information seems a little more difficult to access than on the new Garmins (Colorado and Oregon) and is certainly harder to read. I'm anxious to really give the beta 2.5 software a work-out, but until their Cache Register app comes out it doesn't seem very likely. That will allow GPX files (Pocket Queries) to be loaded as Geocaches into the PN-40. That makes it usable for a full day cache outing and will give me the chance to really give it at work out. Once I spend more time with the unit I hope to be able to fly through the menus to get the info I need. For now I can say that I think I see the direction Delorme is going with their support for Geocaching and I am not disappointed. I'll be watching for the updates and especially the Cache Register.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the hack that lets you install pocket queries? http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=17592&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Unknown said...

I had tried it. Unfortunately it loaded someone else's GPX into my PN-40. The closest cache was nearly 6,000 Miles away.