Groundspeak Portal

Here is something I want to share. We each have a different way of waymarking.
In order to post a waymark you have to record co-ordinates, facts about the object and take photos.

As a backup I have pencil and paper, spare batteries and camera cards with me. In the car, spare PDA stylus, spare camera and spare gps which is also in-car satnav.

Initially to record the co-ordinates I used Memo feature of Palm M505. But Memo is difficult to search for co-ordinates when time came to post a Waymark. A spreadsheet was needed that could be read on desktop computer. Staying with Palm M505 used SheetToGo part of dataviz, bundled with PAlm PDA, which is the spreadsheet component of office suite. SheetToGo can be converted to common desktop formats of spreadsheet, which can be searched easily.

Then I discovered Minicalc from solutionsinhand.com, which is now freeware. This allows me to hotsync just the spreadsheet part, not all the Documents to go databases. I have all the category descriptions as text files converted to palm doc files (or WordToGo format). So each time you hotsync the Palm it synchs the Documents to go which takes ages. So I turn that conduit off when not needed. This speeds up hotsync.

More importantly MiniCalc and Miniwrite sync with multiple Palm PDA and multiple computers. Documents to go is very fussy, only synching with one computer and PDA pairing.

Minicalc has one quirk. The Import feature means convert from handheld to desktop, and Export means from desktop to handheld. Is this counter intuitive?

In the MiniOffice suite is Miniwrite which can read and alter native Palm doc files. More importantly it can create new files. Documents to Go does not. (The work around is to duplicate and edit a file.) Both Minicalc and MiniWrite have smaller footprints in Palm RAM and can store docs on removable SD card. But docs on SD card can not be searched. Searching doc files on PDA is important to find category requirements. So stored in RAM with duplicates on SD card.

Palm PDA can also display pictures, using bundled MGI photosuite or VDI (VD Image Viewer freeware).

Also created shortcuts in Palm Preferences to save writing out full category title and common words used. e.g. ch expands to church, cy to churchyard, cem to cemetery, amb to Ambleside.

The column headers used in spreadsheet are
DATE, PLACE, ITEM, CATEGORY, N, nn.nnn, W, ww.ww, NOTES, ALTnn.nnn, ALTww.www.

Place and Item are important for searching. Notes could be parking followed by ALTnn.nnn and ALTww.www filled with co-ordinates of good place to park or where second photo was taken.
e.g.
16/03/08, stainton, a65 burton to kendal4, milestone, 54, 16.636, 2, 43.152, swinder 1826 gatebeck foundry,,.

Date helps to cross reference when you find the photo and need the co-ordinates, as each photo has a datestamp in the EXIF information, if date and time set correctly on camera.

Extras worth considering are an in-car charger for handheld PDA, hard shell case and some way of backing up everything on extended trips. Laptop?

To visit a waymark I use geocaching routines.

All this needs 3 separate devices. PDA, GPSr and camera. It would be good to combine them into one, but photos are never good taken with PDA. I think a Bluetooth GPSr connected to a WinCE PDA would be ideal. Then can leave GPSr module stationary for 3 minutes or more to get accurate co-ordinates copied and pasted into spreadsheet. No human transmission errors. WinCE to run WhereIgo cache cartridges.
This was written on a PSION REVO. Retro!

I like this idea of explaining the whole process.

I haven't been carrying around your sheets of Posting and Visiting requirements. I'll be doing that soon.

Given that, I have a few categories' requirements in my old Handspring Visor. (It's also got Cachemate.)

I use a Garmin Venture HC for coordinate recording, and I have my GPSmap 60Cx for a car navigator/backup GPS, for now. (In a few months the Venture will be part of a "geocaching basket" for a charity auction.)

When I'm ready to waymark something, I hit "Mark" on the GPSr and then start it to averaging. If possible, I'll set it down close to the thing being waymarked. Sometimes I'll set it "behind" the thing so that it's not in the photo. Sometimes I hang it from a fence...
Anyway, while it's averaging, I get my photos.

The Garmins don't lose their collective minds when you turn them off or even if you pull the batteries, so I will normally risk my data by just leaving it in the GPS only until I get back to my computer.

Lately I've been using my Mac exclusively to handle waymarking, so I'll pull the photos off the camera card with iPhoto and all the data off the GPS with Garmin's Bobcat Beta.  I was using MacCaching, but Bobcat has turned out to be a better solution.

Then I geotag the photos using....uhm...a piece of software, the name of which I've forgotten. Lately I've been using Preview to reduce the size of the photos for uploading. Then I post the waymark. Then I upload the original size photos to flickr.

Recently I acquired a Panasonic Toughbook of fairly recent vintage, so on roadtrips or waymarking / geocaching excursions, I'll have a mobile base of operations back in the car... I have an auto adapter for it. It has all the Garmin software related to my GPSes, plus GSAK and the Palm Desktop stuff...

On vacations I've gone so far as to use a CD burner on a work notebook to backup my photos. Since then I've acquired more camera cards, so hopefully the backup that will be on the notebook will be sufficient, as the Panasonic doesn't have a burner (yet).

Jayhiker & Ahiker:

On Geocaching I do paperless caching.. I use Pocket Queries.. then GPX spinner, and Plucker to put the caches on my Palm PDA....I can do up to 500 at a time..and I get the full web page....is there a way you can do it with Waymarking to add 200 or 300 at a time??

We currently do not have pocket queries, you can down load as many loc files are you want and use the same tools you use to process your loc files however you will not have the details but then you usually don't really need them to find waymarks normally (there are a few exceptions).  

One thing I am doing to go a little more paperless is I am loading all the category descriptions in to a gpx file (with coordinates of N 0 W 0.)   This may seem to be a dumb thing to do but as I use a Nuvi for my driving around and I don't carry a pda, with the Nuvi I can load as large of poi file as my data card will hold thus if I have a question on a category I can easily look it up.  I am also loading local waymarks in a POI so when I am driving around it will let me know if I happen to be near one.

Search the geocaching forum for macros for GSAK and Nuvi.  Note you will probably want to change the title part of the macro for Waymarking.