Introduction to Paperless Caching
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Tired of carrying a stack of papers while caching? Paperless caching is an attractive alternative to printing out cache page descriptions, allowing you to have access to the full cache description, hints and recent logs from any cache. Some paperless cache solutions will also allow you to write field notes that you can upload (with a few additional steps) as your found logs to GC.com. If you are interested in paperless caching, this series of tutorials will offer various options you can use to give paperless caching a try. This article will outline the basics that you will need to get started. |
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Minimum Equipment
- PDA (personal digital assistant) or equivalent: You will need this to view the cache descriptions. This could be a Palm-based PDA, a Pocket PC (running Windows Mobile), a Blackberry or even an iPod
- Premium Membership: The whole point of paperless caching is to have access to the full cache description. As demonstrated in another tutorial, these details are only available in GPX files, and not LOC files. You will need a Premium membership to get access to the needed GPX files and to set up Pocket Queries
- PDA Viewer Software: You will need a specific program to view the cache details on your PDA. This may be a Geocaching specific program (such as CacheMate, BeeLineGPS etc.) or a more generic program that views web pages or eBooks (Plucker, MobiPocket)
- Exporter Program: You will need to export the cache descriptions in the appropriate format for your PDA viewer software. GSAK will export most formats, but it is not the only choice to do this job.
Choice of Device and Software
What device you choose to use for paperless caching is a personal preference, and I won't even try to compare them. I have access to both a Palm device, and a PocketPC smartphone. I use my Palm as my paperless caching device, since my PocketPC is also my cell phone and am nervous of it getting banged around on the trails. You can get older Palm devices fairly cheaply from eBay and other sources. You really don't need anything too fancy for the basics of paperless caching.
Similarly, your choices of programs will depend on your device (Palm, PocketPC, BB, iPod) and whether or not you want to spend some money on programs or not. Below are some of the choices you can consider.
Palm Devices
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Cachemate is available for Palm, and is reasonably priced at $8 US. It has been written specifically for geocaching, and does a very good job. Not only can you export cache information from GSAK to Cachemate for Palm easily, but you can also import your found logs from your PDA and have GSAK help you log them online. There will be a tutorial that reviews how Cachemate works. There hasn't been a lot of development on the Palm version of late, but it is a very stable and useful program. |
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Plucker Desktop is a free program that will convert web pages (HTML files) into a format that can be read on the Palm. It also includes a free Plucker viewer for your Palm. Using Plucker is a two step process. You will first have to get the cache pages into HTML format, and then convert them to a Plucker file. GSAK can handle this easily, but you can also use a program called GPXSpinner . |
PocketPC Devices
Cachemate is available for the PocketPC as well. It is somewhat more developed than the Palm version and can read GPX files natively. This simplifies paperless caching, compared to the Palm since you do not need GSAK to convert GPX files into another format. (That doesn't mean that GSAK can't still be handy in this case.) It is the same low price as the Palm version. In fact, one payment of $8 will allow you to install it on a few (not sure the maximum number) of devices--both Palm or PocketPC.
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There are other PocketPC programs, but I haven't really used any of them. Some of them inlcude BeeLineGPS , GPXSonar , and GPXview . GPXSonar is free but doesn't appear to have any recent development (and the main page appears dead). GPXview can be used for free, but a $13 donation will get rid of the reminders and BeeLineGPS will cost you about $30 US (but you can try it out for 30 days for free.) |
iPod
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Although the iPod is not designed for caching, there are ways that you can use your iPod for paperless caching There is a GSAK macro that will export cache descriptions as iPod Notes. There is also a free program, CacheMagnet , that will allow you to sort your caches and then send them to your iPod as Notes. If you have an iPod, you can listen to music and paperless cache at the same time! |
Blackberry
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Since I have a Windows Mobile Smartphone, I haven't used a Blackberry for paperless caching. I do know that MobiPocket is also available for the BB and that can be an option for paperless caching. Using the GSAK macro , you can produce a MobiPocket book of cache descriptions that is readable on the BB. Geo Page also written a brief introduction to Cacheberry --a new paperless caching solution for the BB. You can read that tutorial here . |
Once you have an idea of what device you want to try paperless caching, take a look through the various tutorials on how to use the various options. I will be working on tutorials, describing how to use many of these setups. If there is one method in particular you are interested in, let me know and I will try to get working on those first.
