Faye & Brad

Learned Gerbil has given some great advice. I recently went down the PDA route, as the GPS-only solutions were a lot of money without much flexibility. I bought an HP iPAQ RX3715 as I wanted to use the built-in Nevo universal remote control application. (As it turns out, this is the thing I have used the least! ) I also bought TomTom Navigator 3 with bluetooth GPSr, and I LOVE it! We recently went on holiday and we felt sure of the journey each and every step of the way (plus we were alerted to speed cameras well in advance, which was nice!) For Geocaching (primarily) I also bought 2 Memory Maps; South and North. These aren't too good when driving, as they don't give you turn-by-turn directions - but to be fair, that's not what it's designed for. On foot (and on a boat on the Norfolk Broads), it is fabulous. Being able to see your exact position on a real OS map is brilliant! This will scare me - lots! But I'll try and work out the costs of everything I bought... iPAQ: £275 TomTom + GPS: £160 Memory Map: 2 @ £33.95 1Gb SD Card: £55 TOTAL: £557.90!! Ouch! I didn't realise it came to THAT much!! BUT, I have to say, it's a brilliant set-up. When you add GPS Sonar, the ability to take the full cache pages out with you (electronically), and write your logs in the field AND take photos, all in one unit, it's really great. Hope that's of some help! You can do the same thing a lot cheaper with other PDA's, but that's how I did it. Happy caching! Brad

Either way, he sounds like a really nice chap. After just spending the best part of 3 hours talking to a close friend who is going through a really bad time at the moment, it's so nice to hear of yet another nasty person with nothing better to do than make other people's lives a misery. Sometimes I wonder why we bother! Brad

Well, often the cache description will tell you roughly how far away the cache is from the start point - as well as wether it's accesible to pushchairs / wheelchairs / etc.

Another point to consider is that a lot of people (ourselves included) take children "treasure hunting" with them. The youngsters would have difficulty walking a long distance, but enjoy the actual hunt at the cache location wether they have walked 200yds or much further. In the same way that McDonald's toys and the like wouldn't appeal to the adults, a long walk to find the treasure wouldn't be of interest to the children. That's the beauty of Geocaching. You'd be hard pressed to find another activity that can (and does) cater to such a broad spectrum of very different participants, abilities and ages. Happy Caching! Brad

I use the Tomtom bluetooth GPSr with my iPaq and it works really well - even from inside a pocket! Battery lasts hours, and is rechargeable. If you get the car kit, you can even charge it while it's in use. Hope this helps! Brad

Today marked our official return to caching after a break of nearly two years. I've recently bought an iPaq rx3715 along with Tom Tom navigator (inc. bluetooth GPS), as I wanted to use the iPaq for a lot of things other than geocaching ( shock!). I also have my original Garmin eTrex Legend, which had never let me down. The plan was to try and go paperless, but I didn't like the idea of being out in the sticks without andthing to refer to, so printed out the cache sheets as well. I'd take the Legend out and have my wife and kids use that, while I tried to get to grips with the iPaq. So, after spending the last few days reading up and getting as much software as I thought I might possibly need, I thought we were set to go. Memory Map had the caches waypointed, GPX Sonar had the cache pages stored, yup - time to give it a try... except I couldn't find the Legend for love nor money! So the question now was should we cancel the trip until the Legend reappears, or take a leap of faith and see how we get on? One short leap later, we arrived at the first cachesite and for the rest of the day everything went absolutely brilliantly. Using the iPaq, I was able to see exactly where we were on a real OS map (thanks to Mapsource), read the cache pages and make notes in the field (GPS Sonar) and even take photos at each cache (iPaq again). As an added bonus, the GPS itself stayed in my pocket the whole time and never worried about having a "clear view of the sky" once! Fabulous! So when the Legend does show it's face again, the others can certainly use it - but we won't be needing paper again. Absolutely everything we needed for the day (with the exception of a pen to sign the logs) was contained in one small, lightweight unit. THIS is how it should be! Happy caching! Brad

Does that mean that putting Long / Lat coords into Memory Map (or even just downloading waypoints from GC.com) will put the markers in the wrong place on the map?

If it's different voices you're after, take a look here. A tad pricey at £9.99 each - but good fun, none the less! And it's worth noting that some of them don't sound too great on a nice set of PC speakers, but on a PDA they really do sound the business! It's great having Captain Jean-Luc Picard direct you somewhere, and finish off with "Engage docking maneouvers"! Brad (who only got his PDA yesterday - at long last!!)

Personally, I like reading nice long cache logs. I think my favourite of all time has to be this one of SimonG's (and the 2nd part right above it) - makes me laugh every time I read it!! Poor Simon lol If you read it, he could have just said TNLN - but then we'd have been robbed of such a classic tale!

Hi, Did you mean wireless access from home, or when you're out and about? If it's the latter, BT Openzone is quite good, and probably the easiest to find access points for. More info on them here. If it's home wireless, Belkin do some pretty decent kit at really good prices. They're also easier than most to set up. The kit you need depends on whether you are on ADSL or Cable. Which PDA do you have? A lot of the new ones have wireless networking (802.11b) built in already, so once you set up a wireless home network, you'd be able to surf from the garden in no time Now we just need some warmer and drier weather!!

So if you don't have either, and are looking into buying one at the mo, it's better to get v3 than wait for v5, right? Also, isn't v5 already shipping (aka Tom Tom Mobile - for Smartphones?)

I'm on holiday on the 28th May.... Can I have permission to place a holiday cache? Tell you what, let's risk all. I'd like to place a holiday cache which will be members only of course. I'll stock it with cheap booze and fags, maybe a few pen-knives too? I won't be able to find someone else to cache-sit for me, but I promise to go back to it maybe once every few years or so..... Or shall I get my coat You forgot to mention you'd set it without a gps Bob good point.... and it'd be in an old margerine tub as well And all kept safe in a nice black plastic bag, which has been soaked in strawberry juice to hide the smell of the thing

Following on from Alibags' comments about freaky mist in a photo (here)), that got me thinking... what's the scariest or creepiest thing that has happened, or you have seen, while cacheing? Our cache, Creepy Canewdon, has had a few interesting logs and photos. (Actually, some time after we left the cache, Most Haunted did a live show there! Definately not a place for a night cache!! Anyone got any more? Brad

Bah! I hate things like that!! Nice and freaked out now!! lol... Which has got me thinking... look out for a new subject in a sec!!

Good news, Lacto. Welcome to the forums, Man With No GPS! We're a nice bunch really! We just get upset when we see things that will bring the game a bad name, or could be potentially hazardous being placed into a cache. Hope you haven't been put off and will enjoy the game for many years to come! Best wishes, Brad

Hmm - I didn't word that very well... of course I wasn't suggesting people should dis cachers in here... what I should have said is "e-mail the cache placer, and CHAT in here!! I.e. about anything; not about the cache! I like your idea on suggesting cachers rate the cache until an official implementation is done... mind if I borrow it in future? Brad

Maybe just leave a standard "SLTNLN" log and e-mail the cacher privately, or comment in here? Brad

To be fair though, and play devil's advocate to a degree, we haven't found many caches but we placed one at an interesting location, and made sure that it was a place that was a) easy to get to and within a reasonable distance for us to maintain. Common sense has a part to play in this. Even if you were to find 50 caches, there would be no real deterant to you putting a cache in the middle of a field somewhere simply because there wasn't one there previously. I suppose an analogy would be with photography... you can buy all the expensive gear, take photos for years, and still be a lousy photographer because you don't have the "eye" for it. At the same time, someone else can pick up a cheap disposable camera and grab amazing shots. One thing that is worth pointing out is that you can always read the details of the cache before you set out. If it sounds like a bad / lousy location, then perhaps you could leave it and find another that was more to your taste? Brad

The whole thing beggars belief... a cache set by a person without a GPS (if their name is taken literally), and a finder who leaves behind "a whole load of crap" including used lip balm and a couple of sweets!! For the benefit of those new to the game, this is NOT typical behaviour of the vast majority of us!! In fact, foodstuffs shouldn't ever be left in a cache.

Another tip:- When you find the cache, take it several meters away from the hiding place before you open it. This way, if someone should wander past, the hiding place won't be compromised. Once you've traded and signed the log, and the coast is clear, you can safely return the cache to it's hinding place. Although we haven't found many caches ourselves, we have had people wander past on a few occasions and the above advice came in handy! Best wishes, Brad *edit - why does hitting Submit generate typos?

Thanks folks, but I've pretty much decided on the XR 3715 now. The remote control is a big selling point for me. I plan on getting into home automation soon, and this unit is able to control X10 devices straight off the bat. A similar, stand-alone Philips Pronto remote was £150 last time I looked (which, admittedly was a long time back!). Still looking, but haven't found anyone cheaper than Ebuyer as yet. For those of you who have now gone paperless, what does your arsenal of software contain? There's so much about, it's hard to know what I'm going to need! Thanks Brad

Hi all, I'm looking to update my kit. Currently I have a Legend, which has been fine for cacheing, but now I want to invest in a PDA for business use and so thought it would be nice to also get a full PDA/GPS setup for in-car navigation that I can also take OUT of the car for cacheing... I've decided to go for the HP Ipaq RX 3715 as :- * (no offence to Palm users) I'm not a fan of Palm software. * I love the Nevo remote control software that's built in. * I have an Orange SPV C500, so Mobile Windows will work well with this * It's within my budget Do any of you have this PDA? What do you think of it? Now, this bit I'm confused about... if I were to buy Tom Tom Nav 3 (software-only), and things like Memory Map etc, can I somehow connect my Legend to the Ipaq and use that? Or must I buy a specific GPS meant to be used by PDA's? Lastly, do you know where I can get this cheaply? The best price I have found is Ebuyer at £265 + delivery. Thanks in advance!!! Brad

Hello all! It's been a LONG time since our last cache. It's good to see so many familiar names still playing the game, and very sad to hear of the loss of Mark "The Cat" last year. Is "The Hornet" still playing? To date, Peter was the only cacher we have actually met when we (like loads of others) went to Watford and bought a load of ammo boxes from him! I've spent the past couple of days catching up on the past few months' worth of threads and it's kind of interesting (in a morbid way) to see that this forum is still capable of generating such passionate debates. It seems that only the names have changed but the same old arguments continue! To mention but one, a couple of years ago I too was interested in producing UK Geocaching coins! The more things change, the more they stay the same! Also, it's good to see that our second-ever cache, Creepy Canewdon, is still being visited fairly regularly, and amazingly, our travel bug, Evil Cat, has clocked up an unvelievable 16,500 miles!!! Anyway, this was just a note to say hello. I'm going to be updating my kit soon, and would like some help choosing the right stuff - but I'll leave that for next time!! Best wishes, Brad

My first post in ages, as this is something I think you shjould be aware of... After all the hassle in the past, it looks like they have decided to now not co-exist after all Look here And here... In both threads, there are hints that they are actively geotrashing people's caches. It's such a shame they are like this as there is so much that could be achieved if they were more reasonable and open-minded.

Not had that, but last night (this morning?) around 1:30am I was getting error 404's! Not just here - but the entire Groundspeak forums!