OldGeezer

Why would anybody need to use profanity to express themselves in the first place. Profanity adds nothing to the meaning of a sentence except crudeness.

I live at the foothills of the central California Sierra. This is premium hiking country. I have spent every summer on one kind of trek or another for the past seven years. I don't cache when I'm hiking because almost all my trips have been within either Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Parks. Next year (2005) I'm planning to do the Rae Lakes Loop. I have to do the more strenuous trips before I get old .... I'm only 63 now. My most valuable piece of gear is my home made alcohol stove, followed by my Hennessey Hammock, topographical maps, compass, water filter and camp shoes, pretty much in that order.

I am almost ready to place my first cache using the container shown below. The container is made of fairly thick polyethylene and the lid requires nearly two full turns to close completely so I believe it will seal well. Before being put in place it will be camouflaged to blend in with the surroundings. It will be placed in a fairly dry environment without major temperature extremes. The original contents were dry psyllium husks. The container has been run through the dishwasher several times. So, what do you think? Am I going to read about this container under another subject heading complaining about poorly thought-out, newbie caches one of these days?

I use a pair of Leki trekking poles for backpacking but they just didn't seem right for geocaching so I made a single hiking stick for caching. I bought a 4 ft. hardwood dowel at Home Depot for $1.86. Next I got a pair of bicycle handlebar grips for $3 (on sale) at the local bike shop. A rubber cane tip for $1.50 and a scrap piece of nylon webbing rounded out the hardware. I put three coats of spar varnish on the dowel. Next, I cut a slot near the top of the handlebar grip for the nylon webbing. A sheet metal screw in the end of the dowel keeps the webbing in place. The hanglebar grip and rubber cane tip are both very snug and don't move at all. The stick has proven itself to be an extremely useful piece of gear and I'd never leave home without it.

Earlier versions of Microsoft Streets and Trips (2004 and earlier) allowed you to set your speed directly. It looks like the 2005 version has changed. Another question about Streets & Trips. Does the 2005 version allow you to change the coordinates from anything other than DD.DDDD .... like DD MM.MMM or DD MM SS.SS?

I originally bought my little eTrex (yellow) for backpacking in the central California Sierra mountains. Then, one day a fellow backpacker mentioned geocaching. "What's that?", I asked. And you know what happened next. I haven't been as active as I'd like to be ..... too many other projects like ham radio (KD7S) backpacking and bicycle touring ..... but since becoming a premium member I've come to appreciate the usefulness of Pocket Queries and my new Sony Clie PDA. Watch my numbers grow.

My wife pointed out the article, "The Thrill Of The High-Tech Hunt" in the November 7th Parade magazine. I thought it was quite well written despite one or two rough spots. It even had a picture of Jeremy in it.

I've updated my Garmin eTrex (yellow) and my Garmin GPS II Plus with no difficulty at all. Most updates contain bug fixes which often make them worth the effort.

You didn't specify what GPS you're using but it's quite likely you haven't configured Easy GPS to communicate in the correct format. I suggest you open up Easy GPS, click on Help, Contents and "Getting started with easy GPS". Under Basic Setup, select the make and model of your receiver and follow the instructions.

quote:Originally posted by dreamgear:Any on-line references for building these home-brew antennas ? I have found several examples here: http://www.helenav.nl/antlinks.htm

I have been led to believe that patch antennas sometimes have difficulty "seeing" some of the lower-to-the-horizon sats. I'm not sure that is a problem, however. As for test equipment, everything I have is designed for h.f. (3-30 MHz). That doesn't work very well at 1.575 GHz. Anyhow, I'll try a couple *cookbook* designs and report my findings here.

I am anxious to experiment with home made antennas for my GPS II+. I suspect I'll start with the turnstile design in October, 2002 QST or perhaps one of the many patch antennas described on the Internet. Any reports of hands-on experience with various designs would be sincerely appreciated.