urbo

i get the "your cache is missing" thing often from this little gem.. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=8027 its a mini altoids tin hanging on for dear life with a magnet. its amazing how well it has stumped people, it even bumped one geocacher on the head and they still didnt find it. if you live in a city, these altoids mini caches are lots of fun to hide. urbo

i have two caches out with music and somebody else followed my lead and placed a third. it cost less than $1 to make a commercial cd and the record companies get you for aprox $15 on a new release. they dont have any shame in charging you all that markup so i dont have any shame in spending about the same ($1) to give it away. the music industry got really ugly with the whole napster thing and what they got out of it was a proliferation of peer to peer file sharing that they will never catch up with. remember concerts before ticket master? you could actually afford to go. i have no pity for the music industry. enjoy the music. thats what it was meant for. URBO

its the other choice for me. i too prefer altoids tins since i plant alot on urban micro caches. the only cache i have out in the sticks is an ammo can though. i dont like tuperware. the gladware stuff seems to do better in the south fl heat. tuperware seems to open itself over time with the heat. urbo

i live in miami fl and have a few urbans out there. when i started there was only one cache nearby, now theres over 10 within a short drive. check my caches out for some ideas. search under zip code 33165. i like to use small containers with magnets so they can be hidden. i have 2 cd caches out that are setup like this. one of them is under a bridge (hint hint) near a very traveled area. kids hang out within feet of the geocache and it has yet to be plundered. theres plenty of places to hide things in an urban setting but most will have to be microcaches. another alternative is if you have a buddy at a cafe (starbucks, etc). you can "plant" the geocache in the shop and the employees can keep an eye on it. it brings in extra traffic to the shop so the shop owner might be game. currently i have 1 cache in the boonies, and the rest are urban. 1 is a large vitamin container in a local park covered up by palmfronds, 3 are magnetic. none have been vandalized yet. URBO

i live in miami fl and have a few urbans out there. when i started there was only one cache nearby, now theres over 10 within a short drive. check my caches out for some ideas. search under zip code 33165. i like to use small containers with magnets so they can be hidden. i have 2 cd caches out that are setup like this. one of them is under a bridge (hint hint) near a very traveled area. kids hang out within feet of the geocache and it has yet to be plundered. theres plenty of places to hide things in an urban setting but most will have to be microcaches. another alternative is if you have a buddy at a cafe (starbucks, etc). you can "plant" the geocache in the shop and the employees can keep an eye on it. it brings in extra traffic to the shop so the shop owner might be game. currently i have 1 cache in the boonies, and the rest are urban. 1 is a large vitamin container in a local park covered up by palmfronds, 3 are magnetic. none have been vandalized yet. URBO

i use ham 2m or carry a county issued EDACS radio. the rest of the guys on our team carry them so we can get a hold of anyone if need be. commo while geocaching is a good idea. let people know where you will be and what you will carry. frs is VERY limited in range so if you carry frs as your primary com i would recomend a cell phone as well just in case the other station is out of range. urbo

car alarms are a joke eh?? ever heard a police siren? ever heard the electronic BONK BONK airhorn in a police car? try ignoring that. the siren boxes are available at police supply stores for about $100, the speaker is about another $100. in most states using a siren is illegal unless youre in public safety but the electronic airhorn is legal. you set the box to airhorn or wire into the airhorn switch and conect that via relay or whatever to you car alarm. these things put out deafning amounts of audio. for best results remove the shock sensor and depend solely on opening of doors,hood or trunk so you dont get any falsing. if it goes off you know its real. one of my ham radio buddies has this setup. someone tried to broke into his blazer and it went off, the screwdriver was laying on the ground when he came out. i have no pitty for theives. just think about the scenario.. your adrenalin is pumping, your looking everywhere and a police airhorn goes off. i'm sure that shaved a few years off that guys heart. would sure make me feel good to know i took something from him he can never get back. i'm currently working a jeep cherokee that will be used for ham radio disaster response. it will be loaded with radio gear. its getting the airhorn in the passenger compartment as well as outside under hood. URBO

car alarms are a joke eh?? ever heard a police siren? ever heard the electronic BONK BONK airhorn in a police car? try ignoring that. the siren boxes are available at police supply stores for about $100, the speaker is about another $100. in most states using a siren is illegal unless youre in public safety but the electronic airhorn is legal. you set the box to airhorn or wire into the airhorn switch and conect that via relay or whatever to you car alarm. these things put out deafning amounts of audio. for best results remove the shock sensor and depend solely on opening of doors,hood or trunk so you dont get any falsing. if it goes off you know its real. one of my ham radio buddies has this setup. someone tried to broke into his blazer and it went off, the screwdriver was laying on the ground when he came out. i have no pitty for theives. just think about the scenario.. your adrenalin is pumping, your looking everywhere and a police airhorn goes off. i'm sure that shaved a few years off that guys heart. would sure make me feel good to know i took something from him he can never get back. i'm currently working a jeep cherokee that will be used for ham radio disaster response. it will be loaded with radio gear. its getting the airhorn in the passenger compartment as well as outside under hood. URBO

i see the concern but in a way its an unrealistic request. we all have to be able to maintain our caches. a cache out in the sticks is cool but its a drag to have to drive out to check on it. if you have more than one its can become very un-fun. i have one cache out in the boonies. though not a toughy, its on a road that is very traveled so it will give the tourist-geocacher a chance to log a find. its over 80 miles round trip from home for me. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=7254 urbo

i think thats a great idea. a simple rating of how you liked the cache and the hunt. 1 to 5 stars. urbo

those are the 3 words i have for you. by the way.. did i say GARMIN? i've owned magellan, garmin and trimble. i love trimble but they are high dollar and you dont get the bells and whistles. if youre good with maps and dont need the mapping capability then i say get a trimble. they are bar none, the best. trimble is used by surveyors. as far as something more towards the consumer line with mapping and all those other goodies, get a garmin. my garmin has never let me down. as far as magellan.. well.. the only reason i didnt heave my magellan into a lake is because i paid money for it. i own 2 magellans and have owned 3 in total. the car mounted one lost its display, the handheld 2000 unit i have SUCKS. it only works off the car antenna. the built in antenna sucks. the 3rd unit i have is ancient and i havent used it years but it would take a while to acheive lock. steer clear of magellan junk. URB

hello, i'm urbo and i'm a night cacher.. (chorus) hello urbo! ---------------------------------- night caching is the way to go! it adds a new angle to things and also decreases the chances of non-geocachers snooping to see what your doing. all of my hunting is at night but my placing varies. i rather place during the day to make sure its not too obvious. caching at night in the woods is downright freaky for most of us city slickers so i usually cache with a buddy when heading to the sticks. as a rule of thumb.. fill up the tank and make sure the batteries are good on the flashlight. i prefer led flashlights for this reason. you get PLENTY of use before the batteries go completely flat. URBO

hello, i'm urbo and i'm a night cacher.. (chorus) hello urbo! ---------------------------------- night caching is the way to go! it adds a new angle to things and also decreases the chances of non-geocachers snooping to see what your doing. all of my hunting is at night but my placing varies. i rather place during the day to make sure its not too obvious. caching at night in the woods is downright freaky for most of us city slickers so i usually cache with a buddy when heading to the sticks. as a rule of thumb.. fill up the tank and make sure the batteries are good on the flashlight. i prefer led flashlights for this reason. you get PLENTY of use before the batteries go completely flat. URBO

hello fans. urbo here to talk about hiding stuff in your local concrete jungle. ok, just kiidng about the fans part.. i live in miami fl and have a few caches out. i have only had one stolen/plundered and thats because the magnet that held it under the table at the cafe wasnt strong enough! my favorites are magnets attached to small containers like altoids tins or cd cases. i have a music stash under a local bridge where kids hang and drink beer and it hasnt been found by a non-geocacher yet! altoids tins are great for micro caches since you can hide them under things like metal steps on a spiral staircase and no one will notice (hint hint). the mini altoids tins work great for attaching to outdoor steel modern art. i have one of those that has stumped a few people already. the cd cache is real popular with the younger crowd. who doesnt like free music? the way i did that one was to slice the inside of the fabric on a cd wallet and insert some magnets i bought at an electronics store. you have to make sure they are strong enough to hold the cache tightly to whatever you choose to stick it to. check out my caches locations to get some ideas.. all except for "good stuff" are magnetic hanging containers. "good stuff" is an ammo can but its out in the woods about 40 miles from miami. you can search for my caches by doing a zip code search with 33165. urbo

once you take into account the gps error, you could end up digging yourself a really big circle! if you really think you re at the right place and it looks like you'll be tearing up alot of ground then let it be and move one. i just ran acros one of those here in miami and it sucks to kick around dirt for an hour trying to find a geocache. i dont bury my caches. i hide them above ground. urbo

i agree, hit the porcelain BEFORE hitting the trail! superstitions?? i use the force alot. is that superstitious? being a night cacher i guess i will soon have superstitions. urbo

i have the eternalight that is used by some SAR teams. it does strobe, sos, flash, and cna have a battery life of over 700hours at aprox mid setting. my favorite thats about the size of a maglight is the "lightwave 4000". it uses 3 d batts and 10 white leds. it floods the area with a nice white light. comparable to a maglight in size and light output but without the focusing to a beam capability. i used it on a night hunt not too long ago with a buddy that brought his maglight. the lightwave flooded the area ahead of us with white light and didnt have those annoying "rings" that the mag casts when in flood mode. as for battery life... i'm more concerned with them leaking than dying. i have an energizer white led reading light that i got at MALL*WART and it runs for several days on cheapo 250mah nicads before they need charging. URBO

i think you should at least find one to get the general idea. i read the whole page on how and what is geocaching before i put one out. i have less than 10 finds and about 5 caches out there. when i started out there was 1 here. us urbanites like to play too so i put out a few decent caches and i maintain them. if someone tells me its in bad shape i remove it and place another later on. i dont think you need to be initiated into the finders club before hiding one but at least see what the whole thing is about. at times its easier to hide than to seek. if you do alot of exploring then you have lots of places in mind. just my 2 pennies URBO

uh.. who? what? when?? wheres my trimble.. i'm lost. does this question have coordinates?? urbo

i'm a night person and most of my hunts have been at night. geocaching at night adds more of a challenge. i have been using LED flashlights for several months now. i love them! i have about 10 different types of white led lights. i'm wondering if any other geocachers were using LED lighting? URBO south fl ke4mcl

i prefer the ammo can. its critter proof, rain proof and storm proof. they can add a few bucks to the cost of the cache but thats no biggie if you know you stand a chance of getting it back later down the road. tupperware/gladware is ok but i have found one too many of those with the lid halfway loose and a moldy log book inside. the plastic works good in places where its not directly heated by the sun or battered by the rain. i found a nice tupperware cache hidden in some stones. it was totally protected. my favorite oddball cache is an altoids tin with a magnet attached to it. they can be hidden under things like metal steps (hint hint). the altoids tin doesnt work well outdoors though. they eventually rust (at least here in south florida). the other bummer to the altoids tin is that the morning dew will sometimes collect in it. they are good for short lived urban caches holding a wheresgeorge or something of the sort. URBO

fast chargers usually come with cooked batteries. i dont care how much they say that the batteries can stand the heat. electronics and heat dont mix. just look at motorola and ericsson products.. the fast chargers/batteries usually have some warning about shortening the life of the batteries. i'd stay away from those. i have had a good experience with the maha c777plus charger and a cell case to hold my aa batts. overall i prefer the slow overnight charge but my slow charger wont handle nimh. URBO

i try to upgrade caches when i can. sometimes i too have experienced the "uh oh, i didnt bring anything" moment. i visited a music swap cache not too long ago and i planned on bringing some music with me but i absentmindedly forgot. i left a "wheres george" $5 at the cache instead. i felt it was in line with what i took. if i dont have something to swap then i leave a few wheresgeorge bucks if i'm taking something. if i dont take something i swap the george or i just leave a george. i go out of my way to make mine rewarding. if people take the good stuff then fine. i dont get worked up about it. if you leave me golfballs, tennisballs or other crap then i get upset. that dirty nasty golfball was in the dirt for a reason. do you really think somebody will be happy to see it staring at them when they open up the cache? i feel better now. have a nice day. please drive thru. URBO

i guess i could be called a geo-virgin stalker! the only time i get competitive is to be the first cacher there. its cool to find it as the hider left it. i'll get all worked up and head out asap. the night thing is cool. i prefer the night hunts since they add a new facet to the "where the F*** am i factor". dead batteries got you down? get an led flashlight! i have several and they are the bomb! aside from virgin caches (as in unfound, not a box full of young ladies!) i dont get very competitve. every now and then i will head out with somefriends and seek whatever cache gets our attention. URBO

i guess i could be called a geo-virgin stalker! the only time i get competitive is to be the first cacher there. its cool to find it as the hider left it. i'll get all worked up and head out asap. the night thing is cool. i prefer the night hunts since they add a new facet to the "where the F*** am i factor". dead batteries got you down? get an led flashlight! i have several and they are the bomb! aside from virgin caches (as in unfound, not a box full of young ladies!) i dont get very competitve. every now and then i will head out with somefriends and seek whatever cache gets our attention. URBO