admo1972

wap.geocaching.com seems to be working, but I want to log caches that I found yesterday, but at that site, one doesn't have the option to backdate a find. Oh well, I'll just wait for www to be back up rather than wap.

Wow, John. I haven't seen the paper, but I read it yesterday on-line. Turns out your sister works with my wife (small world). So your sister told my wife about the article, my wife called me, then I read it. It is also important that Briansnat and Lakelady are mentioned as well. Did I miss anyone?

Just saw that rstefano52, got his 400th find at Abe's Mystery Cache. Congrats Bob!

As a cacher that loves to solve puzzles, I can understand the frustration to work on a puzzle, only to find that you won't be able to get to it on a route or day of caching where there are other caches that you are going to get. However, puzzle caches are often there for the fun of solving them, as well as going to the cache itself. If you solve a puzzle, had fun doing it, but found that it's on the other side of the freeway you are traveling on, then I'd still say it is a successful cache. You had fun doing it. If not, then I'd simply say you should ignore the puzzle caches that are on your route.

The best way is to search for caches in the area you want to go caching in (zip code or coordinates work best), and just look down the listings for any cache that is rated a "1" for terrain. Those caches are "supposed" to be wheelchair accessible, although I have seen some 1 terrain caches that are down easy trails, but definately not wheelchair accessible. I'd say look at all the 1 terrain caches, then read just those listings to get an idea if it is indeed wheelchair accessible. Alternatively, you can become a premium member, and run a pocket query that returns only 1 terrain caches in your area. You'd still have to check the listings to get an idea though.

Puzzle is fine. Go ahead and do it! I decoded the coordinates, and zoomed right in on the cache. For similar puzzles to yours in my area, they were generally rated 2 or so. It's the kind of thing some of us know exactly what to do when we see it, others just won't. I think the title of the cache is a good hint. You could always make the encrypted hint go one step further to say exactly what the user is seeing, but I don't think it is necessary for this one.

Becoming a premium member will indeed help with the park boundaries, but just takes a few more steps. First, as a premium member, you get to create bookmarks. So create a new bookmark list and give it a name. Bring up the map that shows you the caches in the park. Click once on a cache and a pop up bubble appears. Click the bookmark option, then select the appropriate bookmark list you just created, then close the window. Click the next cache in the park, and repeat. Repeat for all the caches in the park. Now you should have a bookmark list of all the caches in the park, without any outside you don't want. You can turn that into a pocket query and get one gpx file that contains all those caches. My premium membership expired today, and I just lost the bookmark caches I created in a town I will be in this weekend! LOL, gotta renew that!

Those are just fine. That format does not require 5 decimal places.

I do need to add that the Mio allows coordinates to be entered. I t can be done by hand, or be sent to the unit via a Mio program called POI Loader (same name as the garmin one). Like I said, I think you'd be most happy with a Garmin Nuvi unit. But the Mio is pretty great, and $200 cheaper.

The following is one of my faves. The way the coordinates are revealed is nothing short of amazing. Bow(wow)s and Arrows

I I had four of the Mio units. They worked well but would die after a few weeks and the voice level was a bit low. I must have gotten into a bad batch. I finally paid a bit more and bought a Nuvi 200 which is impressive and easy to use. Actually, the Mio had more features than the Nuvi and I was sorry to have to pay more. Interesting... I've found the voice level on this one just fine. It does have an option that the voice volume to be louder at higher speeds (to compensate for louder road noise). I've only had mine about 2 weeks, hopefully it will last a while...

I too would recommend the nuvi line. I did, however, opt for a Mio230. It fits all your criteria, and only for $130 on sale at radioshack. As far as I know, it is the only unit at this low price that speaks street names. When I was doing my research, I kept wanting a garmin, and really wanted something that had a wide screen, but the price and great reviews led me at the Mio. I love it. Edit: I got the c230, not the 320

Just do a search by your zip code (or wherever you will be caching), and in the resulting list, scan them for caches that are regular or larger. There are four little boxes, one of which is in red. From left to right, they represent micro - small - regular - large - not chosen. I'm not sure how big the book is, but most "regular" caches are ammo containers or larger lock-n-locks that may hold a book. Any cache that is listed as large should be more than adequate. You may still get to one of those caches and find that it isn't big enough, or there is too much stuff for the TB to fit. The worst is when you find a nice large container, but it has a small lid so that large items don't fit. As a premium member, you can create pocket queries that only return caches of a particular size or sizes, but the first method I mentioned should be adequate.

As others have said, geosense just takes some time. And even then, it isn't foolproof. I have DNF'd a 1/1 cache TWICE! I assumed it had to be gone, but sure enough there were finders right before and after me, and the overwhelming response was, "thanks for the quick park and grab! Went right to it!" So you never know.

Also, with cachemate, and if your palm has a four-way selector thingy, you can jump from page to page by selecting right or left, and scroll the pages by selecting up and down. I guess older Palms only have up and down, but it's something.

OWE $463

The only way to see the steps, is to complete the multi's, and keep note of where the stages are. You may also run into the problem of final locations of puzzle caches. No other way, really.

For just one unit, I'd go with the 60csx, or the vista hcx. They are best for primarily getting to caches, but are passable for navigating the car. However, consider that you need to purchase street maps (retail is over $100, but can be got for $80 or so I think), plus you would probably want a mount for the car. Not really safe leaving your GPS laying on the dash, plus hard to see. So now you are up to an extra $100 to $130 or so. Considering dedicated GPS car only units can be gotten for about the same amount, and will speak turn by turn direction, including speaking street names (called text-to-speech), you'd get more bang for your buck getting a dedicated car unit. But, if having just one unit simplicity is more important to you, by all means go for the 60CSX or Vista HCX.

That's kind of a rude response. Not all caches require a Journalism 101 puff-piece. I know for a fact that if I'm doing a series of 10 caches I'm not going to do a movie review of each one of them. While I agree that sounded a bit rude, I agree with JerseyGirl. I really don't see a place for TNLNSL or anything to that effect. When signing a physical log, I usually try to write something interesting, even if it is a simple Thanks. If it is 100 degrees and I am being eaten by mosquitoes, a simple name/date is enough. When it comes to the online log, it doesn't take long to write an actual sentence. I think it is nice for the CO to get a bit of a message, even if is just "thanks!" For myself, I've been trying to add more details to my online logs, so that as time goes on, I may just remember the cache based on my log. Early on I did use some of acronyms, because I thought it what was simply done. I didn't really like it, so I stopped. The lexicon should be relegated to Instant Messages, text messaging, things of that sort. TNLN may not be intended to be rude to a cache owner, but I think it definitely comes across that way. The flip side is that a finder may hate the cache, and simply sign it as TNLN to be nice. But even there, I think a simple sentence saying, say, how long it took to find is a way to simply have a long with the bare minimum of info, yet not degrade the cache publicly. Leave the degrading to a private email. Sorry for the tangent

Problem: I have a Mio C230 for my car, and I want to put a bunch of caches on it so I can seem them on the map as I drive around. I can enter POI's one by one using various formats, but sending them to the unit in batch has to adhere to decimal degrees in 5 decimal places. For example, N40.65000 is okay, but N40.65 won't. The POI loader just refuses to send any POI's that don't adhere to having exactly 5 decimal places. I can get GSAK to display the coordinates in decimal degrees, but some are 3 digits, other 4, etc. Is there any way to force GSAK to have every cache at 5 decimal places? My current work around is to export the caches as a csv, open said file in excel and then format the coordinates to 5 decimal places, then resave the csv, and then upload it to the Mio. I'm looking to see if there is a way to eliminate the excel step. To confuse this further, I have GSAK on my windows partition on my mac, but only have excel for my Mac OS. So I would have to export the csv from GSAK, reboot into MacOS, open the csv in excel, format the longitude/latitude columns, save the csv to the windows partition, reboot into XP, and then upload the csv to the mio. I should look get open office on my Windows partition... That will solve the reboot problem...

I can't help you, as I don't use my PSP for caching. But I question highly using the PSP as a geocaching tool. I've dropped my psp when just sitting on my couch. Luckily, it is still in perfect condition to this day (bought it day of release). I've dropped my GPSr (a Vista) more times than I can remember, and it is rubbery and nice to hold. I fear that one drop of your PSP in the wild, and it's history.

No, I have been seeing the same once in a while. Usually hitting the back button, then the link again seems to do the trick.

I just bought the Mio c230 the other day, and am loving it. It seems a little difficult to navigate around the menus, but once you "learn" where things are, it goes quick. I got it on sale for $130. The main features you may want: text to speech: this allows the unit to speak street names, which I think may be essential for safe driving. Quick recalculation: Often you may miss a turn, or a road is closed. This unit is very quick in recalculating the route. allow you to enter coordinates: this will let you do it. It's great when a cache is posted with parking coordinates, you can just enter this into the mio, rather than search for a street intersection or searching on the map. This, along with most in car GPS systems are easily transferable from vehicle to vehicle. It comes with a mound that has a suction cup on it. You can suction cup it directly to the winshield, or to a little plastic disc that adheres to the dashboard. I really wanted a GPS with a wide screen, but at the price, this unit just couldn't be beat. edit: I changed the price I bought it at. It is $130, not $230.

I'm not seeing the problem you mention. I just edited one of my PQ's, and selected "postal code", and it let me just fine.