admo1972

Just today I've noticed that when clicking on the Sat button when looking in Google maps, there's no image. I get the "zoom out for a broader view" message. This is for areas that just the other day, had detailed sat maps. I get the same error when zoomed all the way out. Is is just my computer? I get the error wehn looking at the maps within geocaching, or going directly to maps.google.com

All the models have a navigation screen, which looks like a compass and rotates around such that the letter N faces North. The arrow, in most cases where you are having the GPS point you to a cache, points to the cache. The units that claim to not have an "electronic compass" will point to the cache, but you need to be moving, ideally in a straight line and relatively quickly to actually be pointing towards the cache, as it calculates your past positions and current position to figure out what direction you are facing. Those that have an electronic compass will point towards the cache even when standing still, which is nice but not necessary, as either type will tell you a bearing to the cache, and you can always use a regular magnetic compass to figure out the direction.

A cache on private property isn't an issue. You need a real problem before it's worth doing anything about. Not an artificial one. You also need to try and contact the cache owner. They are the ones who placed the cache, they are the ones who are responsible, they are the ones with the authority to do something about the cache. This site is a listing service. While reviewers can step in, their authorithy is to deal with the listing, not the cache. If you do have a real problem (property owner yelling at you to take away the cache and never come back) where quick action is needed, by all means use the SBA log and it will come to the attention of a reviwer and they can archive the listing. True. What I meant to say was If you know or even suspect that caches are placed on private property without permission. It seemed that the original poster knows for a fact that some caches were placed on private property without permission. It is only those that he need be concerned with, and can bring it to the review or owners attention.

If you know or even suspect that caches are placed on private property, email such to your local reviewer. It is then in the reviewers, CO, and Land Owners hands as to whether the caches get archived or continue to stand. That is as far as your responsibility needs to go.

You are on the right track by looking at the Vista and the 60CSX. Those are the two I am considering for replacing my old black and white Vista. Both will do mapping (you need to purchase the maps seperatley). Both will get you back to your truck, by one of two methods. The most common is to simply mark your truck waypoint before you go anywhere. You can't imagine how many times I wished I marked my car. Second, both will record a breadcrumb trail of your travels, if you turn it on when you leave. You then have the option to follow your same route back that you traveled, even prompting you to turn left or right on the trail. Personally, I am leaning towards the Vista, as the smaller size really appeals. The 60csx looks very cool to me, but is more than I want to carry.

Hey, that's great! I've had the nag screen of GSAK now for a while, and the program (rightfully so) becomes almost unusable. I'm ready to pay, but it would be nice to not boot into Windows to load my waypoints onto the GPS. My primary motivation for using GSAK was to have the smart name on my GPS, rather than the GC#.

Hey, good luck and have fun! I'm from NJ myself, but will be in Holland / Port Sheldon area of MI this weekend and over Christmas. Hopefully, I will find loads of time to escape all the family togetherness and grab some/all the nearby caches. I'm just bummed that Team Desert Eagle archived Big Boy (GCXTPX). It was on my To Do list, as it sits smack on the way from Grand Rapids to Holland.

Just looked at MacCaching, and it seems to only send the GC# to a GPS. Does anyone know if it (or any other Mac program) that can send a smartname, like what GSAK does? I'm ready to buy GSAK, but I would like to stick to the Mac side of things if I can.

...but you still need to purchase a copy of Windows. Ouch. And then you need to deal with Windows. Double ouch. Once I got my Mac Pro, I had XP Professional bought and installed within a week. I believe I was able to buy XP Pro for about $110. I only boot into XP directly, never Parallels (tried the beta, thought it was cool, but shutting down and booting into XP takes only ablout 50 seconds to a minute on the Mac Pro, a small price to pay for a significant performance boost).

My guess is that the query is still being stored, perhaps accessible or searchable when v.2 rolls out. Didn't it used to say "delete" instead of "archive"?

Just make sure you input the coordinates by hand AT HOME! For my first cache, I drove over to the park where the cache was, pulled out my eTrex Vista, and was dumbfounded on how to enter a waypoint. I kept coming to marking my waypoint, but, in my thinking, I didn't want to mark where I am, I wanted to mark a different place! I did have the manual with me, which I read earlier, but I was determined to figure it out. I did eventually figure out that you indeed mark your current position, THEN edit that waypoint to where you want to go. It wasn't until a dozen or so caches later that I learned the shortcut to marking a waypoint (by holding the click-stick in) rather than going through the menus.

As for picture alerts, we'l have to wait to see what v.2 is like. As it is now, you create a log, and then once you log is posted, THEN you can upload pics to it. In this case you would get two email alerts for what is essentially a one time log. I agree a pic alert can be good, but moreso if we can upload a pic at the same time we are writing the log (much in the same way we can drop off TB's without editing the log).

baø got it. You logged your second visit to that cache as a find when you dropped off some coins. You should probably change that log type to a "write note" from a "found"

I believe you need to load both map sets onto it at the same time. SO, make sur eyou have all the segments of of both mapsets chosen in Mapsource, and then transfer to the GPSr.

I say by all means place a cache there if you want, right away, no need to ask anyone. Archive is archive, plain and simple. Additionally, the only way to even know where an archived cache is/was is to look in the owners profile or look up the GC# directly. Any other cacher would never know there was a cache there, and may just place one anyway. You can wait, use courtesy to ask the CO if he intends to replace it soon, but that won't stop anyone else placing a cache nearby, through no fault of their own as they would have no idea there was a cache there to begin with. Then you both lose out. But do what feels right. But don't assume a third party won't place a cache in the meantime.

Maybe at CITO events, if you attend but not find any trash, you only attend. If you find trash, you can log as found as well!

I second StarBrand. I've gotten over the stigma of posting DNF's. They are sometimes the most fun, especially when a cache has, like, 1000 finds and no DNF's, and you are the only one! That's what makes this so much fun, IMO. There can be caches that everyone and their mother find easy that I just can't find at all. Other times, I make what I think of an easy find, only to see those much more veteren than me post DNF's.

Wow, congrats! The first find is the best! Just to clarify what others have already said, you can log away, and you do NOT need to be a premium member, just a regular (free) member.

I just looked at an event, and there is only an option as attended, not found.

I just went back and looked a a cache I DNF's two or three times before finding it (and being FTF at that). I had only 1 DNF log, that I edited for each subsequent search. i'm not sure why I did that, I would have thought I would have added a second DNF log. Anyway, I leave the DNF's and post a new, found it log if/when I find the cache.

If the cache is archived, no need to adopt. Just place the cache and submit it for review. If the cache is not archived, ask the cache owner to send you an adoption request if the owner is done with the cache.

I did that on a PC with no DVD writer, and my thumb drive is only 1GB. The final file was just over 1GB so I'll have to get a bigger thumb drive! Not to mention that those "1GB" thumb drives, contain only 900+ MB of actual space, due to a marketing ploy that takes advantage of, to a lesser degree, formatting space, and to a larger degree, two different definitions of what constitutes a gigabyte. Those marketing geniuses base the "1GB" claim based on 1000MB = 1GB; 1000 KB = 1MB, and 1000Byets in a KB, when in reality, all those 1000's should be 1024.

The problem with a prompt, or slightly better a list of TB's that are in the cache when you post your log, is that the "TB Name" often isn't suffucient enough for you to know which TB you actually have sitting in front of you. Which is why I always log out the TB's by searching for the code on the "trackable Items" page. So, here is my request: When on the Trackable Items Page, you can type in the "secret" code of the TB you have. I would like the site to remember this so that I don't have to retype the same code when posting my log for the bug.

Well, caches are placed by people, and people can vary. Now that I have been caching 8 months, I often can recognize the name of someone who has placed the cache. When the name is someone new, or one I don't recognize, that puts up a yellow flag of caution for me. 9 times out of 10 the cache is fine and maintained. I think that some people have too many caches out there to maintain, or they may have given up the game and their caches are left there to their own devices. You can always post a needs maintenance log, and that cache will be noted to a reviewer. If, after a while there is still no maintenance or at least contact by the cache owner, the local reviewer can archive it. So yes, I often look at these things when looking for a cache: name of the cache owner: Often it will be someone I know or at least know of. And, this even serves as a hint in some cases, ad you tend to learn the kinds of hides different people prefer. Although some of the toughest finds are often those by a cache owner who changes his MO, so sometimes this can be a handicap! recent logs: If there are a string of DNF's, need maintenence notes, etc, I may not even go. Some obvious exceptions are those caches that are devious hides where strings of DNF's are the norm. And on rare occasions, I will look at the profile of the cache owner and see how many caches they have found. If they only have a few finds, and have already placed one or more caches, I'd be wary that they will maintain, as they may give up the game and just not maintain. So many people (myself included) want to place a cache after they found their first! But I restrained my self, and still have no hides after 200 finds! I did ask for permission for one hide, and was denied by the land owner. But this is another story...

You really need to look at your posts, and try to read them from our point of view. What is it about the waypoints that are "wrong"? Are they from some other country or something? Are you getting no results?