fastforty

I dropped a Red Jeep in GCKXYG yesterday, probably too far for you to travel though They are out there, just keep looking!

Woohoo !! Got ours today, look for it in circulation soon Thanx Groundspeak !

Our first GPSr was/is a Legend (got it about 3 months ago). It has been VERY easy to use & every time I wish that it would do something else I just read the instructions again & find that it will do it. I think it has more features/options then I'll ever need. I'm sure that units costing 2-3 times as much have a few features that may make organizing or accessing saved waypoints a little easier, but they aren't going to get you to your destination any faster or more accurately. I almost bought a yellow Megalon, but figured that the PC connection on the Legend *might* come in handy some day (boy was THAT the understatement). I can send 500 waypoints to my Legend via PC cable in less then 30 seconds; doing it manually, 15 digits for the coordinates + 6 for the waypoint code (or more for the waypoint name), 500 entries should get done in just about 5 hours, if you're really fast at operating a tiny little keyboard (not to mention that if you mis-key one digit you'll wind up miles from where you need to be). The Legend has hot buttons that get you right to the screens that you need geocaching without having to scroll through multiple screens or menus, the whole setup is simple & easy to use but the machine has many options to customize it to work the way you want it to if you're not thrilled with the default setup.

I'd trust the speed that the GPSr is telling you WAY before I'd even think about trusting the peice of junk in the middle of your vehicle's instrument cluster. The best way to know for sure is with a tachimeter, often called a "chronograph" on a watch. You'll need an accurate mile marker- do not trust your odometer (in our Camry, the odometer is *dead on*, but the speedometer is 6% off). In absence of a watch with one of those funny looking dials around the bezel, just set your cruise at 60mph & it should take *exactly* 60 seconds to travel one mile.

A lot of people do that, ONCE. LOL We almost always take our digital camera when we go out caching & snap pics of every coin or TB we see so we can log then as discovered. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Whoever picks it up next will "grab" it from where it was listed when you picked it up.

I usually have 2-3 TB's "in stock" & trade them out one-for-one when I come across other TB's (I kinda like the opportunity to move them, AND to allow opportunity for others to do so). If I don't find any TB's to "trade" within 2-3 weeks, I'll dump the ones I have so they can get moving & "risk" looking greedy later, when I take one without leaving one (I know, I KNOW, they aren't "trade items"). Some "TB Motels" are more like "TB Prisons", as the TB's sit for months or sometimes YEARS without moving. I contacted the owner of a local cache that showed many TB's in stock to ask him how many he thought it was ok to take. His response was "Take one, take two, or take them ALL, they NEED to MOVE" (I took 3 & the next week one cacher cleaned it out-no hard feelings on anyone's part). If the owner of a cache gets upset because there are no TB's in it, it's because s/he is on a status trip. I don't care where my TB's are or how much company they have, if you see it grab it and move it! Last week I hiked to 7,700 ft elevation to rescue a little dinosaur TB that had been stranded there for a year & a half, LOL.

The problem with moisture getting into caches has more to do with daily/nightly temperature changes then with getting rained on. A film canister placed with it's top down will attract atmospheric moisture, it runs down and pools around the exposed lip of the lid. When it gets cold at night, the air inside the container contracts and causes a slight vacuum which draws the moisture inside. Upon warming the next day, the air inside expands and a small amount is expelled, setting the scene for a repeat the next night. I'm sure that everyone has had a bottle of sewing machine oil (or similar product) stored in a box for a long time only to find the bottle empty & the contents of the box saturated- same principal at work.

Government & military organizations have access to MUCH higher detail then we do. They can target a projectile's impact down to the inch & they can read the novel you're reading on your sundeck with better clarity then you can (they could probably look down your bathroom drain vent & let you know that you have a nasty hair clog brewing in there, if they have a notion to). I don't think these new satellites are going to make our lives any easier, we're still going to be stuck with civilian accuracy.

If it's naughty, we want it!

How do YOU spell "d-o-w-n-h-i-l-l s-p-i-r-a-l"? Yeah, we need a monopoly that cares nothing about it's consumer base & makes constant changes for the worse that renders our equipment useless

I think there is a percentage of cachers who don't log DNF's, unless they are just plain ticked off about not finding it. I hate to admit that I couldn't find one, but I DO log it. Most often it's "I made a reasonable attempt, but didn't spot it" kinda thing. Sometimes it's more like "I spent 1/2 hour looking *everywhere* it could possibly be & unless it's a really tricky one it might need a checkup". I always try to be friendly & polite and to give an idea of how/where I looked- it can save someone having to check on a cache when they don't need to. I've found caches that have a recent DNF logged, but I don't usually go looking for one that has 4-6 of them in a row over the last 9-12 months. Edit: Oh, & I don't expect anyone to go screaming out to a cache site just because I made a lame search. If 2 or 3 DNF's in a row come in, it might be time to check on it and/or increase it's difficulty rating. This is the last DNF that I logged: "This one might need a checkup. Coords were dead-on in the middle of the street. Checked bushes on both sides of the road, didn't look like a gallon container was in them. There is a depression in the ground right next to the telephone pole with evidence that big weeds once inhabited the spot. There has been fire & clearing of that area." It had been 5 months since the last Found log. Maybe 5 months worth of leaves under the bushes has made it harder to spot then it was intended (I don't think that you should have to bring a rake & pitchfork in order to locate a cache, so I *won't* leave an area looking like that is what has been done). I'm pretty sure that the cache WAS next to the pole, in the depression- if it was then there is no need to check on it, just archive it. By giving some kind of description as to what you saw/did while not finding it you give the cache owner an idea of whether it's really gone or if you just overlooked it (and we have all overlooked some pretty easy ones, LOL)

I had considered the triplog feature in that same way. On a long trip (or any trip for that matter) it shows maximum speed traveled. If it's been logging your travel for the last few hours & shows a max of 65mph it'd be tough for LEO to ticket you for 75mph. I doubt it would ever be useful because a) Highway Patrol radar is *rarely* wrong (if ever), and you'd have to be able to convince the roadside officer that the gizmo was legit. I suppose a pic of the gizmo w/readout next to the ticket might give you 1/2 of a leg to stand on in court, but you still couldn't prove that you didn't alter the time/date stamp, take a lawful trip & snap the pic then.

Definitely need a couple of these, keep us informed

We recently found our 50th too, glad we aren't the only ones to be thrilled with passing a milestone. The next 20 came pretty fast, kinda like looking back once your kids are grown We'll probably make 100 on a short trip we have planned for the near future- hope it's a Kodak Moment

Be aware that there is a bug it the system (discussed on other threads, not fixed yet) whereas if you check "Within-States/Provinces/[YourState]" AND "From Origin-[any option following]" you will get NO RESULTS for that query.

I just made a payment & it went through as an Echeck, which takes 4-6 days to clear (we have a small checking account just for online transactions linked to Paypal). It could have been instant funding, if I had selected the pay by credit card option.

Awesome I'm pretty new here too. I've been lurking on the boards for 2-3 weeks, just got my GPSr a few days ago & have gone out on 3 short hunts. I learned a lot lurking on the boards while I was waiting for delivery of my unit & it didn't take too much time/effort to figure out how to get the little box to do what I wanted it to do (& I was born waaaay before the video game era, LOL). I just found a local route that has a lot of really good caches on it, gonna take the family out for a Sunday drive & lunch in the wilderness this weekend. Good luck & good scenery (be it human or nature in nature).

Since a lot of the above discussion beats around the bush with a problem I'm having I'll just ask here instead of starting a new thread. Currently, I'm checking the little boxes next to caches & using the "Download Waypoints" button at the bottom of the Seek Geocache screen, then opening the file in GSAK. (This will most likely change after I endure the 5-6 day waiting period for my Premium Membership to be approved- no worries, I'm a Kalifornia boy & am used to waiting 10 days for pickup approval on a .22 single shot rifle). Anyway, when the cache listings make it to GSAK, there are no hints or notes. This is what I get in the bottom panel: When it should read: Dunno why I'm not getting notes & hints, unless it's a feature of Premium Membership, or only available with one of the Premium Member download types? Ok, is this the answer?:

On my Etrex Legend (which I just picked up brand new with cable from Walmart Online Store for $119 with free Site To Store shipping) I send caches to it using GSAK. Once I arrive at a cache & find it, I just hit the "Find" button & click to bring up the nearest waypoints screen. The cache I'm at is always the first one on the list. Since I loaded the data through GSAK, the waypoint has a "Cache" icon. I click down twice to highlight the icon, click on it, then click down once to highlight "Found Cache" & click again to select it. Click the "Find" button again, click to select "Nearest Waypoints" & the cache I am at is first on the list with a "Found" icon next to it and my next target is always second on the list. Click down to highlight it, select it, then click again to "GoTo" & I'm off to the next find

Grrrrr!!!! We used Paypal for YEARS & they always did *INSTANT* fund transfers from our checking account. Now it says that it won't go through for 5-6 days so there go our weekend plans. I wish that merchants who are still using Paypal would warn their customers about the week-long lag between the time they make a purchase & the time that they will receive the service- BEFORE they get on the waiting list. Of course, Paypal *claims* to have already sent the funds (I think it's called "passing the buck", though no $$ have actually gone anywhere): Oh yeah, Paypal says "your first subscription payment". That kinda makes it sound like I pushed the button for the auto-renew subscription when in fact, I pushed the button for "does not renew". Just too much confusion for one night, I guess

We plan on making/leaving caches pretty kid friendly (waiting for our GPS to get here ). One of the items in our trade box is one of those little jibber-jabber hammers. Any kid that sees it is SURE to grab it, but we doubt it will ever make it past the next stop before mom & dad DEMAND that it be traded for something less invasive to their ears & more tolerable in the car