Nyarlotep

Good price, and good features: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=128836

Are these kits, or just the platic boxes which used to contain kits? And if they're the whole kit, what does it contain?

Thread 9,427 complaining about crappy swag in caches. This subject oughta have its own topic on the main forum by now.

You could do BASE caches...at Buildings, Antennae, Spans, Earth...in fact, burying them fits the Earth category easily.

yay, knives in caches! Civilization at last! Sounds fun.

I've never understood the appeal of "webcam caches", "virtual caches", "locationless caches" (isn't that any oxymoron?), etc. It seems to me the easiest solution is to just chuck 'em and concentrate on real, tangible caches: just list containers that have GPS coords where you can locate them. Perhaps set up a separate site for non-physical caches, like Waymarking appears to be. Just my 2¢

I never carry open. It's not legal here. I am a sporadic cacher, and a sporadic CCWer, and sometimes those intersect, but not often. I'm still finding relatively easy caches nearby; I haven't ventured too deep into the woods yet, but when I do, I will pack, since there have been a lot of meth labs reported and/or rumored in my neck of Washington the last couple years, and I'm not taking any chances. ed to add: I pack a Makarov in an IWB or a shoulder holster, or in a fanny pack if the weather is too warm to conceal under clothing easily.

Your password should be the same. I changed my email recently (actually, I changed months ago but didn't realize the old one was still on file here) and I'm still able to log in like usual.

Laughing Bird: Just leave an IOU for 1 multitool that can be redeemed via pm/email here. Have the cacher mail you the coupon, and you mail them the multitool. It'd cost...what, maybe a buck, buck-fifty to send it USPS. Beats mutilating or tossing a supply of perfectly good multitools. just my 2 ¢ ed to add: I think "no knives" is a silly and overly cautious rule, but kinda justified in our overly litigious society. I'd like to see some kind of rating system; have "kid friendly/family" caches for McToys and sheets of stickers, and "grown-ups" caches, where we could trade currently-prohibited items, within reason.

I couldn't resist...You should lock this one too

This is from the greasecar site Pablo Mac linked to. Is it me or has oil stopped being classified as a petroleum product? I think the point is that you're supposed find a source of oil (vegetable, hemp, etc) other than petroleum oil. Petroleum being oil which is mined/pumped from the ground.

You just need a chopper, with a pilot and someone manning the winch so you can gently drop down on top of the cache, sign the book, then fly to the next

All the people I know who geocache--or are aware of it, even if they don't do it--are tech geeks, and we're all undertall for our weights, some more than others. It seems to me there are 2 groups of people: those who already spent time outdoors and adding geocaching to the things they do outdoors, and those of us who like the gadgetry and geocache so we can play with another toy. There's probably some overlap, but that's how it seems to me.

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=106975

Got mine at amazon.com

I don't even bother bringing swag. I haven't seen anything in a cache I really wanted, and I don't even look at what's there most of the time. I'm just interested in the hunt. Plus, it saves me time and money shopping for swag, and I don't have to add that to the stuff I already drag around with me caching. Just my $.02

Swiss Army Knife. I have the Hiker model (I think; it was given to me years ago & I don't remember the model exactly); it's always in my right front pocket. If I were to get a traditional multitool, it'd be a Gerber. I like their form and function better than Leatherman.

18:33 I usually use Duracell alkalines. I'm considering switching to some brand of rechargeable batteries. My father-in-law used to get bags of AA batteries from the photo counter at Rite Aid. They were removed from returned single-use cameras and the store was happy to be rid of them. I keep forgetting to ask them about it when I'm there.

I agree it'd be nice if people didn't put crap into caches. I also think it's silly to outlaw knives and lighters from caches. They're actually useful. The problem is, unless you get every geocacher in the whole wide world to agree to not leave broken McToys and half-empty Bic pens in caches, and have some sort of punitive measures in place for violators, nothing will change. A few people might become more aware of what they're leaving in caches from reading complaints in these threads, but that's it. Personally, I've only traded for anything once, and that's because the friend I was with wanted the frog-shaped carabiner. I just like to make the find and sign the log. Granted, I haven't done much of that, but for me it's about the hunt.

Wow, this got OT. I've never found ammo in a cache, nor would I leave ammo in a cache, simply to protect stupid people from themselves. Ammo (generally) isn't that dangerous on its own, even thrown by the handful into bonfires, but that's still not a good idea. Based on the caches in my area, it would more likely get waterlogged from all the moisture before it could spontaneously combust and turn the ammo can into a bomb.

Another consideration: volume of units sold. I'm just pulling numbers from my posterior, but say that 1000 problems were reported for the eTrex line, and only 500 for the Meridian series. Then let's say that 50,000 eTrex units were sold versus 10,000 Meridian units. That means that even with half the gross number of complaints, the Meridians are 2.5 times more likely to have problems. Or, that there are more complaints of problems with eTrexes only because there are more of them in the field. And the numbers could go either way. I have a Legend and have no problems with it, though I wouln't mind trying a MeriPlat. The Legend was the most GPS I could afford when I was shopping for them, and until it has problems I won't be replacing it.

I didn't read all the replies, so if this is redundant I apologize. How about just putting it back where you found it? Wait 'til there's little chance of someone seeing you (dusk or dawn, etc) and put it back. Wait a few weeks and check it again. If it's really important to someone, either they will have taken it, or (if it's a "homeless bank account") the amount of money may have increased or decreased. If there's more/less money, I'd leave a note saying that you found this so others might too and suggest they find a different hiding spot. If there's no discernable change, I'd figure it's a nice windfall and keep it. Easier than taking it to the cops and less chance of anyone but the real owner claiming it. Perhaps go all James Bond and, like, trap a hair on the rim of the bottle so that if someone opens it the hair would fall off and you could tell at a glance if someone's been to it when you return to check/re-count it. Kinda long-winded, but this seems to cover the "morality" group and the "finders-keepers" group. Personally, I'd probably keep it, but my idea is byzantine enough that I might do it myself if I were in your shoes.

hmmm, how to speak my piece w/o sounding like a jerk... It's nice that the site has some suggestions for the deportment of Geocachers. The guidelines are good, and probably help distance the site from actionability if some legal thing ever pops up. "We told them not to do such-and-such." But, like the Bible, it's a good set of guidelines that people should try to make fit their way of caching and not take literally. This reminds me of Catch-22, when everyone had to sign loyalty oaths over and over to prove how loyal they are. Not everyone is going to agree to and/or follow all the rules all the time, and what happens when someone who signed their Creed Pledge thing accidentally violates one or more part of it? Do they get kicked off the list? Shunned by the caching community? Or...nothing happens at all because there's no way to enforce it. While the idea of the list is OK, the actuality is that casual cachers like me don't impact much of anything, and no one I know who caches would sign anything like that even if we do follow all the rules all the time. It seems futile to pursue it any further than this. People will think what they want about us no matter what we sign. Just MHO.

One option is a re-radiating antenna. It doesn't attach into the Vista like a normal replacement antenna would; it just picks up the GPS signal, boosts it, then transmits it to the loop on the other end which you have to keep on/near the Vista's internal antenna. I've been looking for one of these for a while; you can get 12v car-powered ones or this one, which I'll likely be getting soon: http://pc-mobile.net/gpsant.htm HTH edited to add: I haven't seen one that offers a quad-helix antenna, only the patch antenna. I'd like to see one w/ an interchangeable antenna so you can swap for whichever type will work best for you at the time.

I'm happy w/ my Legend. I still haven't invested in mapping software for it, but for caching I don't think I'd need it much. Could be helpful to find the best road to a waypoint. If there was more internal memory it'd be more useful. If you plan to load in maps and can afford it, the Vista would be the better bet but for beginning caching, the Legend is excellent.