Mechanics Hands

Bumping this back to the top and safety wiring it there where it belongs. I also enjoy hearing different peoples viewpoints when they are presented and discussed in a respectful manner And above all else thanks so much to a good friend GPSPathfinder that introduced me to this wonderful hobby. MH

I enjoy being able to listen to and share with others about a hobby that my family and I enjoy. I love how my daughters eyes light up when we tell her we are going to go hunt treasures (caches). I enjoy hwo this hobby helps my wife and I be closer, because she gets the walks she loves to go on, and I get to do something with a goal. I enjoy how this hobby is so well tailored to people with different experinces, backgrounds and interests and personal lives. I for one am thankful that GC has put together such a good site and allows us to be guests here, but yet still listens to us and our suggestions and even impliments some of them. How they work to please people when they can, knowing they will offend some because they didnt get things the way they wanted. I know that I am very appreciative of all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and all the hours the volunteers put in day in and day out. THANK YOU EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU both the admins and ALL the approvers Thank you for understanding how we often overlook and take for granted, or dont understand all the things you do to help us with a hobby we all enjoy. And yet you still look past our impatience at times adn do the best jobs you can around you own personal lives. I also am very grateful to the many people I have met here and the friendships that are developing. Although we might not meet face to face, your friendships are just as important as those here in my own city. And Norbu, thank you for the breathe of fresh air this thread has created. MH

First off LOL @ sparky But seriously, sadly I can see why so many stay out of the forums. Look at the 2 ongoing threads with a war in them and its easy to see why people would stay out of the forums For me I like to be involved with the community of whatever hobby I am doing. I also enjoy the interaction and learning from others and thier experiences. Sometimes it seems the world would be a better place without people, but then at other times very thankful and wonderful they are there. MH

I have seen some, cant remember the numbers that the owners simply placed them because they were geocoins from their home state and they were out traveling or living in a new area and wanted something specialized with a taste of home. Granted most are intended to travel, but many others are not. MH

I personally love to find signature items. I will take a geocoin, when I find one, but then check to see its mission etc. If the owner wanted it to be traveling I will abide by it and place it in my next cache. However if the owner didnt care, and if I didnt have one like it, I would keep it. I am working on developing my own signature item (time permitting) Its going to be about 2 inches in diameter with cupped hands holding an airplane on one side. Wrapped around the top it will say A mechanics hands and wrapped around the bottom will be "the heart of an aircraft mechanic" I will also attach a copy of the story I wrote entitled "the mechancis Hands" I will release these as a signature item (hoping one day for them to be true coins) but not intending them to travel unless attached to a TB. In reality its really all about what the owner (not the person in possesion of it) would like the item to do and respecting their wishes. MH

I have heard many people buy a personal TB just to help track thier caching mileage and to see where they have gone. I was wondering, to help keep a more accurate count and be tracked is there a way to create a personal waypoint or private cache to log them into. It could be set up as your home or someplace nearby then you could log it into the various caches you visit that day then upon your return place it into the waypoint/personal cache. Then the TB would track accurately the mileage and give a better map showing where its been. Does this sound silly or a good idea or a feature already in place? Thanks MH

Here Here MTN THANK YOU People it doesnt matter which side (I HATE SIDES SOOOOO Unnecesary here) your on, supporting GC, or attacking it or the people of it. Being NASTY iS NASTY and hateful and just as wrong and even more so. Lets heed MTN's advice and tone it down a notch or several notches for some. To attack and make personal uncalled for comments will do no good in here it will only add more fuel to a fire that shouldnt be. It also helps others that might have listened and agreed with your perspective distance themselves from you because they dont want to be associated with the attacks. Lets RELAX and wait and see what happens. MH

A Mob, a war yes sadly thats what this seems to have been about. A questionable cache that the owner didnt get what he wanted and decided to use it as an excuse to have this explode. Were there mistakes on both sides? YES many and probably many more that none of us in the forums will ever know about. At the most we may see or hear one side or the other, but never the full picture. Why are caches adopted out or an assistant listed, when the original placer is to far away to properly maintain them? So if there is a problem with the cache, both cachers that see the problem, and the ADMINS know who to contact to see that it gets fixed. It all boils back to responsibility. I know I hate having my time wasted trying to email owners about the condition of their caches, only to have the email bounce back to me. Think of how the admins must feel. They are already doing so much work, and when an issue arises there is no clear person to contact to resolve it. It just adds that much more needless work. Its easy to see both sides of the argument, and agree with some points of each side. HOWEVER the ATTACKS slams HATE anger and pushing the envelope clearly need to stop. Have the admins learned lessons from this? I think so. Have cachers learned........... hmmm hopefully some might have, but I suppose most of the attackers and ones that want things thier way only and push the envelope probably havent and will will continue on. They may see this as a victory to push GC around. EVERYONE lost with this. GC does not answer to us. Be thankful they care about this sport enough to listen to us on many things. This is a service they provide to us for free (if you dont want to pay for a premium membership which is totally optional) Most of us are GUESTS here. I know if I had a guest in my home or my event that and I saw the behavior that I have seen here I would have planted my 13's on their butt along time ago. Just because some of you dont get things your way, (admins and everyone included) gives you NO right whatsoever to come in here and behave the way that many have. No matter what some people have done for GC and caching before in the past, present or the future, gives them any right to push the boundaries and envelope. It gives them no right to attack and hurt people. This whole mess SHOULD have been handled PRIVATELY. Yes 360 did a wonderful thing with the portland cache and I am thankful for that. Its things like that that make this a great community. Its things like these two threads that make it a horrible community. If 360 didnt like that his cache was disaproved, it should have been handled with emails. If he felt CO was unfair he should have asked for feedback from another approver and have it discussed among them. To bring it here only feed the lynch mob and makes everyone loose and makes for a sad day within the caching community. There's an ongoing thread about why cachers dont use the forums. Its sadly because of imaturity like this and the attacks and hate and anger that detract from what most of us consider and wonderful hobby and sport. If you have gripes or complaints, contact people privately or use some sence and restraint in the posts. What I have seen ongoing from many frequent posters is an ongoing HATE attitude. You call it caring, but if you truly cared you would approach it in a different more CONSTRUCTIVE way. NOT the DESTRUCTIVE way that happened here, and in many other posts. Everyone is different here, we all come from different backgrounds and even countries. IMHO if you have to always post things in a DESTRUCTIVE way then you should leave. Pure and simple. If you have ideas, or see things that need changed and can share and express them in a CONSTRUCTIVE way, then please do. Because its in that way that we and the sport and grow and improve. If you have to push the limits constantly with caches or think everything is aagainst you, then move on. A mentality liek that will onyl create issues like we have seen recently. I personally would prefer that everyone would stay and be able to provide constructive feedback so we can all learn from each other. I know personally one thing that has been fully reinforced recently. Its how to, and how NOT to treat people, and air complaints and issues. I hope that EVERYONE can grow and learn from this. I'm also hoping that those who have issues can get over them and be able to continue to contribute to the hobby that so many of us, and our families love. MH

I'm an aircraft mechanic and work at night frequently. I personally HATE DETEST cant stand LED lights. I do not like the color of light they produce as often its a bluish light that is glaring but not truely illuminating. Surefire lights are great for something of their size. Also streamlight makes several that are wonderful, bright and have decent battery life. I also use a headlamp from walmart that uses a standard bulb and 4aa batteries. Many mechs I know also dont like the blued hue of an LED light. Streamlight makes the scorpion which is small in size and I've seen it and used it. The batteries can get a bit pricey though :-( http://www.streamlight.com/scorpion_specifications.htm I also use the stinger HP. Its lighter than a maglight and rechargeable. its also expensive so you have to judge how much you are really going to use it. http://www.streamlight.com/sting_hp_info.htm On the less expensive end, try checking out the C cell maglights. They shine well, and are lighter than the D cell and have a smaller handle. http://www.maglite.com/ccell.asp I would be hard pressed to get a stinger for caching as the battery pack last about 1.5 hours plus the expense. It is alot lighter though. The scorpion is great but again batteryu prices get ya there. The streamlight jr might be brighter, however I have never tried one. Hope this helps MH

LOL Kealia. Seems like some people are always looking to for an excuse to jump in and bash others. Geesh seems like such a simple solution was here, but instead of just taking it, look at how it snowballed. Wasnt helped by those that are looking for an excuse to bash and attack those that put in so much work (Most of them for FREEE) so we have a good site to enjoy our hobby. Heck being a moderator or an approver just helps them to have huge bullseyes on them and take so much heat. Are they perfect no way. But is anyone else around here perfect? Hmmmm common and dont lie about it............. hmm pretty quiet.......... I know I am thankful for all the work so many others currently do, or have done in the past to give us a hobby that so many of us enjoy. And MOST of them do it for free. Why are they willing to put up with so much, and attacks? Because they want to help give back to the hobby and they also know that so many others appreciate all the work they do. Will there be areas to improve or something people dont like? ALWAYS But its how we approach it respectfully and discuss it with level heads. If you cant do that, and if you dont like it, dont stick around just to make waves or attack others or slam them. Either try to help in proper ways, or just avoid the forums and alot of the site like so many others do. Its all about helping others and giving back to the hobby which so many of us enjoy. MH

Hi, There was a topic in the new cachers forum that brought my attention to this. They were wondering how to log the cache they just found. I went through the new to caching and many other pages provided to help newcomers. it seems the Finding your first cache page could be updated easily to really help them. Under step 4 "When you get home, email the person who hid the cache and let them know you found it! They’re always happy to know the condition of their cache and it’s nice to know that people are looking for them." Shouldnt this be updated to something like the following. "When you get home, be sure to visit the geocaching.com website and log in. Revist the cache description page an use the log your find feature on the top right corner of the cache description page. Be sure to select the type of log and fill out the information. Including a description of the condition of the cache is very helpful to the owners so they are up to date and know if it needs sopme repair. You'll find many owners very appreciative of it. If you could not find the cache, please help out and still log it as a Did not find entry. This way if there is a problem with the cache it can be looked into by the owner. You can alway go back adn attempt to find it again. If you do find it on another attempt you can log it as a find. By submitting your log your stats will automatically be updated." Making a change to something like this might help many newcomers. MH

Hmm 360 read the last paragraph of my first message I said heck take GPSSAX up on his offer to maintain it. He made that offer at 2:08PM on 6-26-04. At that point did you stop and resubmit the post and ask that this thread be locked until a decision was made? It does sound like a wonderful idea and area for a cache, just with a clear maintainability issue. So find someone to help, take a deep breath resubmit the cache for approval and close the thread. Seems like a simple solution so everyone wins. You get the cache you wanted approved, and the rest of us get to benefit from a great sounding cahce to find. MH

Seems like there is a quick easy solution to this. Ask the oregon geocachers, or someone in the protland area if they would be willing to help maintain it. I bet you would get about 1000 replies. Get that approved adn boom the cache is fully up and running and problem solved. 360 is still the owner, but has the help he needs, and a great cache and idea is preserved. But lets not forget this quote from the geocaching website cache placement guidelines that were agreeed to. "As the cache owner, you are also responsible for checking on your cache periodically, and especially when someone reports a problem with the cache (missing, damaged, wet, etc.). You may temporarily disable your cache to let others know not to hunt for it until you have a chance to fix the problem. This feature is to allow you a reasonable time – normally a few weeks – in which to arrange a visit to your cache. In the event that a cache is not being properly maintained, or has been temporarily disabled for an extended period of time, we may archive or transfer the listing." It doesnt look like a power trip or retaliation. It seems more like a squeeky wheel getting some oil. It was brought to attention in another thread, and a reasonable step was taken. Its all about being a responsible cache owner so the rest of us can enjoy a fun cache hunt and the fruit of your work. Lets keep it respectful as a huge fight wont solve anything. MH

A cache in an airport? After 911? THATS NUTS!! I'm an aircraft mech and wanted to do one at dfw airport (already a virt there) but had common sense to keep the idea as a virt. Common sence says to keep away from airport property etc, especially after 911. Not only is it illegal to place things on airport property, but it would also would give geocaching a HUGE black eye. Lets all take a Deep breath relax and not turn this into attacking accusing etc. To make comments like the admins issues etc WILL NOT help you to get your caches approved. I would hate to see your inputs to the forums and giving to the sport decrease. Sounds like it was a wonderful idea and thing you did with the portland cache. But still is it really that hard to follow the rules and use some respect and sence with things? MH

Call me crazy or anything else, but I thought one of the main guidelines of getting a cache approved is to clearly show maintainability. Co clearly stated several times with this issue that " All this needs is a local cacher to watch it and its approvable" Seems like this is a very fair and resonable request. It would seem absolutely silly to place a cache where it cannot be reached by you, or someone else that has accepted responsibility in maintaining it, within a short time. Even with my few finds its clear that caches require maintenance, some more than others. From the geocaching website cache placing guidelines: "As the cache owner, you are also responsible for checking on your cache periodically, and especially when someone reports a problem with the cache (missing, damaged, wet, etc.). You may temporarily disable your cache to let others know not to hunt for it until you have a chance to fix the problem. This feature is to allow you a reasonable time – normally a few weeks – in which to arrange a visit to your cache. In the event that a cache is not being properly maintained, or has been temporarily disabled for an extended period of time, we may archive or transfer the listing. " To have caches in states or area you only visit a couple times a year, or in the case of your Portland Oregon one "I only go to Portland only once a year," certainly seems like you cannot maintain them. Dumb question here but realisitically, how can you maintain a cache in an area you visit only once a year? I know if I moved from an area, or had a cache placed in an area I didnt go to often, as a responsible cache owner I would find someone to help out. It must hurt to have your Portland cache archived. But the policy that YOU agreed to is very clear. I'm sure if you asked the NW geocachers it would be easy to have someone volunteer to help maintain it. Reminds me of an old saying, the squeeky wheel gets the oil. Well you drew attention to yourself and your many caches scattered thoughout many states. Heck I myself was wondering how all the caches could be maintained and what condition they were in. If I was wondering that I know others, especially the approvers wondered the same thing. To have one in disrepair for so long, it appears that the reviewers took appropriate actions. IMHO you should have temporarily disabled it for repair then if you were unable to get there yourself, ask for help from someone in the area. I know you could have found someone to help with it. We all know the guidelines, I know them from the caches I have wanted to place. Is it really that unrealsitic? We have many caches in the dallas area that are maintained by others because the original owners moved. They were responsible and asked for help and got it. I just got an email from one the other day because there had been rains in the area and they were about to do a maintenance run just to ensure they were ok. I saved them a trip by logging the cache and reporting everything was ok. Seems like you might try relaxing and taking it less personally. I can see both sides, and it seems like Co's requests were very fair and resonable. I hope its not a power trip, which I doubt it is. You jsut drew attention to yourslef in an open forum and exposed how little maintenance you can and actually do. Heck use GPSSaxophones generous offer to help maintain it and get it approved. Thats all that was really asked for. But instead of looking at that you kept it up in the forums. OOPS. just my .04 worth MH

Congrats on your first find and welcome to the sport. 1.To log the find login to geocaching.com then revist the cache page of the cache you found. Thats the page that has all the information listed about the cache. 2. In the upper right corner is a blue box saying to log your visit. Click on that and it will bring you to the logging menu. 3. select type of log, found it dnf, etc, found it in your case. 4. finish filling out the information. 5. click submit entry when done and your log will be entered, and your user stats will relect it. Hope this helps and congrats again. MH Edit: hmm looks like seamus was finsihing as I was typing LOL. Thats what I get for bein asleep at work LOL

Thanks, I've got that. What I'm wanting to do commonly when I look for waypoints in my waypoint list is to see ALL the waypoints in my waypoints list, regardless of distance away or name or type. It seems that if I choose all symbols, then nearest it only gives me a range of about 5 miles (maybe slightly more). I was at a waypoint only about 8.2-9 miles away and when I tried to select my home as a goto waypoint it wasnt in the list. Is there a way to define the "near waypoint" range? Maybe allow me to increase it to 20-50 miles? If I dont know the waypoint name for sure, or the icon type I'd like to be able to scroll through the complete list of my waypoints (even if its 500) and then select it from there. Thanks for the help. MH

That code is the geocaching.com waypoint code to organize the caches in the database. See below you'll recognize the page and its in the info. the id is at the bottom. You can also change that in easygps . hopes this helps. MH "Legacy of the Geo-Gathering" O-Cache II by Web-ling (maintained by Texas Tiger) [profile] User's Web Page N 32° 46.970 W 097° 07.010 (WGS84) UTM: 14S E 676361 N 3628782 or convert to NAD27 at Jeeep.com Click icon to download: Read about waypoint downloads In Texas, United States [view map] Hidden: 4/20/2002 Use waypoint: GC4E0A

reposting this on the third page sorry for the duplication didnt want it to get lost. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ndpost&p=957506 After digging and digging I cannot seem to find how to change the waypoint options to list ALL waypoints. That is definitely the problem I am having, nto being able to see all the waypoints. If I go into the waypoints list, then hit "menu"my only options are, find by name, , select symbol, change reference, delete. when I go into the waypoints menu it automatically has the top one highlighted. Also is there a way to hide waypoints by icon type? For instance I would love to load in the geocaches in my area. However in most cases I would not want to see those waypoints on the map, but I would like to see other waypoints. I understand adn can hide waypoints by map level as explained earlier in this thread. But I would like to see most of the waypoints I have, just not the caching ones until I go caching. Thanks for the help

Hey catch, go to the following link: http://www.easygps.com/help/index.html Alot of the info is listed there. I have looked through adn found what you might be looking for in your original questions. 1. editing waypoint: go to the easy gps dialogs section then edit waypoint dialog sub section. 3. can I send only one waypoint: yes you can send only one waypoint to be added to the waypoints on the gps (at least on my 60cs it works) 4. can I use it to delete waypoints: go to the Using "EasyGPS with your GPS receiver" section, "Clearing your GPS memory" subsection. hope this helps MH

Very well could be. I know when I sign a log, and log it in the website at the end I put the initials for the people in my family on the cache. For mine you would see this at the end: W,C, J,B now if it was only myself or myself adn my daughter you'd only see W, or W, J MH

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ndpost&p=957506 After digging and digging I cannot seem to find how to change the waypoint options to list ALL waypoints. That is definitely the problem I am having, nto being able to see all the waypoints. If I go into the waypoints list, then hit "menu"my only options are, find by name, , select symbol, change reference, delete. when I go into the waypoints menu it automatically has the top one highlighted. Also is there a way to hide waypoints by icon type? For instance I would love to load in the geocaches in my area. However in most cases I would not want to see those waypoints on the map, but I would like to see other waypoints. I understand adn can hide waypoints by map level as explained earlier in this thread. But I would like to see most of the waypoints I have, just not the caching ones until I go caching. Thanks for the help

Well I took my 60cs out for its intital run at some local caches. I am running 3.4 and city select 6. I realized I still have so much to learn about it but was very impressed. I loaded about 40MB of maps of the north texas area into it from city select. I then decided to load about 200-250 waypoints of local caches dl through geocaching.com in gpx files with my membership. I then uploaded them from easygps. At that point I had only had one other waypoint, my home. ( I had deleted garmins taiwan waypoint) I showed all the waypoints in the file on easygps. But when I scrolled through the waypooints in the waypoint screen on my 60cs, I saw only half or less. Whats more, my home waypoint was no longer listed. I could see it on the map when I scolled over the area, but it was not seen in the waypoint list. I had my home wpt with a green flag, and all the other wpts with the geocache icon. I deleted all waypoints (in case I had accidentally put in a huge number) then uploaded them again. When I dl'd from geocaching.com I would click on the box to check all caches on the pages, then download them. I did 10 pages like that, since there were so many nearby. Each cache seemed to onl have one waypoint in gps (which it should be) I would be out and add a waypoint, and the previously added waypoint would disapear from the list also. Now if I deleted some waypoints, I could see previosuly added, and unseen waypoints again listed in the waypoints list. Am I missing something here or is there a limit to how many waypoints could be listed in the waypoint list? The waypoint file that I uploaded shows to only be 36kb so having enough memory space "shouldnt" be an issue. Thanks for the help, its a steep learning curve with the 60cs, easy gps, city select6, even after fully reading and going over these forums before I got my 60cs. MH

Thanks, I got my premium membership the day I received my 60cs. I also DL'd easyGPS so I'm now in a steep learning curve to learn both my gps, city streets 6, and easy gps. I've been following the GSAK threads some, and it seems like its also alot to it and alot to learn. I still plan on staying with the traditional print out the cache sheets and upload the waypoints into my gps for the caches I want to hit that day. (least for now one step at a time) I tested the gps today for thefirst time, loved it but realized I still had alot to learn about it to get the most out of it. I appreciate the replies. MH

Hmmm seems like you should have PM them Renges. They were very professional and polite in not naming any names or specific caches etc. They kept it private maybe you should have done the same. Now if they had openly accused you or your team (naming names or specific caches) then yes I could see that reply being posted openly