EFHutton

You can add me to the list. I am EFHutton (geocaching) and my call is N7SMT. I have several handhelds, including two Baofeng portables (2 meter and 440 MHz) and two Wouxon portables (2 meter and 220 MHz). I have used them all to coordinate geocaching excursions with other ham friends who cache. The Baofeng radios are small, powerful and very inexpensive....almost disposable! At around $40.00 each, they work well for the price. A bit difficult to program with repeater frequencies, but once you get the hang of it, it is ok. The Wouxon radios are a bit more rugged and a bit easier to program too. I dropped one of them in Puget Sound after a fishing excursion and it took on some water and stopped working. I dried it out thoroughly and turned it on and it has worked fine ever since. You can't do that with most cell phones! As far as using them hiking, camping or, of course, geocaching....they are more than a life saver. Both radios have a built in FM broadcast receiver that picks up local radio stations fairly well. If there is no one to talk to, you can still listen to music. The batteries last a decent amount of time and are easily re-chargable. The drop chargers that come with the radios work on both 120VAC and 12VDC, not to mention that they both have AA and AAA battery packs that you can buy separately if you want to go that route. The Baofeng radios can be programmed with all of the FRS/GMRS frequencies and with the higher wattage, they work very well on road trips between cars or in thick woods hunting for that elusive 4 difficulty cache. If you have non-ham friends along on the trip, you can talk to their FRS radios without too much trouble. I have been known to use my handheld radios to talk to friends in Eastern Washington while they were camping.....and I was in Seattle! Where they were, there was no phone service, but a ham radio was able to get there no problem. Granted, I was using a simplex repeater system that forwarded my signal over the mountains, but it worked great anyway! I have also noticed that most ham radio operators that you will run into are just as friendly as most of the geocachers that you have run into. They are more than happy to help you out with your set up, as a geocacher would be to help you find that tough cache. They pretty much go hand-in-hand! Another interesting tidbit about ham radio is that most NASA astronauts are also ham radio operators. Kinda makes me proud to be a part of such an elite group. I just HAD to put my two cents in. Thanks for creating this thread! -Dave (N7SMT and EFHutton)

Jeremy's last word from the feedback thread asking that the cache be replaced or commemorated with a plaque: The cache container no longer exists, so the cache has been archived, which is consistent with the other Project APE caches. Even if a plaque were to be erected at the location it would not have the desired Project APE icon as part of the listing. Maybe so, but the "trifecta" should still exist. There IS a coin that commemorates the trifecta, why can't there be a plaque there that allows the trifecta to still exist? At least let it be there for this summer and figure something else out for the long term. The icon doesn't need to be the "A.P.E." cache icon.....it can be the "Trifecta" icon instead. Think ouside the box!

Here is my 2 cents worth. Since replacing the APE cache would cause controversy, I say don't replace it. Since there are already lots of people coming from all over the world to visit the spot that the APE cache was at, let them come. An event can be created for the day after the Block Party at Groundspeak to place a "Memorial Plaque" at the location of the original APE cache (just like the one down in Oregon for the First Hide)and let everyone who wants to be there participate in the ceremonious placing of the plaque. A special icon can be created for it too. The APE thief cannot ruin THAT! Maybe a new catagory of caches can be created that is called "Historic Caches" with the theme being any cache that has a historic nature either to the world or geocaching in general. Just an idea......

Wow! My cache makes headlines... I only have to say read my note on my page... Ahhhh....so you are the perpetrator of this mess! The cache cops are on their way to your house right now! Better get your affairs in order.

It is being discussed because this is the venue for a discussion. That is what the forums are for. It is not allowed on the cache page, so Groundspeak prefers to let us discuss topics of interest HERE! Are you going to play "Forum Moderator" and tell us that we can't talk about a certain subject? Good Luck. As far as entering a park at night to persue an FTF after hours, I too have done it, although I have been stopped by police for doing so. With this in mind, and the fact that, like Ham Radio, we are embassadors of our Hobby and should portray an attitude of community friendliness, one should abide by the rules and stay out of the park until it is legal to enter. I will be placing a generic note on all of my future caches when they are placed in a park, stating the hours of availability and stressing that any finds done during hours of closing will be deleted. It is just common sense.....but then again, common sense is anything but common.

You are absolutely correct. I decided to try running my PQ's a different way and found that I recieved a GPX email right away. I believe that the problem was on my end. A little more explanation how to run Pocket Queries correctly would solve many issues encountered. As far as the "area", I was refering to an area about 30 square miles in size. Around here there are hundreds of caches within that size area and to have GPX files that cover each zone would be advantagous.

I have never gotten the GPX file email and have been a Premium Member for over a year. I do, however, get the "My Finds" file and have never had a problem getting that one. My ISP isn't filtering them out, they just aren't getting sent at all. I like to use the GPX files to load my GPSr through GSAK, but if I can't get an entire area in at once then why bother? I have sent an email off to Groundspeak to try and rectify the problem. I will be interested in their reply.

I have found many odd things while caching in the area. Some of the most memorable were a dead carcass of a deer with it's head cut off, cans of beer at several different locations and different denominations of money. A friend found a portable DVD player with some porno in it just a few feet from a cache. One of the strangest though, was a "hair cache'. A new cache had come out in the area and, as usual, the rush to get FTF was on. The first person on the scene found what he thought was the cache and dropped a few coins in. When the rest of the FTF group showed up to find the cache they didn't see his coins....or his signature on the log. Then they found the "hair cache" close by. There was a note inside the container stating that it was a hair cache and that anyone finding it should cut off some of their hair and place it into the container. It was definately creepy. The first FTFer went back and took the coins out of the hair cache, placed them into the actual cache and filed a new log. Eventually the hair cache was disposed of. You never know what you are going to find while engaged in the hunt.