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AE5D

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  1. AE5D

    I Quit!

    After locating 172 benchmarks, smokestacks, steeples and towers, the utter futility and pointlessness of benchmark hunting has finally hit me. It was moderately amusing at first, but after I found about a hundred of them, the benchmarks get harder to find and farther from home. Some benchmarks are in the database but they no longer exist, and this usually results in a wasted trip across town. This is especially true of benchmarks which have not been logged already on the Geocaching web site. On the other hand, some benchmarks are just too easy to find. Like the San Jacinto Monument, or the dome on the State Capitol. It takes no great skill to locate, photograph and report such an object. I "found" and photographed CS2852, which is an old smokestack, without even slowing down on the freeway! The old benchmarks themselves will soon be obsolete, in almost every case, because of the Global Positioning System and future systems like it. If they are lost and forgotten, that's unfortunate, but that's progress. All this, coupled with endlessly having to explain myself to relatives, onlookers, property owners and overzealous security guards, has led me to the decision to pull the plug on this hobby and move on to something else. Best wishes to all of you, and have a happy new year!
  2. Here's another bug: I know of only two examples, but I suspect there are more, and there's bound to be an easy explanation... Search for benchmark CS1770. Then click on the ''nearest benchmarks'' link and you'll see all the benchmarks within ten miles, but CS1770 is not in the list. It should be at the top of the list. The same is true for CS1954. How many more benchmarks are invisible in this type of search? I discovered this while looking up PIDs I found in a short-range radial search on the NGS website.
  3. Apparently the Zip Code for Apple Springs is 75926, so you could start by searching that zip code at the Geocaching [benchmark Hunting] site. However, a quick glance at the list reveals nothing that seems to match the marker you found.
  4. For better results, search in your area (by zip code) for marks that someone else has already found. With a little more experience you will have better results, but there will still be times when you visit several benchmarks in a row without finding one. My longest dry spell was ten benchmarks in a row that I just couldn't find... all on the same day! That's an unrewarding way to spend a day off. Please be aware that there are many benchmarks out there in places that are just too dangerous to go. I've been to a few spots where I took more risks than I could ever justify for a picture of a benchmark.
  5. An example would be BM0627, on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin, which is called an ''astronomical station'' in the 1911 description but not in its designation.
  6. Today I found benchmark #128 (AB7758), which turned out to be a ''Topographic Station'', with a circle on the disk instead of a triangle or an arrow or some other symbol. This is the first mark of its kind that I have found. Is this a rare item?
  7. While visiting CS1433, I found that this triangulation station is in the back yard of an old (and rather shabby) house which is currently up for sale. A GPS fanatic with a little extra cash could buy the house, demolish it, build a new house on the lot, clean up the yard and have quite a conversation piece out back. It would be the perfect spot for Geocaching parties!
  8. CS2858 is an example of a mis-identified radio tower, and I'd like to post a note saying that the report is in error, but I don't want to hurt someone's feelings and get flamed for it. The ''KVP'' tower was 212 feet tall, and was 75 feet south of another tower which is 560 feet tall. I was in the area yesterday, and saw that there is only one tower at that site and it is the 560-foot backup tower for WRR, which is the tower in the photo on the Geocaching page for CS2858. I saw another example recently (but I can't remember the PID) in which a tubular cell phone tower was shown in the picture, but the benchmark was supposed to have been a 1930's aircraft navigation beacon. There should be a way to challenge someone else's findings, so that bogus sightings can be removed from the database. All this would be off-topic except to say that you can't be absolutely sure that a benchmark has been found by someone else, even if it is listed as ''Found''.
  9. There are some benchmarks which have been logged by eight or nine people, and there is nothing wrong with joining in. However I don't upload photos of such a site, if other people have already sent in photos, unless I believe that my pictures are clearer or add something not seen in other people's pictures. The same goes for the description. It helps to describe the location, the way it looks today, especially if the data sheet refers to landmarks that are no longer there. Finding benchmarks that someone else has already found seems trivial, but sometimes it is a refreshing change after an unproductive day of hunting. When you hunt for a mark that hasn't been logged by someone on Geocaching, the chances of finding it are about 30 percent. At least that has been my experience. You may also find that nearly all of the easy ones have been found and reported, at least in big cities. Many of the ones that remain unexplored (in Dallas - Fort Worth) are in parts of town where (I perceive) nobody wants to go, or in areas that are off limits to the public.
  10. The following words are reversed when converted to ROT-13: AN GNAT RAVINE RIVE ROBE SERF TANG THUG Bs gurfr, bayl TANG naq GNAT ner pbzcyvzragnel. Vs lbh cynl Obttyr, guvf vf xabja nf n Qebzrcny -- n jbeq juvpu sbezf nabgure jbeq jura fcryyrq onpxjneqf.
  11. I am very new to Geocaching, although I have been hunting benchmarks for a few months. Recently I acquired four Travel Bugs and so far I have deployed only one. None of the four has been given a purpose, and none of them is attached to another object. I thought the purpose was, by default, to add some interest to a cache and to travel from one cache to another. So if you find a TB with no purpose, it could be that the owner doesn't know enough about the game to assign a purpose. I sure don't.
  12. Going back to your original post... you reminded me of a benchmark I found (CS2926) which had been reported as "Not Found" by USPS, even though it was directly under a witness post. It is especially rewarding to find a marker that someone else couldn't find. This category includes CS1841 and CS1845, which were "Not Found" by NGS in 1986, but I found them both easily.
  13. I've located exactly one cache and it was a lot of work, especially on a 100-degree day. So my "score" is 1/102. Benchmarks are much easier, I think, especially when you live near an area with a benchmark every half mile. There are several benchmarks in the downtown areas of Grand Prairie and Fort Worth (Texas) which are not far from each other, and they're right where they are supposed to be. And in most cases they are not hidden. Someone (other than me, of course) should compile a list a really easy benchmarks for beginners.
  14. --=[uPDATE]=-- 09/04/2003 Today I put on a tie and a starched shirt and returned to the Federal Building in Fort Worth, home of CS1734, and spoke to the building security supervisor, who introduced me to the Federal Protective Service officer in the FPS office on the first floor. I explained the situation from yesterday, and asked for clarification. I was told that photography of public buildings is not prohibited, nor could it ever be, as long as the Constitution is still in effect. It is discouraged, since they don't want people taking pictures of security cameras, barriers, and guard positions. But I was assured that for the purpose of benchmark hunting (which took a while to explain), photography is perfectly okay as long as (1) you talk to the building manager first, and explain what you're doing, and (2) you don't take pictures of the guards, cameras, barriers, or any other components of the building security system.
  15. This afternoon I was in downtown Fort Worth with my family and, just after 4:00 pm, I stopped to take a picture of the benchmark (CS1734) embedded in the sidewalk at the west end of the Post Office loading dock on the north side of East 10th Street. I was intercepted by a security guard (an officer from FPS, I assume) who informed me that photography of all federal facilities is prohibited. We were chased away, in other words. Do we now live in such a police state that a person can't take a picture of the Post Office, or the sidewalk next to the Post Office? Is this part of the new Patriot Act, or was this security guard simply mistaken? Last week I was chased away from a federal prison when I attempted to photograph their water tower (CS2771), and I can almost understand that they wouldn't like to have a lot of pictures taken there, but I was told almost exactly the same thing: "Photography of all federal facilities is prohibited." Strictly speaking, this means that 98% of all benchmarks cannot be legally photographed, because they are NGS "facilities". Naturally I am about to begin writing letters to US Senators and Representatives. But if any of you know if such a law exists, please let me know its name and number.
  16. Sir, "The Billion Dollar System" has cost at least twelve billion. http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.page.asp?I=468 ...and it's one of the best military tools ever built. I wish every twelve billion spent by the government was so beneficial.
  17. Take a look at the datasheet for BN0607 and read the original 1956 Station Description. I was in the area two weeks ago and should have taken a picture of this one, because I'm sure Political Correctness will lead to the renaming of this mark someday soon.
  18. quote:Originally posted by Black Dog Trackers:shrdlu, I don't know how you will get any 'credit' for the DF PIDs - they aren't in the database. I found them in a radial search at http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/datasheet.prl ...and you can look them up by PID also. But you are correct -- they aren't in the Geocaching database.
  19. Today I logged AF9536, but as far as I can tell, this is the same location (within millimeters!) of DF5387 and DF5388. Additionally, it is ten feet directly above CS3400. The first three refer to the GPS antenna for the Arlington CORS. The last is a brass disk under the tower. Actually I didn't notice the brass disk when I was there, but can I take credit for three benchmarks with this find? I have a web page about this benchmark at http://www.akdart.com/arl5.html
  20. About two weeks ago I visited BM0582 on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin. It was put there in 1872, and there is another mark about 40 feet away (BM0627) that was established in 1911.
  21. If you were able to take possession of a benchmark as it is "retired", you could make some really cool bookends or a nice doorstop.
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