smenzel

Thanks for the help. So far, so good. My house registers extremely close to where it used to be with my previous GPS. I'll try a cache ot two tomorrow and see what that yields.

My unit was set to Bellevue (IGN) which, according to the PDF manual from Garmin (page 92) is Efate and Erromango Islands. Restoring defaults set the unit to WGS 84. I'm off to test this setting. Thanks.

Hey Folks -- I've been without a GPS lately so I haven't been doing much caching. Yesterday I bought a used Garmin III+ for $70. Seems like a sweet deal. Everything seems to work except that it the GPS coordinates appear to be a bit off. Here's what I mean. I went out searching for GCJZ61 Bassett Pond Blue Berries this afternoon and the blasted GPS sent me south of the road when the cache is actually north of the road. Thinking I might have made a mistake, I went to a cache whose location I happen to know (and is fairly easy to find). While standing right on top of GCD53A Merry Cache the GPS told me I needed to look another three tenths of a mile southeast. Then I double-checked the waypoint I had created for my house. The coordinates created using this GPS were a good deal diffferent than the ones I had from my previous GPS (eTrex). Am I dead in the water with this unit or is there some way to calibrate it? I don't have a lot of time because of the return policy where I bought the unit. Thanks for any help. Sandro

I'm interested in your GPS but, with a retail price of $290 for the unit, I'm a bit reluctant to make an offer.

Something tells me that, with a two and a half hour hike (each way), you aren't going to get a lot of bogus log entries. I'd be inclined to cut people a little slack after hiking that far to log a cache.

Having a dog along can sometimes help with the inconspicuous part. Dogs (especially mine) can always use a little remedial training so stopping alongside a trail and have him sit / down / wait / leave it while people pass by is nothing out of the ordinary. Waiting for the muggles to disappear around the corner can require a little creativity. Now, if only I could get my dog to find the cache for me ...

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. Not sure why I couldn't find these when I searched for them. Hmm ...

I recall seeing a thread here a few weeks ago about mapping your finds. In addition to having maps people posted with dots indicating their finds, there were instructions on how to create your own image. Unfortunately, I neglected to make a note of these instructions. Would something please point me either to these instructions or the thread that contains them? Thanks.

Happy Birtday. Adding yet more good wishes.

What about making this an annual log with something different every year? This would generate far more interest so the topic would have to be a bit more specific than just the make of vehicle. At the end of the calendar year, the cache is archived and no more finds allowed. The cache 'owner' would need to be vigilant about tracking the images to ensure that they're correct. I saw a few Toyotas listed as Yellow Jeeps. Heck, I'd be happy to host a year. Possible ideas: Yellow Jeep CJ-5 Blue Land Rover Series rig Red Toyota FJ40 (whatever the designation for old-style Land Cruisers) Green Jensen-Healey Remember, I'm suggesting that we only do ONE of the above for any given calendar year.

There are two caches that are 0.8 miles from my house. One is a difficult 4.0 and the other is a difficulty 4.5. Being the newbie that I am, I'm not bothering to even try anything that difficult, yet.

I have used both Palm and PocketPC and, to a large extent, they offer similar functionality. Things to consider: Battery Life This is very important. Palm devices have traditionally had better battery life, particularly the black and white models. If you're looking for a used device, then this will point you in the direction of a Palm device. Backlight Color devices tend to have pretty poor visibility when you're in the sunlight, regardless of the platform. If you plan on caching in sunny locations, then consider a black and white device. Size Can you fit the device in your pocket easily? Connectivity Will the device connect with your computer and communicate with your software? There are some issues with certain devices on each platform. After that, it all boils doesn to software and taste. Good luck with your purchase.

someone mentioned something about logging caches taking up to half an hour Perhaps I'm just a newbie here (Wait a minute. I AM a newbie here!), but my logs take closer to three minutes per ... if that. - enter the URL in the browser (I copied the URL earlier along with other information that I carry in my Palm) - log the find which is usually "TNLNSL" & {something about the weather} & {whether my dog was with me} & {if I think the difficultly rating is correct}. - done

[! serious] I’m not trying to start any flaming here, but the numbers don't really matter to me. IMHO, this thead is getting way too far off-topic so would someone please just close this thread already? Thanks. Serious people suck (means I AM NOT being serious). [serious] My numbers do matter to me, slightly. Every so often the urge hits me that one of those numbers needs to be incremented. Not very often but enough that I pay attention. My apologies for including all the wrong stuff in a single post. I just had to see if I could get all of those sayings in one paragraph.

I have a Palm Vx and do this in a very roundabout way. Please forgive me but, being unemployed right now, it's the best I can afford. Besides, perhaps someone will suggest something that'll make this a whole lot easier / better. - perform a search for caches in a particular area - shift-click (Mac: command-click) on a cache URL to open the page in a new window - read the description -> don't want to do cache soon? close window and open next cache - copy the following data: - Waypoint, cache title, GPS coords, difficulty, terrain, description, URL - paste into a text editor document and fix the formatting - copy the newly formatted text and paste into a Palm Descktop memo document. (1) - close browser window for this particular cache - check the box to download the waypoint for that cache - move on to the next cache When I'm done with the page, I click on the button to download the Waypoint information for all the caches that I have checked which I then transfer to the GPS. While I'm out caching, I can check the nearest waypoints and look the up in my Palm, get the description and go find it. (1) I use a text editor because the memo pad editor for Palm Desktop isn't the best for text editing. [ edit to fix typos ]

Where's George has three issues with bills that are circulated among caches. First, that this isn't really natural circulation. There really isn't anything that can be done about this and Hank (runs WG), while not super-keen on the idea, realizes that there isn't much that can be done and said that it's alright. This turns out to be a non-issue. Second, bills that get passed through caches have a higher hit rate (tend to get entered a lot more). Face it, we're trained to enter all TBs and we do the same with Georged bills. For a while, a good number of the top bills (bills with the most hits) had gone through Geocaching. After some discussion about issue number one (see above), it was agreed that these bills would have their own category. This turns out to be another non-issue. Third (and the real issue) is abuse. Every now and then (pretty rarely) someone will abuse the system. There was one instance where a group of cachers encountered a WG bill. Each member 'touched' the bill, then went home and entered it in WG. If you read WG, you're supposed to have the bill in your filthy hands at the very moment you're entering it so this was a blatent abuse of WG rules. Bottom line: If you find a WG bill in a cache, feel free to take it to your local computer with Internet access, enter it in WG and then spend or otherwise unload it.

That's exactly my approach. Though I add one more step of always taking an image to verify that find. It's possible that someone might have a different interpretation of the benchmark and this way we'll have some visible means of comparing notes.

Of course there's a reward for playing and the payout is priceless -- it's called personal satisfaction. You could also call it fun or a number of other things. Just not financial reward.

Hey jollybgood, curious ... what's the correct procedure for handling the flaming in your logs (when the cachers didn't realize that the caches were disabled)? Do you leave, edit or delete them?

Every now and then the fuss about 'cached' bills shows up on the WG site. While it is interesting to track how currency might travel through caches, it doesn't quite fit into the notion of 'natural circulation'. This is why I don't leave Georged singles as my signature item. Kind of too bad, too. I might be able to get some hits in some new states this way.

What about making your super small cache a Virtual Cache? You would have to require a photo to verify finds. Perhaps requiring a photo of your sign/cache be emailed to you might work. (just throwing out an idea here) I know a lot of people don't much care for Virtuals but it might be a solution for your situation.

Now that we've determined it's alright to pick up a TB you've picked up before ... I dropped off a TB about two weeks ago and no one has visited the cache since. At what point should I go retrieve the TB and move it to another cache? Or should I not worry about it and just leave it where it is?

A TB's ultimate goal is to be picked up and moved around. If it happens to take a side trip in the wrong direction, that's just enjoying a little scenery along the way.

Congrats. My find to post ratio os around 3.5.

Are you also tracking those that are confirmed destroyed?