smenzel

I wonder if people do this to up their count - destroyed benchmarks don't increase the benchmarks found count. That's kind of what I was wondering. I take it isn't worth contacting those folks who filed their find incorrectly?

I was looking through the benchmark database and found a benchmark that was the flagpole on top of a building that was destroyed. It was the old Kingdome in Seattle -- SY4578 Now, I would log this benchmark as being destroyed (and did so). But all the other people before me logged this as found and, in their comments, stated "yes, benchmark has been destroyed". Am I missing something here? Or should I be logging confirmed destroyed benchmarks as found?

Agreed. Add a note logging what you saw. An image would be even better. Make a note to go back and visit the site again later. If the sticks are ever removed (as in the official people are done with it), you can dig for the benchmark and log your find. Good luck.

I use a 2.1 MegaPixel camera on its best settings to take all my images. Those I intend to share over the Internet -- either via email or Web posting, I run through GraphicConverter and reduce the dimensions by one third. This produces an image in the thirty to forty-five kb range which is perfect for emailing and Web sites.

I use a 2.1 MegaPixel camera on its best settings to take all my images. Those I intend to share over the Internet -- either via email or Web posting, I run through GraphicConverter and reduce the dimensions by one third. This produces an image in the thirty to forty-five kb range which is perfect for emailing and Web sites.

I use a 2.1 MegaPixel camera, shoot on the best settings and then 'reduce' the image by 33% using GraphicConverter. This generates images in the 35-45 kb range, which is perfect for posting and emailing.

Sometimes the written logs can be difficult to write. Just today I had a really tough time writing the log because it was so blasted cold that I could barely hold the pen straight. [ I'm not trying to disagree with the written logs. Just pointing out one minor drawback of them. ]

With people like that its best to not even make them aware of these marks, they may just disappear. Good point. You never know with some of these para-military organizations.

I do Where's George and have had very good experiences with Stamp Connection.

You're starting off far better than I did. My first 4-star (done with a friend before I even really started) was a disaster. I had no idea what we were doing. We visited the site several times and never did find the cache.

There are many reasons to Geocache. In addition to the above mentioned reasons, I also enjoy looking up virtual caches for places I visit to get another point of view of things to see while I'm there.

Is there a policy on searching for caches in the snow? I'm sure it could leave serious traces which might attract the muggles.

Cool. This is good information. I'm going to add one of these cases to my wish list. Thanks.

Are we geeks? I'd have to answer yes to that one.

How well do the belt holsters work with the eTrex units? I notice that most/all of them have a securing strap which covers the top of them.

Not entirely on topic but sort of relates to filing DNF's (or maybe not). When benchmark hunting, I will often visit a site area several times before actually locating and photographing the benchmark. I read the directions and parse them into steps. On each visit or drive-by, I'll attempt to determine yet one more step until I locate the actual benchmark. Right now I'm working on one that's located on a fairly busy street. I know the exact location of the benchmark but have to time one of my future visits such that I can take a pic in between traffic.

Perhaps I'm just too new to Geocaching but ... I like to look up Virtuals when I travel as they often add something to the tour I get of the city I'm visiting. Sure, I could probably look up the answers for the Virtuals. I guess I could also just look up pictures of where I'm going and just stay home. But I don't.

"TB Hotels"? This is a new one one me. Would someone please share an example of one of these? Thanks.

Could they have been referring to Llama Lookout?

The problem isn't so much with the slight bending of rules. There are varying degrees to which you can take the notion of natural circulation. Granted, there are several actions which are definitely not approved. Depositing large quantities of stamped bills to the bank is one of these unapproved actions. I ran across on Georger who never spends his Georged bills outside of his home town -- his version of natural circulation. Personally, I don't see a problem dropping Georged bills into Caches. The problem arises when logging the bills is abused. Having everyone in the group log the same bill, especially when they don't have it in hand, is definite abuse. The one time I found a Georged bill in a cache, I exchanged it for one of mine and introduced the newly found bill back into circulation.

GPS PDA (Palm) digital camera Since the descriptions for benchmarks include descriptions (directions), I often end up using the PDA more than the GPS.

Reminds me a bit of someone who logged a bunch of Benchmarks I was thinking of searching but didn't attach any photos to their logs. I thought it kind of strange that the person would log the find but not include any images -- or even any info specific to the benchmark in their log.

I spent quite a bit of time using both a Palm and iPAQ -- Palm Vx and the original iPAQ (both the 32MB and 64MB models). The iPAQ demo'd incredibly well. Unfortunately, I had pretty severe battery problems even with the PC Card Sleeve (with the extra battery built in). Sitting in the sun reading an eBook with the backlight turned off and the extra battery pacy, I would run out of power after a few hours of reading. The Palm will last me several days w/out any battery worries. As I understand it, Compaq has been addressing their battery issues. Aside from possible battery issues, you should base your decision off what you intend to do with your device and what software is available to help you accomplish this. I like to track data and find myself away from a power supply creating new ways to track data (creating databases). Aside from PocketSQL and another computer, I have yet to find a way to do this on the PocketPC. There are half a dozen solutions for this on the Palm. I'm sure there are situations where the opposite is true. If I were just starting out with a PDA, I would do two things. First, I would hound my friends with PDA's and get them to show me exactly what they do with theirs. This is more easily said than done. Second, I would buy a used device or two off of eBay with the idea that it'll get replaced with something nice once you figure out what that something is. Good luck with your PDA search.

Thanks for all the info. This is great.

Come to think of it, the last few Virtuals I logged only returned one piece of mail. Receiving email notification from the cache owner would be nice, though I'm not sure I think it should be required.