Hrethgir

For reals, I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the small, reg, and large traditional caches within 50 miles of my home, and I haven't figured out how to get them all! Yup, already did something like that after the last suggestion, searched for Small, Regular and large containers of the Traditional, Multi and Earth cache type, then just played with the dates placed until I had around 450 caches in a single PQ. Took me 9 PQs to get them all for my area! Kind of fun, though, like looking into a time machine at how much the sport has grown. Early 2000s, I was able to use a date range of around a year or more, but the most recent times, 4 months covers over 500 new caches! And this was for a 50 mile radius from my place. I'll probably eventually break these down by difficulty, but that's for later.

OK, here's about as good a picture as I could get, it's hard taking a picture of clear plastic! This is just the blank canvas for now, waiting for the TB to show up so I can add it in, and then once I know how that will go in, then I can get a paint scheme going. But for a buck or two, I'm pretty happy with it so far! Started with a piece of .080 thick 8" x 10" piece of Plexiglas from Lowe's for $1.58, used a bad CD and a Sharpie to draw the circle onto it (that one piece of plastic was enough for two of these with some extra left), cut it out with my Dremel tool and a wheel cutter, then smoothed off and beveled the edges with a sanding drum on the Dremel, then hand sanded the edge nice and smooth. Then used a heatgun to heat it till it was pliable, then formed it over a candy dish I got at Goodwill for $1. Taped some crimp-on eye connectors onto the dish so I knew where to make the ripples, then just worked it by hand, while wearing leather work gloves, of course! Went from the 8x10 sheet of Plexi to 2 finished bowls in probably 30-45 minutes, although one of them could use a little more work to get the curves right. Still, cheap and easy, and actually pretty fun, I think I'm going to start making signature swag using this stuff, especially if I can find a place that has colored Plexi!

That "no smoking" thing actually gives me an idea, and same with attaching the dogtag. I think I'll try heating up the bottom of the ashtray and pressing the tag into the bottom, so it's kind of molded into the plastic ('ll add Super Glue too, just to make sure it's in there good), then it's easy to see, and out of the way in case someone does use it, so the TB won't get damaged. As for the no smoking learning thing, that's not a bad idea, so I think I'll paint it like I was talking about, but I'll do the red circle with the cross hatch through it in translucent red on the bottom under the dogtag, so it's more of a no smoking ashtray. And I'll try to get a picture of it, might not turn out so well right now, it's just clear plastic, might be hard to see, but after it's finished (should get the dogtags soon), I'll definitely post a finished shot. Any other input is welcome, too!

A good source of information is Markwell's FAQ on pocket queries. http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm At the bottom it shows one way of doing that. Basically, you use the "date placed". So create a pocket query for 50 miles from your home location, small, regular and large traditional caches. If it exceeds 500, what you need to do is figure out a date range where that number is a bit under 500 (450 is good - allows some room for unarchived caches). So, if for example, you found out that 1-1-2000 to 1-1-2006 gives you 454 caches, you'll next create a range from 1-2-2006 through whatever date gives you almost 500 caches. I use 4 such queries to cover a 15 mile radius from my home location. Awesome, thanks for the link and tip, never thought of using the date thing! I've been trying to do a querie for eache level of difficulty, but that hasn't worked, just too many caches.

For reals, I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the small, reg, and large traditional caches within 50 miles of my home, and I haven't figured out how to get them all!

Those are some things I was thinking about, actually. I wasn't sure how parents would feel about their child finding an ashtray. And it would be going out as new and unused, but I obviously can't keep it that way once it gets into the wild. And I don't condone smoking anything (I personally don't smoke anything), I came up with this idea as it seemed a kind of fitting and humorous trackable considering it's destination. Anyways, keep the opinions coming so I can decide which way I'll go with this. Still leaning heavily towards sending it out (especially since I already made the tray), but I do want input, as I know smoking can be a touchy subject to people.

That's a good point. It's clear palstic, but I do plan on making the number stand out, but I'll rethink that and see what I can come up with.

I had an idea for a bigger TB the other day while thinking about a trip to Amsterdam I was unable to make many years ago due to timing issues. And my idea was to make an ashtray TB with it's ultimate goal to make it to Amsterdam . Now, my question is, does anyone think this might be something inappropriate or something? I already made the ashtray, just a formed piece of Plexiglass, and as soon as the TBs arrive, I'm going to etch the number into the the bottom of the ashtray, and maybe even paint it (all plastic this way, no metal, so no problem with airport security), but I thought I should double check with other people before setting this thing loose. This would be my first trackable, by the way. Thanks in advance!

Front page of gc.com, do the advanced search where it says Search for Caches, change it to State/Country, and pick Greenland. Looks like there are 27 caches there. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx

Congrats, glad we could help you get it published instead of how to get rid of it! And I see it's already been found, too!

Looks like I have about 450 active caches within a 10 mile radius of my home. And I'm at something like 1300 non-micros within a 50 mile radius, should be plenty to keep me busy for a bit!

I'd have to say, yes, you gave poor advice on what to buy, and that's because you didn't research it until afterwards. The "H" is for "High Sensitivity", while the base Legend is old outdated technology. But all is not lost! I'd tell her to resell that unit she bought, either back on eBay or here on the GPS Garage Sale section, and roll that money into another unit. Either a unit like yours, or maybe a Summit HC. Basically the same as your unit, but also includes a color screen. Or maybe sell her your Legend H and get the Summit HC for yourself!

No worries, the world will end in Dec 2012 anyway. On a more serious note, what may be more likely is a license fee on every GPS chipset sold to fund the system. I thought this thread was going to be about Cycle 24, the predicted sunspot cycle that will disrupt the signals. It's predicted to peak in May 2013 (unless Chrysalides is right, and then we have nothing to worry about). Of course, if it's big enough, instead of geocaching we can all watch the auroras. More information here: http://www.physorg.com/news161026403.html It's not Chrysalides, it's the Azteks!

You might want to change your "from" under your forum info to just your town and not your full address, you don't really need to tell everyone who comes to this forum exactly where you live. And if your cache isn't even listed yet, then all you need to do is go get the physical cache and tell the reviewer that you aren't going to pursue that placement anymore. Or have your daughter come over with her GPS and get coordinates for your home. You aren't being "screened", the reviewer just needs to know where you live in relation to the cache is all, it's something they do to everyone who places a cache, you aren't being singled out. And "won't" is a contraction for "will not", which is why we are having trouble understanding your question.

Are you one of the people selling these coins, or something? I see the theory in what you're saying, but you can tag the coin however you want, it WILL leave the area and end up in a cache in ireland sooner or later, no matter what you want done with it. I wouldn't want to play, anyways. Why would I want to hurry back to a cache I had just visited just to get a geocoin?

I've found good micros, but I've also found plenty of stinkers. Now, on my PQ's, i filter out micros, especially around town. Lampost skirts in a Walmart parking lot, a key holder stuck to a bench next to a busy street, just boring and lame. I want to at least see something cool or neat if there isn't going to be any swag, but appearently that's just asking too much that a cache gets me a smiley AND is fun!

Unless you can set up around-the-clock survielence on lots of chaches, and then catch the thief in the act, there isn't much else you can do.

In regards to button layouts: like I said, I have a Legend HCx and a DeLorme PN-40, and I LOVE the button layout on the PN-40, and not a huge fan of the HCx. Once you remember what buttons are where, it's not too bad, BUT I find the thumbstick to be in a bad place, as if I'm operating the unit with my right had (I'm right handed, so that's how I'm usually using it), I end up covering the screen up with my hand if I use it in a natural hand position, and, well, that can be a problem. The PN-40 has all it's buttons under the screen, so that's never been an issue, and I loke that much better. As for using the devices in the field, they are both very similar and very easy to use. I like the paperless capability and aerial imagery you can put on the PN-20/40, but the Legend/Vista HCx is a little smaller and has a better battery life.

Don't get a DeLorme then. I beg to disagree Rockin Roddy. If you can swing it, get the Garmin Oregon 400t on sale at REI for $400- $50 rebate = $350 thru May 10. If you are going to say don't get a DeLorme, at least tell us why you say that. If it's about the software, sure, Topo takes a little getting used to, but it's not that bad, and once you learn it, it's easy. And you don't even need Topo to send caches to the unit, it's just like any Garmin, Send To GPS, and that gives you full cache description and everything you need for paperless. I have both a DeLorme PN-40 and a Legend HCx, and both are excellent units. I also had a PN-20 briefly, got it to give DeLorme a test-drive to see if I wanted to get the PN-40 (this was before the PN-40 came out), and I liked the PN-20 enough that I sold it in about a month and put that money towards my PN-40.

In my opinion, you'd be better off with seperate units for automotive routing and geocaching. There are units that can do both (big-number Nuvis, the Oregon, the PN-40...), but it seems like they do one really well, and passably good for the other. But none of them do both really well. Like the handhelds that can route, they usually don't have speakers, just a beeper, so no turn-by-turn verbal directions, but great for caching. And for the Nuvis, great for routing, but limited battery life, no weather resistance, and no compass screen make them workable for caching, but not the best option. I actually have 2 car units and 2 handhelds, and this feels like the best way to do this, at least until a unit comes out that brings the best of both worlds.

Primary: Geocaching - DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 Navigation - Navigon 2100 Back-ups: Geocaching - Garmin eTrex Legend HCx Navigation - Garmin Streetpilot 210 Back-up back-up: Navigation - Pharos GPS add-on to my Dell Axim X30 PDA The PDA is basically the last ditch for navigation, like if the Navigon battery is dead, the Garmin is broken, I don't have my PN-40, and I can't find a map. The Pharos software is really that bad, the routing is just bizarre sometimes, like it once skipped an exit and tried to take me on a 14 mile loop.

I have a cache that's been temp disabled since October, I think it was. It's mounted on a dock, and the dock gets pulled out of the water during the winter season, so there's nowhere to put the cache right now. As soon as the dock goes back into the water, so does the cache! At least this gave me a chance to repaint and upgrade parts of the cache that needed it, so it will look and a little better and last a little longer than it would have before.

Well, mine is the last one of my usual names that was still available, it's the one I use on my Subaru forums. It's not even really true, I actually own a Honda motorcycle, but it was all I could come up with! I'd like to change my username actually, but I haven't thought of anything else yet, really.

My Find/DNF ratio is horrible, but I still enjoy it, ad I don't see any reason to be embarrassed about it. I'm currently at 39 finds and 17 DNFs, but a few of those DNFs became Finds later. DNFs are part of the game, and not logging them distorts a caches history and might even keep a CO from even knowing there's a problem with his cache. Say it gets found and thrown away by a non-cacher, and the next 3 people to look for it, instead of logging a DNF, say nothing, then the CO wouldn't know that it was suddenly missing, and other people might make a trip to find it and that turns into a waste of their time. just log your DNFs, they aren't just for you.

Sadly the owner may want to put on some good heavy rubber gloves and make absolute sure the trackables aren't in there. If someone hates geocachers that much they may have left the trackables and defecated on them as well. Uh, nope. If that was my cache, then those trackables are gone. I am NOT digging through feces to find a TB (and maybe get TB!), then have clean and sterilize it and HOPE I did a good job before releasing it back into the wild. Too unsanitary, that whole cashe is going in a dumpster.