x_theory

FlagMan, I'm so sorry to hear about your home I was up in OC when they were reporting the fires in San Diego, and rushed right back. Let us know your status, and if there is anything we can do to help!

What, are thier RIAA lawyers the geocache? Or perhaps they'll start sending thier agents out geocaching to get ppl trading music rather than going after 12 yr olds downloading from Kazaa. I'm just teasing ya Under the fair use clause however, it could be just that we are having other geocachers maintain a copy of the music we already own (on CD's we've purchased) for safe keeping. Just as long as you don't continue to copy it, it's not really illegal. Perhaps it would only apply to minidisc enthusiasts, but we do enjoy trading different colors and styles of blank minidiscs too. You'd be suprised how many there are. Also, there are limited edition blanks that actually hold value, kinda like baseball cards. Just an idea

Hello all! I'm a fairly new geocacher(24/m) from the La Mesa/SD area that is looking for a team to join. Shortly I will be acquiring a Magellan SporTrak GPSr and have previous land nav experience from my time in the service. Let me know if your interested!

Just wondering how many people in the So. Cal region own minidisc players or recorders that would enjoy doing a mini-disc cache of thier favorite song compilations or cool looking blanks? Let me know

Sounds like fun! I actually wonder also if anyone has ever thought of doing a poetry cache, where you deposit a personal poem or copy of one of your favorite poet. Ok yeah, I'm cheesy lol. There's nothing like finding good literature though, right?

It's a silly question, but since I've heard of alot of ppl taking thier dogs with them cache hunting, has anyone gone as far to train thier dogs to sniff out certain types of tupperware, ammo boxes, or anything of the kind? I'm sure it's possible to train a dog to do this, and it would be fascinating to know if anyone has been able to achieve that with thier loyal canine friends.

quote:Originally posted by Kerry:The 4000XL was not necessarily a 12 channel receiver as there were 2 different versions of the 4000XL and they both looked the same. Cheers, Kerry. Kerry, Could you tell me how I'd go about figuring out which version of the 4000XL I have, and if it's a true 12 channel parallel, rather than a two 2 channel parallel reciever? Thanks!

The Magellan SporTrack series do have a feature they stated on thier website that says the following: NorthFinder SporTrak’s NorthFinderTM technology shows your direction even when standing still. On the SporTrack Position screen that shows a bar compass. There is also a compass screen (circular compass display) that shows your current bearing, N/S/E/W, and a steering indicator in relation to your waypoint. So for all intensive purposes, it is a compass because it follows the main functions of a compass. Me, personally, I carry a good ole Army lensatic compass with me anyways. Never put 100% faith in electrons. They like to screw with you sometimes

You know what would be GREAT? Not only having some sort of Li-Ion rechargable battery, but also a small solar panel recharger for long extended trips. I know when I go backpacking, the last thing I want to do is add more weight to my pack, unless it's food or gas for my whisperlite stove. Having a rechargeable solar panel accessory would be a great way to recharge your GPSr for layover days. I'm sure given a couple weeks time I could always rig up something like this for my Magellan SporTrack.

If your custom building your system especially, it should come with a built in serial port, or at the very least a I/O port that connects a cable from your motherboard to a harness that screws into one of your empty PCI/ISA card slots. If for some very very strange reason it doesn't come with a serial port (and I've never seen a case like this on any system) then just get the DB9(Serial) to USB adapter.

If I am correct, the 310's aren't the most accurate GPSr's, mainly because they do not have the WAAS error correction reception on them. So if you use your 310, you might find yourself having to do a little more searching than say someone that had a Meridian Platinum (that'll get you within 3 meters or better of your target) but then again, searching is the fun part of geocaching! If I had a unit that was dead on every single time and took all the fun out of the hunt, I wouldn't be so enthusiastic about caching. Then again, I am investing in a Mag SporTrack, which is a lil bit fancier and more accurate than my old Mag 4000XL. Even still, it sure beats the days of magnetic compasses, protractors, and ranger beads hehe.

Excellent replies! Thank you very much for the information. Finding declination on an even outdated USGS topo was never a problem for me, however I just wanted to make sure that for my older GPSr (Magellan 4000XL) that I wouldn't have to rely on a USGS topo declination diagram to plug it in correctly to my unit. I'm still going to play with it a little more, but I'm looking at moving to a SporTrack unit for a little better accuracy and better sat. reception. Once again, thanks for all your replies. What a great group of people you all are

You'll have to forgive me on my ignorance about civilian GPSr's. I've been a longtime user of the AN/PSN-11 GPS "plugger" from my Army days. I've always used one in conjunction with a map, in which declination needed to be figured in. It seems that if your going by GPS alone you don't need to factor declination in because you will arrive at the same coord location regardless (trying to rehash my land nav training, so bear with me) Since declination is only pertinant to bearing, does that mean if for some reason the GPSr did not obtain the correct declination, or if it was manually put in incorrectly, that you'd still arrive at your location eventually, but your directional indicator may be a bit off key? As far as my question about elevation, would it not be pertinant when your figuring in distance to target if your terrain is not flat like a map (i.e. traveling up hills or through valleys that aren't flat)? So I basically gathering that as long as your datum is correct, and the waypoints are correct, you should be able to just turn on your GPSr and it will lead you exactly to the coordinates you plugged in, plus or minus the accuracy rating of the unit? I will be recieving a Magellan 4000XL GPSr here within a few days and while reading the online manual I was just correlating my knowledge of the AN/PSN-11 to this one and figuring out which settings were automatically obtained, or which ones I had to plug in to make sure that my headings were as dead on as they could be, to include distance to my waypoints. Thanks for entertaining some questions from a vet who's more accustomed to navagating with compasses and ranger beads To answer your question, I did some research and yes, Clinton had removed SA from GPS sattelites for civilian use. The AN/PSN-11 pluggers are still a little more accurate, but apparently not by much anymore to thier civilian counterparts.

Drugs are baaad, mkay? I definately agree with removing any harmful substances from cache's too. I'd also be careful about handling any pills you find with your bare hands. You'd be surprised the amounts of drugs out there that can get into your system via physical contact or permeation through the skin alone. God forbid someone would put LSD blotter paper into a cache and some unwitting kid handling it not knowing what it was. My advice, pack a pair of latex gloves with you and don't let your kids examine the contents of a cache first if you are geocaching with them.

Hello all! I'm very new to the sport of GeoCaching, and have some questions about determining declination settings on my GPSr in relation to the particular cache I'm out to find. Do you periodically check your declinations (relation to magnetic and grid north offset) on a cache by cache basis since Magnetic North is in constant movement? Since I know accuracy of civilian GPSr's vary quite a bit from military pluggers, having an accurate declination setting is paramount in making sure your coords are as accurate as you can get with selective availability. What are some good tips from the veteran GeoCachers out there in regards to declination, or even elevation settings for that matter, too. Thanks alot