Gliderguy

I have three nicks that I use for various reasons. Gliderguy requires the least description, it is my other hobby and the first reason I ever bought a GPS: SSA- Soaring Society of America Sometimes I use Gliderguy3 if Gliderguy isn't available. Obviously I like flight. One of my other nicknames I use in combat flight sim games is "Vertigo." Imagine it said with a thick German accent (VER did hi GO?) My latest nick needs the longest story: My wife and I both own motorcycles. Hers has a customized plate that says "DUHHHH" surrounded by a license plate frame that says "all dumbs aren't blonde." I have put in for a matching plate "DUH ME" I have used "DUH ME" as a name on a few online IQ tests. You get the intended effect of the name if you can get a little bit of valley girl twang into saying it. I was valedictorian way back in my high school days, and I remember thinking even in grade school that I got dumber every year. I feel like a dummy now.

One other thing about the rino: You can manually "poll" other users for their positions without them having to press any buttons. This feature is buried down in the menu somewhere. So if your family doesnt want to respond to you-you can still get their location. Unless they are smart enough to go down into the menu and turn the polling feature off.

If you drained a set of three 2300 mah batteries in three minutes you should have smelled someting burning Stupid questions: what charger are you using to charge your batteries, and how long had it been since they were charged before your problem? If I remember right, leaving a multi charger set to Ni Cd while charging Ni Mh gives you a signifigant UNDER charge (technical types jump in here if I got that backwards)

My vote for my current favorite: Rino 120 (is that a first for that unit) I have also used the following for caches throughout my limited career: Magellan Blazer 12 Garmin GPS III Garmin GPS III+ Garmin GPS V (previous favorite but like the relative simplicity of the Rino for caching) Have also owned at one time or another: Eagle Accunav Sport Eagle explorer Garmin 38

Yes, all three rino types will report to each other, BUT each radio has a menu option to turn off position reporting. Depending on how technically adept your kids are, they could turn off the reporting (or for that matter, so could you ) Also the rino radios only do the position reporting on the FRS frequencies, if you enable the more powerful GMRS you will not get the position reporting (FCC requirement that I am sure Garmin really hates)

I find the GPS speed to be very accurate. I would absolutely believe it to be accurate within 0.1 mph presuming no signifigant interference (overpasses, trees, skyscrapers) I find that my Dodge truck speedo indicates about 1 mph faster than GPS at any speed above 20, and my BMW motorcycle reads 60 when the GPS shows 55. The BMW bikes are known for having "optimistic" speedometers, and in fact the specification from the factory allow up to a 10% error on the "optimistic" side, plus a static error of a few mph!

Thought of two items that werent in the master list: Particularly for Magellan users A HULA of Cachers Particularly for those with poor plant ID skills A RASH of Cachers I liked several of the previous offerings at least as good as my two suggestions, but haven't seen the undisputed winner yet.

I have used a 3 part type hint on my hardest cache. If the trip did not take 5 hours of round trip hiking I might not have given the hint. I make it clear in the main body of the description that the complete hint is good enough to find the cache WITHOUT a gps once you get to a very signifigant and unique landmark. My only DNF's never made it to this landmark - 2 DNF's out of about 25 attempts. The landmark is within 500 feet of the cache. The first hint is an approximate bearing and distance off of the landmark (only accurate to within 10 degrees and 20 feet or so) , the second is a specific rock formation, and the third even tells you which side and part of the rock formation. The reason I go through such lengths is it is often impossible to get a useable GPS signal at the actual cache location. A good cacher will back off and get a bearing/distance, but I want to make sure someone who has just hiked around 3 miles laterally and a half mile vertically to get to my cache thinks of this. If the cache is a VERY tough multi you could also give an additional microcache location that is strictly a "hint cache". Smart cachers can skip the additional hint leg(s), but if someones get stumped they don't have to go all the way home to solve the main cache. That kind of gives me an idea for a brains vs brawn type cache. A very cryptic puzzle solve to go directly to the main cache, or a serious hike to go through a several leg multi before finding the final cache. It could be a 1/5 or a 5/1, your choice...

A note about pilots and lasers from an FAA employee: There is a system where pilots can get info about stationary laser shows at things like casinos, rock concerts, grand openings, ect. Most of these laser notices to airmen (NOTAMS) indicate that temporary flash blindness or reduced vision only occur below a few thousand feet, or within a mile or so laterally. I am sure these types of display lasers are much more powerful than a few milliwatts. bottom line: Helicopters flying around at a few hundred feet of altitude and/or aircraft on approach to an airport could possibly be affected by a laser to the eye. It is highly unlikely that a small private aircraft above 3000-5000 feet (typical cruising altitudes for small propeller aircraft) is in any danger from your milliwatt pointer. That jetliner at 35,000 feet probably won't be able to distinguish it from any other red light coming from the city, if he can see it at all. I am sure the dot would be several feet across from 6-7 MILES up, and now we are talking LOW power. Still, It is impolite to tag someone with one of these. That guy you just tagged in the head with it might be an undercover agent trying to penetrate a mob group. He might react unpredictably to having a gunsight like device pointed at his head. If a knife is safe enough to leave in a cache, I suspect the laser pointer is fine as well. If you are really concerned, make it a multi with the batteries in the next cache. If a kid is bright enough to do a multi, he should be plenty savvy enough not to stick a laser beam in his eye.

For what its worth, I understand that Sandisk and Panasonic were co-inventors of the SD card format. That may or may not make a difference, but currently all my SD and CF cards are Sandisk..

I have two of the SM-76 antennas as sold by gpsgeek on ebay. I paid less than $30 for each. both will max out every bird in the sky, especially when stuck to the roof of my truck. (the magnets are very strong) The extra ground plane from being stuck on a metal object enhances the reception. Other than that, stand alone by itself, the SM - 76 seems to get roughly as good a reception INDOORS as my stock antenna does outdoors. I have no affiliation with GPSGEEK, just a satisfied two time customer.

How long before the ULTIMATE GEOCACHE gets Markwelled? anyone want to start a pool?

Ok, Ok Ok, I got it figured out. the ULTIMATE GEOCACHE. The line about new Coke did it to me. You go buy one of those household "safes" that look like an aerosol bottle of furniture polish with a hidden screw-on bottom, or a can of Okra, or whatever, you put your logbook in it, you throw it in the trash, and the following week you post the coordinates to the cache. The same coordinates as the local landfill. NO DIGGING! TRASH OUT, ALL OF IT!!! NO permission required, the manager authorized its placement, and even used "Park" personnel to hide it! Dont stub your toe. I think this would be the first cache that rates a 6 without any special equipment.

If that charger is model number PS4B then it is one of the very few that actually charges each cell individually instead of in pairs like most chargers. It is thusly one of the few that will let you mix and match capacity batteries, or charge an odd number of batteres. It is a semi-intelligent charger that senses when the battery has reached around 90% charged and then swaps to a trickle mode that can be left on just about indefinitely (days). You can tell it charges each cell individually because there is an LED for each cell, and as you load the cells into the charger (if already plugged into power) the lights come on as each corresponding cell is inserted. It won't be picky about capacity, just make sure that the NiMh/NiCd switch is set to match the kind of batteries you are charging.

I didn't even know they offered a plastic version. I have the aluminum version and it is all but bullet proof. (well maybe the plastic would actually hold up better in a highly acidic environment, like inside a container of battery acid or something ) I don't think you could go wrong with any RAM mount made.

New Mexico. I was living in New Mexico when I started caching. Then I ran across several K-marts that were closing in Oklahoma City, and these Alien dudes were on sale 6 for a dollar, eventually they got marked down to 6 for 50c. I bought all they had and they became my sig item. I suppose I should photoshop a Garmin V into his hand, but havent had the inclination, and besides, I dont think it would show up well in a small avatar photo.

So now we have to define Wal-Muggles.. .. I have some of those 1850mAh Energizers too. They work great. Heck, it is almost worth the nostlagia trip to look back upon some 500 mAh NiCd AA's I used to have and see how far we have come.

With my work in the FAA I know that some military installations regularly jam GPS signals. It is often done near White Sands New Mexico, for instance, but I don't remember if they do any of this kind of work in Florida. In White Sands they typically limit their jamming to the overnight hours when few aircraft are using GPS.

See what protocol you are using with your Etrex. If you are using a Garmin protocol (the default for the garmin units) you may have to change your computer software protocol to whatever the Sporttrac Pro uses NMEA is a common universal protocol but Magellan may have another protocol that accesses more of your Sportrac Pro features... You can find the protocol in use under the menu settings somewhere under setup... It is possible the Sportrac Pro might have defaulted to "none" for the protocol, which means it wont even try to communicate.

Thats probably reasonable. The II has a less capable design than the II+. I think the II was an 8 channel unit, while the II+ is a 12 channel unit with a very similar chipset to the III, III+ and V. I wonder if the II does decimal minutes to three places or only two? Likewise does it show distance to goal in feet or only down to hundreths of a mile/km... Even with all the possible negatives, $50 isnt a bad price.

I concur it is pokeweed. I understand you dont want to eat the berries at all, but as said before, properly prepared, the leaves can be edible. I spent a few summers during college doing research assistant work for the University of Arkansas rice research center. I once saw some pokeweed and asked the same question of the weed science guru there (no, weed science does not involve the DEA in any way, thank you...) He identified it as pokeweed, although the version I got to see was much smaller, maybe 2ft high or so.

The IPX 7 rating is 30 minutes at one meter depth...

I took a cool little stubby screwdriver that takes the interchangeable bits. In its most compact form it is barely larger than a golf ball. The handle snaps open to reveal an extension and 2 double ended screwdriver bits. I left a moderately cheap pocketknife with some scrimshaw art on it. Cash value of the screwdriver and knife were pretty close, roughly $5-$7

I started out with an Eagle Accunav Sport, which was HUGE. It ate 6 AA batteries in about 4 hours. I had a keypad failure on this one once the warranty was up. Then I bought an Eagle Explorer, which was much better. I tried a Garmin 38 but returned it. The 5 and 8 channel Eagles beat the socks of the early single channel Garmin. Then a few years went by and I bought a Garmin III, because I liked the concept of the horizontal/vertical screens. I recieved a Magellian Blazer 12 as a promotion with a set of Bridgestone tires. It was neat for such a simple unit, and the battery life was good. Once SA was turned off, its value depreciated in my eyes as it only allowed lat/long inputs of hundredths of a minute, and only registered distance to a waypoint to the nearest hundredth of a mile or km. I have since sold all the above to own my current units - the III+ that I have had for 2 years and the V I have had for a few months.

Were you using your III+ in native Garmin mode, or did you have it switched to NEMA? I suspect you might just have to change your data protocol on your V to NEMA.