OCacher

I know this is an old thread, but no one responded to it. I too have tried to download .gpx files as well as .loc files via IE and Opera on my PDA phone and they will not work. The only way to get them is to DL them on my computer and transfer them to my cell phone. Any ideas why not, or how to fix it?

I am having an issue with repairtech also. Try emailing info@repairclaim.com I am working with a different camera vendor, but have been fighting with darn near everyone to get it fixed. My vendor seeeemmms to be interested in making it right. I have to ship my part back and if they cannot get repairtech to cover it, they may do an exchange for me, even though it is outside of their normal exchange window. As for repairtech. I keep hearing that they are NOT struggling, but all evidence to the contrary. They are required at the time of sale to have secondary insurance coverage. In the even that reparitech cannot cover the warranty claims, the secondary insurance company becomes liable for the costs. I believe this is consumer law regarding extended warranties. Email me via my website cacheguide.com (Kevin@), or geocaching.com (Ocacher), and I will keep you updated with the progress of getting my item fixed. If I get a contact person I will let you know, so that you can use them also.

WAAS is a error correcting additional signal. It is ground based, that transmits a correcting signal to the satellites. It was designed by the FAA to improve reliability in the GPS system for flight operations. It can be used to improve the accuracy of the overall GPS system. When it comes to geocaching, I am not sure I have noticed a difference between on and off. My GPSr (Venture HC) seems more responsive at slower speeds with it off. The accuracy difference is not really noticeable, at least not for geocaching purposes. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waas

While agree completely with StarBrand, I want to add something else I recently discovered about geocaching quality GPSr's. I have recently purchased a cell phone with a SPG built in, and it is heavily designed for road use, not caching. One of its limitations is the speed at which it updates. Many GPSr's simply will not recognize slow speeds. AKA walking speeds. They also are not very sensitive. This works great on a highway where the lane is 10-12 feet wide, and the road is likely 30 - 100 feet wide. If you are +/- 40 feet, it figures you are on the road, so no problems. In the field at walking speeds, it that insensitivity significantly expands the possible of finding geocache hides. When I cache with my cell phone, if i walk slowly, it will not update very often. Get the cheap GPSr, Venture Etrex HC, I use it primarily and it does very well.

I looked also, and that would be a great search to try to find... I too am snowed in. I could not find any way to search for public bookmarks. What I have done is I looked for caches found in the last 7 days (via PQ) or you could look for other terms based on the amount of snow you have had. We have had snow cover since new years day (or close) so if someone found the cache in the last 7 days then it must be snow accessible. It is keeping me busy enough.

I live on Lake Erie, a long way from any crossing, and I use a point about 20 miles south of where I actually live. This is th eonly way to keep Canadian caches from coming up. They may be 50 miles away, but they are close to a 6 - 7 hour drive around the lake.

I am trying the idea of highlighting good caches idea at my new webstie CacheGuide.Com. I too thought of a rating system, but that turns out to be unfair to way too many caches. The community on my site is going to come up with a way to highlight great caches, either in as awards system. It will be broken down so that as many people as possible get to try the award of the month cache. ie some scattered around the country, so that there should also be a cache of the month in Ohio as well as Washington state. That way people who have not found it yet, have a real chance to go out and try it after the award. The site is up and running and while I know others have tried and failed, I am seriously giving it a go. Stop by and help get the ball rolling.

Tried it using PQ's like suggested. There is no show on map button like there is on a general search. I am pretty sure that the google maps only shows all the geocaches, except when you turn of specific types. Don't think you can select them dynamically like the OP wants... me too.

I have winter cached, but based on the pictures above I am a lightweight. I enjoy it, no bugs, no muggles, sometimes you get lucky and follow footsteps in. It has been brutal here in northern Ohio the last few weeks. I just ran a PQ on caches found within the last 7 days, and was suprized to see how many were found. Looks like I am heading out this weekend. Dress warmly and be prepared for your DNF total to go up.

This is going to sound self serving, but it does apply. I recently ( 2 days ago) started a website Cacheguide.com. This sites specific intent is to help cachers be more selective on their caches. There are no bad caches, and geocaching.com treats them all the same, but sometimes you are looking for a long hike and sometimes a P&G. The goal of the site is to highlight and reward (though visibility) those who have placed good and great caches. Hopefully this will encourage others to be creative and place more challenging caches than just LPCs. Now, admittedly there is not much there yet in 2 days, but if you have done a great cache in your area, let others know. It can be tough to cut through the clutter of the 718,00+ active caches. As for my preference, I P&G with my 5 year old mostly, since she does not have the attention span to spend hours in one day on 1 cache. When I am alone, I prefer the longer walks.

Honestly, I use the same GPSr for the last few years, re-gift the swag from one cache to another. The hobby does not cost me anything. So I find that signing up for a premium membership and paying the $30 per year is just the right thing to do. I am not one of those who donates to thing usually, but even without the PQs, it scares me that with the growth of the sport, and the sheer number of caches, what would happen if geocaching.com went away for financial reasons. I am glad its free, and I am glad I paid my $30, I am also pleased you and other have also.

Welcome again... the sport will take you places and make you do things that you thought strange only a few days ago. I always have my GPSr with me in case the sun is out at lunch and I have to wander rather than eat. I also have a bag of tradable items in my car, just in case. I have had a few co-workers see my bag and wonder.

I recently did a cache that was frozen into the nook of a tree. It was really in there good, and it was shoulder high. The only way to have gotten it out was to dig it out with a knife or multi-tool. Since I could not see clearly enough, and my attempt would have damaged either the tree or the cache, neither of which I was comfortable with, I took a picture. Rather than log it (I normally log in the field with my smart phone) I emailed the cache owner and asked for his permission to log it. He said it was o.k. In this case the ice was not part of the challenge. Interesting enough, if the ice had been around the tree, instead of in the nook, I would have taken it as a DNF with out any question.

I am finding that it is an experience thing. I have 70 finds, and am getting a little better, but I still feel like I cannot find the caches that others are finding. I read a log for a cache that took me an hour to find, and it says "walked right to it." Ticks me off. The good part is every time I see a new hiding spot, I am that much more ready for the next cache. The first cache I could only think of 1 place it could be. Now I walk up and run through all the places I have seen them hidden before. Keep trying...

Funny enough, I am the type that drives away. I have found that I am very geocache shy, not really sure why. In my mind I am the only geocacher in the world. I find that I rarely talk about it at work etc, and when I do, I usually find that the person it comes up with either understands or IS a geocacher. A few years back while I was on bike patrol in a local park (part time police officer), I saw someone going into the corner of the park and poking around. It was obvious that they were caching. I went over to him, and was planning on giving him the full questioning work up, but I chickened out and started by asking him if he found it. He did. The interesting part of the story is that I did not realize it was there until I saw him looking, and I never logged a visit on the cache. It just didn't feel right, I didn't find it I watched someone else find it.

I recently did a cemetery cache, in the snow, and it was clear that someone was there before me. I get the feeling that they did not find it. I did. There were no tracks leading to the cache. The reason I figure they were looking for the cache was the clue. "Find the doctor and you will know your close" Several of the grave markers has been wiped off, i get the feeling they were looking for the doctor! I have found that due to the limited number of other activities, I tend to do more caching in the winter... no grass to cut etc.

I have released a few coins, and found that they don't make it very long before someone keeps it. It is kinda a pain. I haven't tried in a few years, and maybe with the proliferation of coins out there, I may have better luck. To re-agree, yea if it has a number and it is logged in the system, not just the cache, some get moved without being logged into the cache, move them on.

Lake County checking in also! Kinda hard to cache with 20 plus inches of snow on the ground. Although, if anyone caches in norhtern ohio in the next few days, let me know where you went, I will just follow your footsteps

Not sure quite where this fits in. I am posting it here, since I am located in Ohio, it may end up with content leaning heavy on Ohio, but it is not officially limited to any area of the country. CacheGuide.com Social Geocache groups are great, but my site is about the caches. The caches that stand out. There are hundreds, and thousands of caches near anyone of us. Many we will never get to, simply because of the shear numbers. The Cache Guide is designed to be a community resource for sharing your special "must do" caches. With over 715,000 Active Geocaches, some might be worth talking about, some might be worth going out of your way for. That's where CacheGuide.com is supposed to come in to play. Its a new idea for me, I looked and did not find anything else out there like it. Check it out. Its 100% free, no ads, no fees, just a place for cachers to find the best caches. I am open to constructive ideas. Thanks Kevin (OCacher)

Sounds good, thanks for clarifying. My issues are beyond 9ft. I have never done a comparison, but it may be a tree cover problem. I know the last few times that I went out geocaching, they were all wooded caches. There really are not that many in open fields. I just ordered it... $112 through adorama, via amazon.com with free shipping.

Sounds good, thanks for clarifying. My issues are beyond 9ft. I have never done a comparison, but it may be a tree cover problem. I know the last few times that I went out geocaching, they were all wooded caches. There really are not that many in open fields.

The 2 answers seem be sayin gthe oposite. The first one says, Get an HC unit it will fix it... the second one says that this is what garmins do when you are under 40 feet. 1 makes me want to upgrade and the other makes me think it will be a waste? Clear as mud so far. Maybe best 2 out of three answers?

O.k. I have a GPS V and when I am out caching, it jumps around and has me walking one way for a while, then back another again. For example, the arrow on the compas screen will show it as 25 ft ahead. Then I take a few steps and either it doesn't change or it jumps to antoher direction and another distance. I have also noticed at times I will walk in another direction for 20 or so feet and the screen does not even update. Is this a signal issue, or a processor speed issue? Would one of the Etrex HC models with the enhanced reception solve this? Is it worth the upgrade? My dream of course is that the bearing arrow, and the distance updates in near real time. I walk to feet in the direction of the arrow, and the counter drops 10 feet, and if i head the other way, the arrow flips and points to the cache. Am I being unrealistic? I do realize that standing in place, and turning in circles will not show, without a real compass, but if I take 1 or 2 steps, shouldn't it see it? Any help would be great. (and I don't need any car navigation features, just the arrow, and distance so that I can geocache)

Yea, I did look at the other regional sites. Most of them are listed on my links page. The social aspect of geocaching is what is covered by those sites. There may be some overlap, but there is room for everyone. So far I have not gotten too involved with the local activities. I perfer to solo cache. That is why my site is about the caches and the adventures that a cache can provide, more than the get togethers, each has their place for different kinds of cachers, or even both at different times. NeoGeo and all, would be great for "what is going on in the geocaching world" My site is for "I have 200 caches in a 40 mile area...I wonder which one is a must do" or " I am going to take a road trip, I only have time for 3 or 4 caches, which ones in (S, n, w, e, central) ohio are the most (scenic, challlenging) etc. The site was not designed to be what it became. I was planning a site for the NeoGeocachers, one that was more functional than the current site, and easy to keep up with and easy to find. When I brought up the idea a few days ago on the Yahoo group, the opinions were all for sticking with the current site. I respect their decision, but since I already had done most of the planning....OhioCacher was born. Thanks for your interest...feel free to let me know about upcomming events and the like and I will post them on the site. Free Advertising is a good thing. Ocacher

I have started a new website called Ohio Cacher (at ohiocacher.com). The purpose of the site is for all things Ohio with a particular focus on Geocaching. Stop by and share your favorite caches, or nominate them for one of our polls. Announce your new caches, or get advise on where you should put it. Share your recent geocaching adventures, or your all time favorite trip. The site is a=only as good as the cachers who visit. Ohio Cacher Stop by and help make the site grow! Thanks Ocacher