KVOM

Things worked out fine. I visited the TB hotel near the airport and swapped a few TBs, then found 2 downtown caches and visited the Aquarium. All in all a nice morning. Now in the Narita Holiday Inn fighting the jetlag ;-)

As the topic says, I'll be in town for 1 day, arriving Friday night and heading to Japan on Saturday afternoon. If anyone is interested in joining up for some caching Saturday morning please let me know. I'm staying at the Radisson at the airport. I can also take some TBs to S. Korea, Thailand, Nepal, or France. Possibly to Japan/India/Argentina if I can find any that aren't virtuals there. email is kwbensonATbellsouth.net

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I created a route using Mapsource 6.7 and saved as a GPX file. <GPX tag shows version="1.1". The upload worked and the PQ was able to be saved OK. When I did the Preview of the query, I got the following fault: Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type numeric. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type numeric. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. Stack Trace: [sqlException: Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type numeric.] System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream) +742 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +45 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.System.Data.IDbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +5 System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.FillFromCommand(Object data, Int32 startRecord, Int32 maxRecords, String srcTable, IDbCommand command, CommandBehavior behavior) +304 System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.Fill(DataSet dataSet, Int32 startRecord, Int32 maxRecords, String srcTable, IDbCommand command, CommandBehavior behavior) +77 System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.Fill(DataSet dataSet) +38 Groundspeak.Web.SqlData.SqlConnectionManager.FillDataSetSP(String StoredProc, ParameterList Params, Int32 Timeout, Database database) +553 Groundspeak.Web.SqlUserRoutes.GetRouteCachesByRouteGUID(Guid RouteGUID, Double SearchDistance) +217 Groundspeak.Web.UserRoutes.UserRoute.GetRouteCachesByRouteGUID(Guid RouteGuid, Double SearchDistance) +42 Groundspeak.Web.PocketQueries.GeocacheQuery.BuildSqlQuery() +9977 Groundspeak.Web.PocketQueries.GeocacheQuery.ReturnResultList() +34 Geocaching.UI.geocaching_nearest.Location_PQLoaded(Object sender, EventArgs e) +387 Geocaching.LocationPanel.GetQueryParms() +4556 Geocaching.LocationPanel.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) +108 System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67 System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35 System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +98 System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +98 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +750

I just spent a couple of weeks in Thailand and found a few caches. Urban micros in Bangkok can be hard as getting a GPS fix among the tall buildings is problematic. However there are several good traditional caches.

I haven't downloaded 6.5 yet and can't see the change history. This is a minor issue in 6.0.2 I noticed recently and wonder if it is addressed in 6.5: If I place a cache and use a "made-up" owner name, GSAK doesn't match that as a placed cache. The same option is used for matching both placed and found caches. However, the cache will still have the same "Owner Id". So it would be useful to have a separate option for placed cache identification, either using the Owner ID or just a checkbox in the waypoint data. I tried editing the "Placed By" field to my logon ID, but it was overrideen by the following PQ.

Saw the following problem in 6.0.2: Int the File|Export|CSV or Text dialog, the file chooser allows only GPX files. It should choose CSV and Text, or All Files.

Being someone who lives in GA and does Johnny's mountain caches, I have a decent chance of stumbling onto another one sometime in the future. If so, I'll do another charity auction.

My charity auction just ended with a very generous bid of $710.01. Thanks to the winner (abbywolfe) and also the underbidder pdxmarathonman.

I tried sending an email to Clyde at the address from GSAK About, and it was rejected twice. Anyone else have this problem? I was reporting the following minor issue: Mapsource Export window does not select existing GDB files when I click the folder icon on the 'File to Create' dialog. GDB files should be selected as Mapsource Files when Mapsource V6 is specified.

I had to add PayPal in order to participate in the charity aspect, but I will ask the winner to pay via PayPal bank account or MO. I certainly want to thank those who have already bid, including pdxmarathonman for the current high bid. I am not worried about the fees for this one auction; I just don't want to have to "upgrade" my account just for this one, mainly because I'm a buyer on eBay much more than a seller.

AG tells me there is more interest on the west coast than here, so I have modified the start time to 8:00am pacific time tomorrow - 11:00am EST. Note: I prefer not to accept CC payments via PayPal, as eBay forces me to "upgrade" to a commercial account to do so.

I started a second eBay charity auction for this coin. The URL is here. It is a scheduled auction which will start Oct. 6 (tomorrow) at 8:00am Pacific Time.

I have just submitted another charity auction for a Johnnie coin on eBay, given Atlanta Gal's success with hers. The URL is Here. I set this up as a scheduled auction for tomorrow at 8:00am EST. It has a $400 buy-it-now price in case anyone wants to snap it up before the first bid. As an aside, I know AB4N personally and have cached with him several times. I have no doubt his bids would be honored.

Titanic - very large 5* cache

Of 20 closest, 18 found; the other 2: 1 is mine and the other is a lame puzzle micro I'll do someday. Of 20 closest unfound, 6 require a boat, 3 are DNF's, and the others I'll wait for cooler weather. Nearest is 5 miles, furthest is 12 miles.

Garmin GPSMap 76, Palm Zire 71, GSAK+Plucker, Camelback, hiking poles, compass, deet, camera. I have an older Magellan ColorTrak GPSr with an external Gilsson antenna I use in the car as my windows tend to block the satellites.

If there were no "lame" caches, we wouldn't have people logging 100+ finds/day. So lame caches have their uses at times, and those that hide them are contributing as well. Every altoids tin or film container requires some degree of effort to print the log sheets, actually hide the cache, and then create the cache page. A lame cache can be a consolation when you've just had 3 DNFs on hikes and don't want to be skunked for the day. If you don't like driveup micros in parking lots, it's easy to avoid them.

I would like to be able to include archived caches as an option in all PQs. This would allow a program like GSAK to update all caches that have been archived in the past week. As it is, a cache that was loaded when it was active never gets updated. Since there is a PQ checkbox for "updated", that option could also show caches archived the past week.

I always carry a compass looking for caches. The most common use is when the cache is in a place (e.g., wooded area) where reception is poor and EPE is high. If you find the nearest spot where reception is good, you can sight along the indicated bearing to get an idea where the cache might be located. Doing this from a couple of angles can give a 'fix' as long as you can see the area indicated (a tree for example). A second use is navigating in the woods when not following a trail. It is very easy to get disoriented after dodging trees and deadfalls, so a compass showing the bearing to the cache or back to your car is really vital. I have a GPSr that shows compass headings relative to the sun's position. This isn't useful on overcast days or when the sun is close to overhead. When using a compass with a GPSr bearing, make sure the GPSr is set to use magnet rather than true heading.

2003 Buick Rendezvous at Reactor Road cache

I started caching this January, using my '03 Rendezvous and getting to some fairly easy FS road caches. I'm now looking to get an old Wrangler as a geo-toy vehicle. There are a couple I'm looking at and hope to have one within a week or two. Years ago our family had a WWII surplus jeep. It was great transportation before it burned up in a garage fire.

Since the fake coords are also used for TB mileage calculation, I think they should be reasonably close (< 1 mile).

The Jeep TB tags are different than the regular tags. It would be pretty obvious.

I've done 3 out of town caching trips, and my technique has been as follows: 1) Create a PQ for the target city location centered around a given coord. Filter out caches with difficulties higher than possible on such a trip (usually terrain=5). 2) Load PQ into GSAK as separate database, then look for likely candidates. 3) Load Mapsource map(s) for area and wpts into my Garmin. 4) Print Mapsource maps and cache sheets for the ones I've chosen. I want maps with street detail as close as possible, so multiple maps are usually printed. I print 5 or so more than I expect to be able to get. When I get home, I delete the PQ. For local caching, I have permanent weekly PQs that I load into GSAK once a week and then reload all the wpts into the GPSr. For a day's trip I select a target cache as the primary goal, set it as the center point in GSAK, and then examine all the other caches that are fairly closeby. The I print maps and cache sheets as above. I'm now looking at getting a PDA for the cache sheets and going relatively paperless.