steve kc7byp
-
Posts
25 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by steve kc7byp
-
-
The whistle that I won at the meeting is black and has a compass (the compass is dead now) and an air temperature tube. I was into search and rescue with the Civil Air Patrol. A guy was hiking in the local hills and got his leg tangled up in a chain attached to an old animal trap. He heard us coming but was to weak to yell. A whistle saved his life.
-
.png)
2
-
-
I have a Dell laptop model Inspiron 15-3541. It has a 500gb hard drive, 4gb of memory, a read/write DVD/CD optical drive, 3 USB ports and a SD card reader port, the laptop battery is in good shape and I have the original power pack. OS Win 10 Home 64 bit. The laptop boots up and works 100%. I am looking to trade it for a decent GPS receiver. The GPS app in my Android cell phone works good but I can't see the display in direct sunlight. I haven't had much luck with Android GPS apps for that reason. I am open as far as brand and model goes and it won't bother me if the receiver has a few dings and scratches in it as long as it works. Any takers. PS, I can send pictures if need be.
-
PS: a friend got me into Geocaching. I think it was ether tumbleweed or YeOleImposter. And I still have that survival whistle that I won at the local Geocache meeting, many a blue moon ago.
-
1
-
-
3 hours ago, frostengel said:
And not to forget: welcome back after 16 years of geocaching pause. :-)
I didn't even know that something like that existed in 2004.
Jochen
That's what I was looking at the log for, to see when was the last cache that I found date wise. Is there a way to sort the log via date found? I was coming back home from the Post Office this morning and the Hat Rock park cache is almost next door to the Post Office. Also it was still cool enough to go and find that cache. I can't be out in the heat more then a half an hour do to diabetes related medical problems. It darn near wiped me out doing the half mile walk earlier this month to replace cache container on 1 of the 2 caches that I still have out. I also need to find a way to get a new/used GPS receiver. I don't care what brand it is or if it has a few dings and scratches on it as long as it works that I can trade for. I have 2 laptops that works that I can trade. 1 needs a new internal keyboard that I plain to get. The cell phone app works great. But every cell phone that I have had is almost imposable to see in the direct sun light.
-
1
-
-
In the screen capture bellow there a few things that I don't understand. 1st what is the white box on the left for? 2nd. what are the next 2 columns after the white box for? What is the smelly face for? Next the info column ? then the "D/T" column? And finely "found by user" (the most confusing). Why is there 2 different dates? And I couldn't be hunting for a Geocache on May 09th, 2020 when I was in the hospital with a systemic infection of the blood. Every entry in the log has 2 different dates for the same log entry. I think it was about 2004 or 2005 when I did my last hunt until today. I found the Hat Rock park cache on the way home from the Post Office this morning.
-
Hi Max and 99. there is a compass in my phone. the problem with the old cell phone is I couldn't see or read anything on the screen period in direct sun light. I hope my new phone will let me adjust the contrast to make the screen readable in the sun light.
-
I have an Alcatel 7 model ALC-6062W phone, Android version 8.1.0. I am looking for a free (I live on SSDI disability) Android Geocaching APP for my cell phone. There is so many APP's on Google Play that I just don't know which one to pick. I need an APP that can easily been seen in direct sun light. And is fully operational, open source, 100% free. I could use some help in picking 1 please.
PS: On the box that came with the phone. The model number is ALC-6062W. But in the phone > settings > system > about phone it says the model number is TCL-6062W. I don't know which is the right one.
Steve
-
On 4/7/2019 at 9:46 AM, DollyJelly said:
I understand. I would not use any app to improve the brightness as you risk damaging the phone. Unfortunately your model phone clearly does not have a screen which works well in bright light and this is true for quite a few phones out there - a fact often mentioned in too few reviews..
I have had the same issue with some GPS tracker units too. I also used to wear transition lenses, and when using binoculars they were a nightmare - I had to change from 8*42's to 10*50's just to see properly, so I have taken the plunge and saved money and switched back to non-transition lenses.
One last thing you can try (depending on your version of Android) is another setting - use only temporarily whilst navigating in sun - is
Settings - Accessibility - Colour Inversion
Setting the above to on reverses every colour - Black to White etc, but it can make text easier to see in the sun for some people. You may not have this setting as it is not present in some versions of Android
Good Luck, as it seems you will may need new kit (phone or GPS tracker) to improve your particular situation.
The brightness control is on manual control and set to max. I have found the Color Inversion control. But I haven't tested it outside in the sun light yet. My plate fill it over with irons in the fire. And a few of those irons have to take priority over a hobby. I haven't had the funds to buy an ammo can (the cheap Dollartree plastic containers don't last outside very long) to fix 1 of my 2 remaining Geocaches and I need to make time to check my micro, pill bottle cache. That one seems to have disappeared. I also have to make the time to survey the general area to hide my 2nd regular cache again. The area of the 2nd regular cache got bit by an open grass land fire. If anyone in the Tri-Cities, Wa area can spare 2 ammo can's, It would be much appreciated. I live on SSDI disability. I would love to go out and do more Geocach hunting but my disabilities are catching up with me.
-
On 4/3/2019 at 5:37 AM, DollyJelly said:
You dont need an app, it is a setting - already part of Android and part of your phone, are you saying that on maximum the setting is too low? Did you follow my instructions on changing it from the notification bar?
Yes I pulled the top bar down 2 times and I found the brightness control and it is set (on manual control) for max brightness. And the phone is still hard to see in direct sun light. All app's in the phone are hard to see in direct sun light. I have to turn my back to the sun and make a shady spot to see the display. The transition lens in my glasses makes the problem worse. I need to turn the contrast up on the phone when I am outdoors on a sunny day. Yes I am from the old school of tv repair. Before the days of throw away HD flat screen tv's. Back in my day you don't throw the tv away when it goes bad. You get it fixed.
-
On 4/1/2019 at 7:31 AM, DollyJelly said:
The Alcatel Flerce 4 model 5056N has Android and a Hardware compass (see https://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_fierce_4-8298.php)
So you can use the usual android method of turning up the brightness by pulling down the notifications from the top (swipe down - you may have to do this twice to see the slider).
The link https://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_fierce_4-8298.php) just gives me the general specifications of the phone. I know all that already. There is so many app's that come up in Google Play when I use a search of ( turn up contrast on display) that I don't know what app will work
-
My cell phone is an Alcatel Flerce 4 model 5056N. The app's that I have are "the free version of Geocaching App & Widget" and "Geocaching®". I had to do some Owner maintenance on my Geocach "The Star Ship USS Jack Fletcher". The Dollar Tree plastic storage containers don't last very long outside. It had been a long time since I had been to the catch, I new the gen area that it was in. I tried both app's and I had a lot of problems seeing the display on my phone in the sun. I had to use a trick from my days as a search and rescue observer (the person that does the looking while the pilot does the flying) using a circle search. The only reading that I could see clearly on the display was the distance to target numbers. So I went around in a circle, trying different directions and watching how the distance to target numbers went up and down. I finally found the catch. I want to get back into finding more local caches while it isn't to cold or to hot. I ether need to fix the display on my phone so I can see it in the sun light or get a GPS receiver. Is there an app to turn up the contrast on the phones display so I can see it in the sun light. What controls that are in the phone for that are at max already.
-
Well the Alcatel Fierce 4 cell phone that I have isn't best on the market. The biggest part of that is I can't afford the higher price phones. And don't prescribe to keeping up with the Jones bit. I hung on to 1 phone for 5 years. There is so many geocache app's on Google play. I don't know which is best. It is the same as for other app's. Like I was looking for a simple app to read/write to rtf files. I got so many app's dumped on me, it felt like a Texas super cell opened on me. They all say that they have the best prog, the easiest controls, easier to see in the sun light and so on. I find, at lease the last time I used a dedicated GPS receiver, that the dedicated GPS receiver works better then a multipurpose device like a cell phone for Geocaching.
-
Using a cellphone instead of dedicated GPS receiver sucks (pardon my French). I had to do maintenance on my cache " The Star Ship USS Jack Fletcher GCKEGQ". And I didn't have a GPS receiver. I fell out of doing Geocaching other then maintaining my 3 caches that are still operating. It was a long time since I last visited this cache (I new generally were it was). The graphic compass and the direction line was barley viable in the sunlight on my phone and I also couldn't make the graphic compass large enough on the screen to be useful when the sun ducked behind a cloud. The 1 thing on the display that I could see clearly was the distance to target indicator. So I used a trick that I learned from searching for ELT'S (Emergency locator transmitter). The ELT goes off if the plane crashes or makes a relay hard landing. I used what is called a boxing search using the distance to target indicator. There is always a way around a problem if you think about it hard enough, and don't get frustrated.
Steve
-
On 2/26/2018 at 4:14 PM, niraD said:
On the new system, once you've logged in, click your username. This should take you to your dashboard.
Then scroll down the left column to the GEOCACHES section, and select the Hides link.
Thanks for your input niraD. I got it fig out now
Steve
-
1
-
-
It has been a long time since I last logged in. I can't find the pull down menu to look at the status of my cache's and I haven't been receiving notifications of find's.
Steve
-
Please inlighten me. I would like to know what is so hard about setting up an ethernet webcam and pointing it out the window? My webcam that I just setup on my home network was "plug in and run". Is there something that I am missing about running live stream video on the internet? This is new territory for me.
Because new ones are hard to find, plus you need to go through quite a bit of effort to set one up.
-
Why has webcam caches been baned from placment? What is wrong with finding pre-existing item? There is a bucket load still in operation, 13 in Washington state alone.
You can't. You haven't hidden a cache in a while so I suggest you read the latest guidelines.
-
I am looking for info on setting up a Webcam cache. I have a Linksys model wvc54gca ethernet network webcam with sound. I have the webcam setup and working on my home network. But I never setup a live streaming webcam on the internet before. Any info would be gratefully received.
-
I am a retired avionics tech. I have installed and repaired avionics and other 2 way radios. I also repaired computers. I have also done 20 years as a Civil Air Patrol observer (the person that scans the ground for the recked planes) and communations officer. I am also a ham radio operator.
I can tell you from my professional opinion and years of knowledge of radios that a gps receiver will not interfere the the planes avionics in any way shape or form.
On the last flight I took a few years ago from Spokane, Wa to Okland, Ca I was able to use both my gps receiver and my 2 meter ht (ht=a vhf walky talky for you non tech fokes) with no problem. But I had one added plus. The captain of the flight going down was a very close friend of mine from the Civil Air Patrol.
Steve
-
This is a past of an e-mail I sent to a geocacher that is new to this game that found one of my caches. I though I should share this with all of you new geocachers.
- - - - the e-mail- - - - -
Hello from Steve-kc7byp the caretaker of the "USS Rubicon" geocache. I am sending you this note to ask you to please not put any kind of food items (inclooding pet food items) in any geocaches. Here is a past from the rules and guide lines that govern the geocaches.
- - - - the past- - - - -
Do not put food in a cache! Critters have better noses than we do, and will bite, nibble or swallow your cache in an attempt to get to the goodies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some of the small items left in a geocach could choke an animal to death.
I have 2 cats in my apt. One is 5 years old and has learned about small things and things that don't smell good, Abby almost died after lapping up a combo of rubbing alcohol and printer ink that I left on the desk top. I was soaking the printer head to clean it. The other cat is only a year old and is very curious about everything. So I have to keep the door to my combo, work shop, radio shack and computer room closed when I am not at home or sleeping.
Have fun and happy geocaching.
- - - - - end of e-mail- - - -
So let's keep the wild life safe so the Gov won't get on our backs and posably banning the placment of geocache's.
-
Hi all from Steve KC7BYP, Qth is Pasco, Wa.
-
I am looking for some used items for a Garmin GPS 40 receiver. 2 magnetic mount external car antennas and a combo external power/data transfer cable. Does anyone have any spairs laying around?
-
Why is the National Park Service not allowing geocaches? What is the rules and reg's about were I can place a geocach. A frend asked me about the reg's as far as were it can be placed.
-
I have a Garmin GPS 40. This is my first GPS receiver. It works great out in the open but it can't lock up on any satellites infront of of my apt building down town Pasco, also it won't lock up inside of my van unless i face the van ruffly south west and place the receiver up on the dash, also it won't lock up inside my apt and I tryed putting a wire in the center conductor of the external antenna jack on the back of the receiver and connected the other end to my hf ham antenna on the roof and the receiver still did not acquire any satellites.
Is there a sensitivity problem with this old unit, as far as not working inside my van. And does it need a special external antenna?
.png)
Hi all from Steve KC7BYP, Qth is Pasco, Wa.
I got a Garmin GPS 45
in How do I...?
Posted
I work for the Veterans Warehouse Thrift Store in Kennewick, Wa in the electronics dept. I picked up a Garmin GPS 45 GPS receiver at the thrift store. The GPS receiver is complete, un-opened in the original box with the manual. It has been a while since I setup a new (or messed with one period) GPS receiver. The receiver is seeing the satellites on the satellite screen but that is far as I can get the receiver to go. I press the page > then I have the menu page, I go to the operation setup page. I set the offset and the correct time isn't showing up and the date is showing 18-Jan-00 and I can't scroll to the date to change it. Is it me or is there something wrong with the receiver?