chuckr30

I generally don't trade items, I just sign the log. But I get packs of 8 AA batteries at the dollar store. They work just as well as other alkaline batteries. So I don't feel the need to get those from a cache. Personally I do like to collect foreign money so I would find something to trade for that. I also like wooden coins (aka wooden nickels). Poster above made a good comment about what NOT to put in a cache: controlled substances (medicines, alcohol, tobacco products), sharp or bladed objects, etc. Don't even put ibuprofen in a cache, you could get sued if someone's kid OD's on it. (Yes you can OD on ibuprofen, it's a blood thinner and could cause big problems if taken in large enough doses.)

To save battery life: - Don't use backlight much. - Turn off sounds/beeps. - Turn off compass (if you have one). All these were documented in my 76csx manual.

Define "sunspot". Is this a faded portion of the screen where the colors are not as bright? Or is it a portion of the screen where no pixels light up at all? Or is it simply a fingerprint smudge that has discolored the glass?

I would LOVE to find old coins before 1900.

How about some non-metal alternatives: - Large tupperware container, not the cheap kind. Perhaps find one with a handle to use as a tie down. - Underwater bag, sold in camping or scuba stores. - Reseable canning jar (they come in plastic) where the lid latches on with a rubber ring to seal it. I have found 2 pint ones at a dollar store, but that's not real big. Look in your canning section of a large grocery store. - A Space Bag might also work. They are heavy duty plastic and often have ziplocks.

Thank you for the clarification. I assumed the basemap would always be visible, and the loaded map would be "on top" of the base map and would be visible. So I assumed both would be visible at the same time, if turned on.

I do not have any extra maps loaded into my 76csx. I only have the basemap. So if I load one of these extra maps, the basemap will still be there too?

And how would I load said maps into a Garmin 76csx? Do I have to "turn on" the maps once they are loaded?

I found some trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpit, and trout lily flowers. All pretty neat flowers. Also found a needle tip. Showed it to my son (then 8) so he would know what to stay away from, that it could have any number of incurable diseases on it, etc.

I followed all the instructions but I noticed it took about 48 hrs for the changes to take effect. I now have an avatar in these forums.

A battery and 2 wires does not a bomb make. I think we should be worried that our bomb squads, SWAT teams, officials, and other "experts" truly do not know what a bomb is. They made a big deal out of a Lite Brite panel. And 2 men will do hard time, not for being dangerous, but for making a bad decision. These 2 men will do hard time not because they were dangerous, but because they inconvenienced someone. OTOH, many people do not realize the potential of modern explosives. You can pack enough high explosive in a mint tin or gum pack to almost completely vaporize a full grown adult.

I have not had any problems buying 4 video games on Ebay in the past year. I just look for someone with 99% of better positive ratings. All CDs worked and came with usable serial numbers. But then again, video games do not search online to see if they have been installed somewhere else. But consider the point that Low Bat made about the unlock codes.

I was just looking at CORS data (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/Maps2005/mi.html) and it looks like CORS provides correction data for GPS units. Is this correct? quote from link at http://edu-observatory.org/gps/dgps.html: "The National Geodetic Survey (NGS), an office of NOAA's National Ocean Service, coordinates a network of continuously operating reference stations (CORS) that provide Global Positioning System (GPS) carrier phase and code range measurements in support of 3-dimensional positioning activities throughout the United States and its territories." If so, I can download a data file. Can this file be used with my Garmin 76csx? Thanks.

AHA! So my theory was correct, the weather conditions (and atmosphere) DO make a difference in GPS accuracy.

I've seen what look like custom geocoins (non-trackable) that people leave in some caches. How do I design my own coin, what company makes them, and how much do they cost? I would only want about 10. I've seen coins around $5 each, and min quantities of 250. Are there other manufacturers who do small runs?

Well, I paid $400us for my 76csx online. Gander Mountain wanted $500us.

I work in the printing industry and have seen ads for waterproof paper, which you can write on with a pencil or pen. What this means is, you write on it above water, then use it underwater. I have also seen a person make an underwater scuba "notebook". Basically it was old floppy disk cases (3.5 inch) which he tied together with a zip tie, and removed the labels from the cases. It provided a smooth plastic surface to write on with a grease pencil.

A sandwich short of a picnic basket. One card short of a full deck. One brick short of a full load. Running on fumes. Running on one cylindar. A fig on a banana tree. A square peg in a round hole. Running 3 sheets to the wind. (I think that's a boating thing.) The lights are on but nobody's home. Did I miss any?

I think part of my problem was my GPS software didn't work too well. I would stop, yet the lat and long would keep changing. Another problem was microcaches. You could be right next to it but you would never see it. So I stick with regular sized caches, or larger.

You could take a stamp or something, and stamp it into clay. There are all types of clay and clay mixes that harden in the air or in the oven. It could be your "personal seal". Not useful enough to steal but it shows you were there. I was looking into these clays the other day and they come in all kinds of colors: standard colors, various colors of granite stone, and neon colors. Or simply print up something on your printer and glue it to a piece of cardboard to make it sturdy. Or wrap it in one layer of packing tape to make it weatherproof. Instant lamination.

I simply ignore all micro and smaller caches. I think there should be a field on a geocache that lists the largest dimension so we can search on those caches. Like, measure your vitamin container. If it's 3 inches diameter by 5 inches tall, the largest dimension would be listed as 5 inches. That's a fair-sized cache. I'm not one for solving puzzles like "which of the 100 branches on that tree could be hollow and hide a nano cache?"

Thanks all! I wasn't sure if the circle was around my "GOTO" waypoint or around the black arrow (myself). But that makes sense.

I've never found a suction cup mount that will stay on long term on my car windshield. When brand new they will stay on for 2-3 weeks, then they fall off. After that they will stay on for shorter and shorter periods of time. What I ended up getting was the beanbag mount for my Garmin Geko. It stayed on my dash the first few months, but after that, the sticky bottom got coated with dust and was no longer sticky, and it slid around. I ended up putting a single screw through the beanbag into a seam in the dash. Now it stays put.

I like my compass on my Garmin 76CSx. The compass works well under tree cover while GPS reception may not work so well under trees, where most of our geocaches are in Michigan.

I just got a Garmin 76CSx and when I do Goto Geocache, I get a light blue circle around my geocache waypoint. The circle is always the same distance from the point so when I zoom or unzoom it gets larger and smaller. What is this? It is not documented in the handbook (I re-read it this weekend) and I can't seem to see any setting for it.