geoSquid
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Posts posted by geoSquid
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70cm would be the next best, but not everywhere has an OPEN active 70cm community.
If the 70cm community is skulking in the shadows behind some kind of secret handshake, it's the same thing as not existing, IMO.
If it's not "open" then it doesn't exist for all practical purposes.
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most hams in my area hang out around 147 mhz can i get that with a 2 meter handheld considering im within 2 miles of a repeater
I regularly talk through a repeater 28 miles away with a 5 watt handheld 2m radio. You just have to be in a good location on a hill top and nothing between you and the repeater tower. But down in town amongst buildings and power lines, my 50 watt mobile has a tough time getting through that repeater. The nature of the beast.
With 0.5 W on my handheld, while standing atop Foymount (elev, I carried on a QSO with a guy about 80 km away. He was using four stacked 13-element yagis
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so im new do i still need to know morse if i dont know it at all? Plus what is the most popular band?
No you do not need morse code.
What is the most popular band depends on a lot of factors.
I'd say, far and away, 20m is the most popular HF band because the antennas are relatively small, and the propagation is generally good most of the year.
However, it's not so great if you want to chat in your car on the way to work, and HF sets are expensive.
Everywhere I have been in Canada and the US, if there was ham activity, there was 2m activity. 2m rigs (both handheld and mobile) seem to be the least expensive.
70cm would be the next best, but not everywhere has an active 70cm community.
(edit) bleah, double post. Oh well. Turn your head sideways and relax your eyes and maybe it will make a 3D thingy.
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so im new do i still need to know morse if i dont know it at all? Plus what is the most popular band?
No you do not need morse code.
What is the most popular band depends on a lot of factors.
I'd say, far and away, 20m is the most popular HF band because the antennas are relatively small, and the propagation is generally good most of the year.
However, it's not so great if you want to chat in your car on the way to work, and HF sets are expensive.
Everywhere I have been in Canada and the US, if there was ham activity, there was 2m activity. 2m rigs (both handheld and mobile) seem to be the least expensive.
70cm would be the next best, but not everywhere has an active 70cm community.
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I was a CB-er for decades before getting into ham radio.
Then you should remember the CB signal does have the ability to be skipped through the atmosphere. When I was down in Texas with a 5 watt base station and standard antenna, I was able to speak with others out of state on a routine basis, but during certain hours when the atmosphere had a cetain condition to it. That's going about 30 years back so my brain is a bit fuzzy on the details.
Oh I remember that well...
I also remember that it is illegal to work skip on a CB radio where I am, and it is probably illegal where you are.
According to RIC-18 (Canadian regs, emphasis mine):
You must not use a GRS station:
- in connection with any activity which is against federal laws, provincial laws, or municipal by-laws;
- to transmit abusive, obscene, indecent or profane words, language or meaning;
- to interfere maliciously with the communications of another station;
- to transmit music, whistling, sound effects or any material to amuse, entertain or attract attention;
- to communicate with, or attempt to communicate with, a GRS beyond the normal coverage range of your
station. (Such communications, commonly referred to as "working skip", use the ionosphere to bounce
signals.)
Or, for a more USA spin on it from Title 47, Volume 5...
(a) You must not use a CB station--
...
(9) To communicate with, or attempt to communicate with, any CB
station more than 250 kilometers (155.3 miles) away;
Yeah, I know lots of people do it, and I won't lie and say I've never done it, but you're not supposed to do it.
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As long as profit doesn't come of it, I don't think there is anything that can be done at all about images or names used.
That would be incorrect.
As a minimum, they could get a cease and desist order.
At worst, they could get some kind of damage award.
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Two things to remember:
Copyright laws vary from place to place. In Canada, for example, copyright need not be registered as it is implied and copyrighted material need not display © marks or other notification.
In most jurisdictions, copyright must be enforced by the copyright holder. That is, if you hold copyright and become aware of a violation, you must enforce your rights or risk losing them. This is why you get Disney suing kids for ripped off movies and such - it's not just because they're tossers, it's because they don't have a choice.
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Please keep geocaching a family friendly hobby, I would not accept a cache with this theme for listing.
What if you're in Ross Rebagliati's family?
<ducking>
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From Canada, for normal mail (i.e. not expedited, not insured), for a coin + packing under 100 g (which is LOTS for most single coins):
Postage ($CDN) to:
Canada - $1.10
US - $1.86
International - $3.60
Plus no more than $0.50 CDN for a padded envelope.
Plus 6% federal tax and provincial tax which is 7% from BC.
I asked about sales tax recently and was informed that there's a certain amount of bureaucratic jiggery-pokery about tax on postage in Canada. Unfortunately, I don't remember quite what it was. I think it was "if you buy stamps over $6 worth there is no tax" or something like that. I'll try to find out what it was.
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When I release a coin, it's purpose is to travel from cache to cache... not sit in someone's hoard and popping up at discovery events occasionally.
I don't mind someone finding one of my coins and taking it to a proximate event, but after the event, let it go please.
I am referring to coins I own, not someone else's coin I found. I am pretty sure everyone else who posted about taking coins to events was also talking about their own coins.
Indeed, it does appear that i failed a reading check up there.
personally, I don't care what people do with there own coins. It has no impact on me whatsoever unless the coins are being hurled at me as weapons, or released as fake copies for me to find.
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Looks like Traveller2005 picked up his last two (Regina and Winnipeg), since he is Ottawa based I expect the final will be soon plundered.
Herbie
this is where we find out the final was muggled.
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I don't think you can split the cost of shipping from the cost of the coin. It's all marketing.
I can charge $10 for the coin and $2.00 for shipping, or I can charge $7.00 for the coin + $5.00 shipping but it's still the same total.
Depends where you sell it. On eBay, that commutative property of the arithmetic is not the case...
On eBay, if your coin sells for $10 you collect $12 and you pay final value fee on $10.
If your coin sells for $7, you collect $12 and pay final value fee on $7, which is less than what you'd pay if it sold for $10.
Result: more money in your pocket if you go the higher shipping route, same cost to the customer.
However, eBay takes a dim view of avoiding fees that way, so when you see people charging usurious shipping on eBay, you should report them.
For example, there's a guy on ebay right now selling coins with shipping charges of $11.50 to Canada from the US.
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When I release a coin, it's purpose is to travel from cache to cache... not sit in someone's hoard and popping up at discovery events occasionally.
I don't mind someone finding one of my coins and taking it to a proximate event, but after the event, let it go please.
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My other concern was cost of coin. Does the difference in cost matter to you? Or do you just chalk it up as a trade is a trade is a trade?
A geocoin is a geocoin to me. The only exception I might make with regard to the cost of the coin relative to a trade would be for a coin struck on an actual precious metal (real silver, gold, etc.)
A pathtag is a pathtag. I wouldn't accept *-tags in trade for a geocoin.
etc.
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From Canada, for normal mail (i.e. not expedited, not insured), for a coin + packing under 100 g (which is LOTS for most single coins):
Postage ($CDN) to:
Canada - $1.10
US - $1.86
International - $3.60
Plus no more than $0.50 CDN for a padded envelope.
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Geosquid, I don't think your way of doing things is unusual.
But I did mint mine specifically to build my collection, and to have a neat sig item.
I think of every trade as a profit, not a lost sale. If I mint my coin for about $5 (yes, that can easily be done, and with a quality coin to boot) then trade it for a coin that is selling for $8-$10, then I've profited.
Then there are trade only coins, that you can't buy. So a good trade coin is helpful, and not lost money.
Absolutely! If you've made a coin in order to help build your coin collection and have a neat sig item, then every coin trade is really a profit or at least a break-even.
For me, I made my first coin with a few things in mind (in no particular order):
1. to have a neat sig item.
2. I wanted geocoins as travel bugs, but was finding them difficult to track down back in 2004 (took until 2006 to scrape up the dosh to do it though - pre-sales didn't finance my coin, I paid costs out-of-pocket, sales were after).
3. to make a (small) profit
4. simply to gain experience in a manufacturing project - although I ran a company for 7 years, we were a services company and never produced anything tangible (other than profit - we never, ever lost money!) in the traditional sense and I wanted to see if I could do it, at least on a small scale.
5. related to 4. I wanted to feel out the market for these things
6. as a shameless ego stroking, to spread the mighty tentacles of cephalopodity hither and thither!
Overall, I think I was successful on items, 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. Financially, 3 was a bust although I broke even within the GAF factor (I think I lost a few hundred dollars) on my own coin. My intention never was to retire on geocoin profits, but it might have been nice to make a little profit to fund further, and better projects. In any case, I can't complain much in that regard.
The result of my first coin project was a mountain of trade requests, which I refused initially. After refusing a trade, one person wouldn't even SELL me one of their coins, although I consider that their loss, and it gave me a decidedly negative impression of the trading community. In any case, when it appeared the project was on solid ground, I relented and started augmenting my collection of geocoins through trade as well as sales. This year I made a trade-only run of squid coins strictly for the purpose of trading.
As is widely known, I think a handful of people who are very vocal in these forums treat coin sellers in general extremely unfairly, and I find that quite off-putting.
On the flip side, some people have been really helpful with design hints, constructive criticism, etc. so it all balances out.
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What I am saying is that if you have a new coin that you are planning on selling and trading it is best to set the trades early thereby getting the trades you want. Set aside the number you need to sell and start trading the rest. The trades will not have any major effect on the number of coins you need to sell.
However, not everyone who makes a coin does so with the expectation of making lots of trades to build a collection. Certainly my original intent was not to make a collection of traded coins, and although it's possible, I find it difficult to accept that I am totally unique in that view. My original plan was not to trade any at all! Any coin trading I was doing was via purchase of multiples of coins and the extras as traders. It never occurred to me to trade for a newly minted coin before they'd been sold out. I was very surprised by the number of trade offers that came in when my first coins arrived.
So from a pure sales point of view, every trade is a potential lost sale with the risk of loss-in-the-mail etc... all the possible downsides of a sale. Also, as a sales/customer-relations kind of thing, I think the people buying coins should get first crack at them and again, I could be alone in that belief, but I am confident that I am not alone. Looking back with the wisdom of experience, I can agree that yes, trade coins usually won't affect much (other than the potential selling price).
For small run coins, trades can have a major effect on the number of coins available to sell (trade offers, if accepted early, would have bankrupted one of my coin projects). For a large run, probably not so much.
Personally, I didn't start trading until I was comfortable with how my first set of coins was doing, so I totally understand where people are coming from.
When I wanted to trade coins, I sucked up the cost of a run specifically for that purpose. Personally, I rarely initiate a trade (it has happened, but if the few hundred coins I've purchased or traded, if there's half a dozen where I've actually initiated the trade, I'd be surprised).
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To build on geoSquid's answer, I buy two of each coin I purchase - one I release as a traveler and one I keep in my collection.
Often I do the same thing.
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I would guess that 90% of the people in the forum have either minted a coin or have worked on projects with someone else and knows the true cost to mint a coin. Don’t try to come to the forums and pull wool over our eyes!!!
I like most of what you wrote, even if I disagree with a lot of it.
From what I've seen, yes, 90% have minted a coin or worked on projects but very few seem to have the slightest idea about the overall cost.
Let's assume the mystical $7 to produce trackable and icon'd coin... that's $7 per coin, all in, in the hands of the project leader.
If you're selling them, good business sense requires that you have an inventory holdback to cover mail losses, and to cover risk of not selling all the coins. You'll probably want to keep a few for yourself. Let's be nice and say 20%. 20% becomes the maximum profit you can make. Odds are you won't achieve this, but it's theoretically possible. Your $7 coin is now selling at $8.40
Since you have to send invoices and collect money somehow you're going to have to suffer paypal fees, or postage and gas to go to the bank if you prefer paper. In the $8 range, paypal fees will run about $0.55, so your coin is now selling at $8.95
Flogging pins with that coin too? You'll be looking at $1.50ish on top of that. Your $7 coin is now running over $10, and people are starting to bitch and moan in the forums. Have to eat it on exchange and you're looking at another 3% on that. Start flogging them on ebay in, say, bunches of 10 and you're adding about another 40 cents per coin in listing fees and a similar amount in final value fees, so the $10.50 becomes something like $11.30
Yeah, you make a bit of profit if you sell them all (including your holdback), but not nearly enough to finance another project - on a 500 coin run we're talking $700 which is better than a kick in the stones, but isn't going to put you shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill Gates. Realistically, a bunch of your holdback will go to traders who absolutely will not pay for a coin. You could ignore these requests, of course, remembering that each traded coin is a coin "sold" below cost. At the end of the day, you can't spend a geocoin received in trade.
Honestly, people coming in here claiming a $7ish coin and so much as breaking even selling them for less than about $10 makes me call BS and tells me they have no clue what they're really putting out financially. There's a whole lot of nickel-and-diming that adds to the price of coins if you're trying to sell a run.
And these prices assume a $7 coin - that's nothing fancy, probably small. Get into a short run of large coins and even a basic coin is going to cost a lot more than $7 a pop. All those extra fees, and the final price, go up accordingly.
This is why I made a statement in another thread that if your goal is to acquire geocoins, make your own and trade to build up a collection... you'll lose the cost of your coins, but since it's unlikely you'd ever be able to sell enough coins to buy the coins you want to collect, and if you do trade only you won't have to deal with threads like this one where people try to analyze the financials of your project.
So I really have to ask, as consumers do we not have the right to know about the coin and to be informed prior to a purchase? Would it be any different if I commited to a few coins, paid for them then asked the details?
As a forum member in good standing I would like to think that all we as for is honesty and perhaps a few questions answered. Is this asking to much?
No, I don't think the consumer has any right to know the specific financial details of any particular project. Honesty is not too much to ask, but yes, I think some of the questions that do get asked here are wholly over the top. I don't think the average person puts as much analysis into buying a house as some people appear to put into geocoin purchases.
An accurate description of the item for sale and its price should be what matters, not the financial situation of the creator. These are geocoins, not stocks.
As for shipping, I agree - $5 a coin is too much. But again, no explanation is required. You know it's too much. Anyone can hit www.usps.com and see that it is too much. Really, what needs to be said about it?
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You miss the point entirely...unless that coin has precious metal in it, there's no way that thing cost as much to mint as they say it did. Like someone else said, either this person got screwed on minting costs or they are just trying to justify the high price.
No, you miss the point. Nobody should have to justify the price to anyone. He charges what he charges. You may not like the price, but to sit here and second guess what it cost to make is inherently accusatory, and not in the spirit of what this forum is about. Unless one has hard fact (like you've seen his receipts from the mint), then there is no right to post that kind of thing.
"I think it's pricey" is fair commentary. "I think it's pricey and think you're trying to rip people off" is not fair commentary.
You make some really unfounded and sweeping generalizations about coin buyers, too. When a coin is worth a bit more, people willingly pay the price...IF the coin is actually worth that much. This coin isn't. You're in the wrong for making that statement.No, it's not unfounded. What was a bit unfair was using the word "free", I'll grant you. Look through this forum at any thread regarding a coin costing more than $8.
So loud are some of these people that I'm thinking of getting them to do coin projects for me, since there are so many experts who claim can make completely awesome coins for what seems to be song.
There's nothing wrong with making some money off of a coin. Look at it this way....say a coin costs $6 to make...they make 200 of them...they sell them for $8 and sell all the coins made...not only have they still paid for the coins, but they also have made $400 on the venture. That's just for the coin itself...we're not even talking shipping costs.They can try to sell 200 of them at $1000 each too... that's nobody's business. Buy the coin, or don't. Analyzing the price with the intent of pointing an accusatory finger at the seller is not fair. It's bordering on defamatory.
What's next, are people going to demand audited financial reporting on any coin project?
If the seller would be honest about the money issue it may be better received...so far, i doubt they are...I don't know of too many coins that cost almost $10 to make.ETA: Why should the thread be locked? Are you implying that honest opinion should not be in this thread unless it is favorable to the OP?
That's the point... the seller shouldn't even have to MENTION the money issue because it's nobody's business. I am not implying anything about honest opinion - I just don't see any. All I see is yet another coin that is being slagged by the usual people.
Tell me - why is it so hard to just not buy a coin if you don't want it? Why is it necessary to get some kind of personal dig in?
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Hi, CouparAngus!
I would be concerned about the effect on the snakes' habitat. (But then again, I purposely delay doing tree caches where there is an active (eggs present) birds' nest nearby, in order to not disturb them.)
I wonder if you could put a cache nearby, and note the pit on the cache page, so that cachers can mention the kinds of snakes they see there - at a distance.
Not extreme, I guess, but better for our creatures?
- Cathy
I'd have to agree here. I have no particular fear of snakes, but a cache in the hole would disturb habitat, and if it got found out, the tree-hugger set would have an absolute field day over it.
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Actually, I don't make any money on these. The Reason that shipping is Free if you buy more than 4 is that I am willing to take a small hit for those that are willing to buy more than 4 coins.
Sorry for the confusion on the size. It is a 42 mm coin(1.62").
I do realize that the price is a little high, BUT the cost for getting the coin done was 9.77 per coin. The other 2$ goes to the Inland Empire Chapter of the WSGA.
The Steaks
If the coin isn't free, people are going to complain about the price. You don't have to justify your price to anyone here. I would suggest that you ask for the thread to be locked.
They cost what they cost. People can buy them, or not, as they choose... but if you leave the thread open you're going to see very little but "no way it cost that much" and "I don't think you should make any money".
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What's wrong with making a cache based on Ham radio...nothing. If somebody decides to make a cache for Hams only, that's there choice. What about those caches that require diving equipment or climbing gear, or any specialized equipment?? If I don't have the equipment, I don't get bothered that I can't find that particular cache. I think it's great when somebody takes geocaching and merges it with another one of their hobbies. It's just another way to expand the sport and enjoy it in your own way. So, if somebody wants to make a cache revolving around amateur radio, go for it. If a non-Ham wants to find it, they have all the right to get a license and learn about the hobby.
A cache that requires ham radio gear isn't quite the same thing as a cache site for hams only.
There is at least one ham cache that requires formal traffic to be sent to the cache owner via ham radio.
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There's a guy flogging geocoins on ebay right now whose auction price is ok, but he's claiming $11.50 US to ship a coin to Canada by USPS.
Dang postage rate increase
For $11.50 US per coin, I figure I could actually profit if I DROVE about 20 coins from here in Canada to where he lives.
want to get into ham
in Ham Radio
Posted · Edited by geoSquid
hehe... very true. I did, however, have to go to the top of the mountain but that wasn't a real challenge because there's a road.
Which was more the point. I hadn't intended to QSO with anyone in particular. I was mostly poking about on the multitude of repeaters I could hit from up there since there's line of sight all over eastern Ontario from that spot.
It was neat to turn the power way down though, and still do it, even if the far end was the guy with the big ear
I do mostly PSK and related modes on HF. I'm hard-of-hearing enough that voice based radio on HF is too much work
that's another cool thing about amateur radio - there's always SOMETHING you can do to participate in the hobby, irrespective of disabilities. That makes the hobby very open in ways that other hobbies are not.
Despite the current solar status, I did manage to work Madagascar and Diego Garcia in the past year on 50W of RTTY. For me, having just got back into ham radio a year ago after a decade away, that was a real treat for me so I value this card highly: