Sue and Bernie
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Posts posted by Sue and Bernie
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Thank you Deci, for your intervention to try and prompt a response from my "coin-napper". (He/they have found 40 caches since picking up my coin).
This one is the last of six coins we bought and released, the others have already been lost (along with most of our travel bugs too).
In this particular case, it is clear that the "DeeJays" in Latvia are showing off this coin as two other cachers have "discovered" it since the DeeJays picked it up. The latest log was yesterday.
However, having another cacher brazenly holding a TB/Coin in this manner - well I had thought perhaps that would have merited something like the freezing of their account or something....
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Hi people,
I have a geocoin that appears to be held in some-one's sticky mitt since they picked it up way back in Dec 09. It has been "discovered" twice in the hands of the person holding my coin, see here:
I've sent a message to "DeeJays" who is holding my coin and to "Vilnis" who discovered it "in the hands of Deejay" today (asking him to have a word with his mate)!
Anticipating the worse, if nothing happens, is there any formal channel to whom I can appeal to also have a stronger word with "DeeJays"?
Ta!
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We use a Garmin Vista Cx for driving to and then finding caches using Topo UK. We also have City Navigator software for use on the continent.
As stated above, you do only get bleeps and a notice for guidance from the Vista but it does save a lot of messing about. Once we park the car, we just get the Vista to recalculate the route "off-road".
We have Tomtom on Ipaq PPC and car Garmin GPS but they've fallen into disuse for caching simply because of the nausea of putting them up, taking them down out the window, re-finding and re-calculation, swapping units etc etc. We ended up not bothering with the more sophisticated kit and just use the one unit, the Vista, for all the jobs!
The initial outlay is not cheap but once you've got it, you're sorted.
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I did my Vista with a tube of Wilkinson General Purpose Adhesive (Evostick equivalent). As the band was saggy, I cut it at the bottom where the lanyard attaches and trimmed the new ends to fit snugly.
As others said, clean off all the residue, I coated both the rubber and the Vista liberally with glue, avoiding the button areas, and left them sitting for about 25 mins for the glue to dry out.
I then just feed the rubber round, starting but putting the USB plug in first. I used sellotape to keep everything tucked in.
Leaving the glue to pre-dry for 25 mins was the key, it almost disappeared! The band stuck well as soon as contact was made but could still be manipulated.
Trimmed off any other surplus glue afterwards with my nail. It's been good for about 5 months now....
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Should have had a look on eBay, there's an Ipaq H6340 Pocket PC Phone here:
...it does everything, phone, PDA, toy, GPS mapping and driving, office stuff and it's going for £60 delivered at present.
So good, we've got three! One for me, one for 'er indoors and a spare cos I couldn't resist it going cheap on eBay.
Old technology now but does MM, TomTom, GPSonar (and Cachemate but I prefer Sonar).
I use it everyday at work, BT earpiece in the car, BT Keyboard at work for data entry and texting, lists, todo and Voice Commander so I can operate it by shouting at it in the car. Word & Excel, Scrabble & Backgammon too just to round things off. Honestly I would be lost without it.
Got a nice aluminium box to clip it to my waist when we take it out caching most weekends.
Still a greatly under-rated piece of kit still going strong.
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Ok the latest news is I got the ipaq with cachemate on the unit, but despite numerous attempts I cant get the files to show in cachemate. I just dont know what i'm doing wrong.
Dave, I use GPSonar usually but am also a registered user of Cachemate - so I've re-installed it on my Ipaq H6340 and it works perfectly.
I have GSAK save its GPX outputs directly to a folder created within the Ipaq sync set. The various filtered cache files I generate and save to this folder are immediately copied across to the Ipaq. I can then load them into GPSonar or import them into Cachemate (as describe above - I had to refer to that too)!
If you are still struggling, gimme a bell...
Bernie
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We too have 3 Garmin units - a Vista Cx (Topo GB2 and CN Europe Nav V9 and two StreetPilot C510 each with CN Europe 2008).
This all came about because until recently, Garmin provided 2 unlocks with CN software, I was using CN software with the Vista and the one Streetpilot. When Topo came out with autorouting, I decided to get a second Streetpilot and use the two unlocks with the next upgrade to CN Europe 2007 to keep both the two SP current. A good plan it seemed.
...and then CN Europe 2008 hit the streets, quietly Garmin dropped the second unlock facility.
I have held long discussions with Garmin since I naturally felt this was a backhanded move by them. Got nowhere so when the software becomes seriously outdated, the StreetPilots (now discontinued) will be flogged off. Garmin do not seem to realise that their software upgrades are almost as expensive as new hardware with up-to-date mapping!... and not to mention the added functionality.
I have been a long-time fan of Garmin and have owned umpteen units and maps from them but will be shedding the car units. Like kitchen white goods, they've become disposable, uneconomic to keep upgraded. Can't beat the handhelds though.
Garmin's customer service concering hardware has always been absolutely exemplary, they've swopped kit and GPS units without a murmour, even when out of warranty. Garmin have sent power units, lids and stuff without blinking - all free of charge. A Top-Rate Service!
.... but with the software, they've gone completely and utterly the wrong way, charging more for the software upgrades than the hardware!
Go figure....
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Sue and I have tried every combination you can think of with Memory-Map on an Ipaq (with TomTom 5 too), Streetpilot car GPS but now we simply use our Vista Cx with Topo software for the UK. This fits in a phone mount on the dash and it routes us to the cache via roads to drive us to the area. Once parked up, we select the GPS to re-calculate "Off-Road". Note we always take map printouts from Memory-Map and sort out a likely footpath/route before we move on to each cache.
Our favoured caching method is to park up near one cache then walk/cycle round the area. For this, we find the Vista handheld (and bike mount) to be ideal.
Have fun...
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We're not bothered! We've become quite selective these days and wait for areas to "grow" new caches.
We then make our own "Power Trails" by going to an area, parking up and then walking or cycling round the caches. We use an Ordnance Survey Explorer maps with the GPS and find our own way about.
Last week Sue and I walked 8.5 miles from Sheeringham to Holt and picked up a few caches en route. Our walking/caching companions went home to watch the rugby when we got back to Sheeringham on the Poppy Line Steam Train (and after a bite to eat and a pint). Sue and I sauntered off again for another 4 miles round the local area and found another 4 caches.
A cracking full day out on a lovely sunny day, a coastal walk, a train ride, a meal and a drink, lots of time in glorious weather with agreeable company and 6 caches too! This is how we enjoy getting out and about through geocaching. This is our perfect way to enjoy the game, our footpaths and the great outdoor.
If others get their fun through "cache 'n dashes", "power trails" or other endless chains of film canisters every 600 yds or so - great! Do it your way and enjoy, that's the key.
Right! We're off to Cromer for another day walking about in the sun...
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What part of Norfolk are you from?
Nice to see you back beds clangers.
HI MANY THANKS WE ARE IN DEREHAM
Sue and Bernie also live in Dereham (up the north end by Quebec Hall and the Golf Club).
We are also long time Garmin users with 3 units in use (2x car, 1x Vista Cx) using City Nav and Topo software. Bernie can bore for Britain on the subject. We would be please to help out - but busy this weekend I'm afraid.
Send a PM and we'll provide contact details...
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Funny enough, I killed the debate on a thread at "moneysavingexpert.com" on these lines when some-one was banging on about the "advantages" of the devaluation in Sterling.
As I spent 13 years living and working in Germany, and having had to cope with the politicians mucking about with the exchange rates all the time, I have always wished we had gone to single currency. I pointed out (as above) that we had just had 30% lopped off our salaries, the value of our homes, our pensions, our savings - everything we'd ever worked for.
I too have followed the above sage advice - new car, camera, a neat 1.5 TB second hard drive, Nintendo DS all round - had the decorators in, spent a small fortune while we're in the "phoney war" phase.
Noticed how petrol has crept up in price when the dollar prices is the lowest it's been in years...
...whoops! Sorry! Went off on a hobby horse there.
Do as suggested - buy now while stocks last... cos the next lot is gonna be much more expensive.
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We've been unlucky, lost 4 out of 5 TB/Coins released.
We have other 4 moreTBs and 4 more coins still in the drawer, activated but not released as we've lost enthusiasm for these.
We have considered putting replacement "cloned" items out using the same idents.... with rather large "Don't hog me, move me" tags fitted.
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Never understood the attraction - we've always been most impressed by caching in the great outdoors, new sights and great vistas. Seems a bit like wearing a blindfold to us!
Perhaps we'll try walking around with our eyes nearly closed next time...
...each to his own!
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I've been a long time Garmin user (currently with 2x Streetpilots 510T, 1x Vista Cx). Over the years I've spent a fortune on Garmin stuff, remember the Streetpilot 3 at £600 with the £125 cost of each 128K memory modules? Yeah! that was me!
I now use CN Europe NT to keep the SP's up to date and Topo UK for the Vista for caching (does autorouting on roads then off-road to the cache).
This used to be viable because Garmin used to provide 2 "unlocks" for CN so I could keep both SP's up to date from each of the two-yearly software upgrades. Indeed, this was why I bought a second SP for Sue's car. However, Garmin got the greedy bug and dropped the second unlock while maintaining the price for updates. This has effectively doubled the price of software updates.
Garmin do not appear to have noticed how much the hardware prices have dropped. I think they have adopted the business plan used by the manufacturers of printers - flog the kit cheap, screw the customer on the consumables (for ink carts, read map updates).
I suspect that we will soldier on with one SP and the Vista but when the time comes, I can see the SP being replaced with a more modern unit rather than forking out for a map update.
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I've got a Vista Cx and use TOPO UK V2 for caching.
As well as providing contours, waterways and most paths, the normal roadset is included.
Topo UK will also auto-route you to your cache finds. I select it to route "On-road" first, once parked up, get the GPS to recaculate the route "off-road".
I usually pick a suitable parking place on Memory-Map (OS Mapping) and save that across to the GPS alongside the cache waypoints. Sue and I then walk round a few caches if there's a suitable clump...
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I use a HP Ipaq 6430 Pocket PC Phone. It does the things you want plus takes any old phone sim card.
Good size screen, useful software too so I use it every day for work and when not working, use it for play. It is relatively old technology now (2003) therefore quite cheap on eBay. I also run TomTom, Scrabble, other games, GPSonar and other useful bits of software. It will do photos and films but it's limited by the single SD card slot and will only handle 1GB cards to boot. There are much better modern solutions available now. However, you can get quite a few MM maps alongside the TomTom maps on that 1GB card. Having a moving map OS display scrolling with your location centred as you drive around is really smart.
I also forked out for "Voice Commander" so that I can shout at it in the car (where it's noisey) to get the phone to dial up people - it asks if you want "home, mobile or office" if you have not specified which one to call.
Excellent bit of kit and my last one from ebay cost £50... and that was for the wife to use.
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That's what the "Problem characters to remove from waypoint name" field is for. Just add the " to that field.
Ah! Thanks Stuey - found that under "Export - Oziexplorer" using the search function under Help. Unfortunately this option does not appear to be available under custom export used by the macro that I use to generate the Memory-Map icon output.
Any other thoughts... Clyde... you watching?
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Some of the containers are made from a quite brittle clear plastic (polystyrene - not the squidgy white stuff!), which are very prone to cracking, and will not survive freezing.
Our experience has been rather different - our first cache, a multi, uses several sample tubes that have now been out for three consecutive winters without mishap. One sample tube is in a very wet location, the others are out of sight (and direct sunlight) and all appear to be as good as new.
Similar for our second multi that uses a few more sample bottles but that's only gone through a single winter to date.
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Hi,
I wonder if anyone else has noted the above messes up the macros in GSAK.
Funnily enough, using quotemarks in the engineering databases of BAE Systems where I work is practically a hanging offence - it totally mucks up searching the databases.
I use the clever GSAK macros developed by whizz-kids to place custom icons in Memory-Map and subsequently into my Garmin units (car and hand-held). Whenever some-one uses quote marks (single or double) in the title of a cache, I get the old blue dot instead of a snazzy icon. I end up having to search them out in GSAK and hand amend them in the database prior to exporting filesets.
Any chance on a general ban on quotemarks?....
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Using the same principle as above - we use specimin bottles (unused of course).
These have the advantage that they are transparent so make ideal intermediate waypoint micros for multicaches with a small laminate set of coordinates visible without needing to open the container.
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I've no problem using the "Back to Basics" prefix - the good old boys in US of A took a whole raft of names with them to the new world so it's only fair that we reciprocate by stealing back one they've already thought of.
What about prefixing exisiting caches that qualify? I would like to consider renaming our two Norfolk Rambles (both nice longish walks with intermediate micros leading to a classic ammo box).
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Phone holder - ditto!
We use an eTrex Vista Cx with Topo 2 UK installed to guide us to the location via roads then select recalc and "off-road" when we leave the car.
Using a USB cigarette thingy to power it, it bleeps when you need to be informed of an upcoming turn or whatever. It works just like any other satnav unit.
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Welcome back to the "Ignore Thread" button - I've missed you so much...
Geocoin being held "captive"...
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
Pleased to say that the emails from me, nicely backed up by one from Deci, seems to have done the trick, my coin is back out there travelling after being incarcerated since before Christmas.
Thanks again Deceangi, much obliged for your assistance.