kitsune

Odditity I've noticed in my Garmin GPS III+ -- it is awful at standing still. Altitude and position deviate horribly when you aren't moving, which is why once I get close to a cache I become frustrated at it jumping all over the place. But when moving, it can be very precise. When I drive along the seashore, altitude doesn't deviate at all and I can ascend a bridge only to return to the previous level when I reach the bottom. Sure, its probably not accurate -- being near the water and seeing "-15ft" hopefully isn't correct.

btouch -- bravo! Awesome stencil!

[oops - repeat post. deleted]

Here's a decent place. See under "custom manufacturing" on the left... Microcosm Publishing

GeoVet, I've found that there are a lot of tiny shops (usually consisting of one person and a vinyl printer that was tossed from a failing printing business) on the net. Best price I've found so far is about $.10/sticker, the stickers being black and white on vinyl and 4.5"x1.5". Not bad for something you might throw on a logbook and the little shops I've found have a turn around time of about three weeks and have a minimum batch requirement of 20 or so. If you're interested in the sites I've found, let me know -- I'm not actually going to post the links here, as it seems a lot of the printers publish mostly for people who slap them on phone booths for bands/political purposes and the graphical content is questionable enough that I think the mods wouldn't appreciate it. As for the bigger ones that you might throw on the outside of a cache and have many colors, the prices increase and buying in bulk probably isn't worth it unless you plan on placing at least fifty caches/have a team. I think this is where the bumper sticker printing is a really good idea. Anyone have a picture of something printed to the material from an Epson? I'd like to see if the colors are decent, if it is glossy, etc.

You put 'em on your cache, you put 'em on your GPS, you might even put 'em on yourself. ...but where do you get them? Specifically, I'd love to have some good, weatherproof stickers made. Probably cut vinyl. Can anyone recommend a print shop that will take an image and turn it into something that will survive the rain? I'd be interested to see what other cachers have had made up for their own ammo boxes, too. Some of the locals have produced some really nice looking stuff. -Kitsune http://fox.org/~vince/

I thought this was quite interesting when I read about him -- "Owney" the dog, an early "travel bug", of sorts, in the 1880s. Owney the Dog I found it even more amusing how each person who took him on their travels by train gave him a new tag. He collected over a thousand of these, according to other articles, and travelled over 140,000 miles! Ah, how I wish the TBs I've handled would make it half that far... Roadside America Article -Kitsune http://fox.org/~vince/

Can anyone recommend software to plot out the breadcrumbs trails like they did? Whatever they're using is impressive! I love the multicolored trails tracing through the sky on some of their images.

Stay strong -- once you kick it, you'll feel worlds better. It's not an easy thing to do by any means. Besides yourself, your son will thank you in the future. Good luck!

quote:Originally posted by ScottJ: Huh? Geocaching BEGAN AFTER it was turned off. It would have been nearly impossible before. Odd -- I could have sworn it existed beforehand. *shrug* I need more coffee. I remember when the announcement came that the DoD had turned of SA. I ran outside, switched the GPS on and... didn't notice much of a difference. I still get similar 'position error' readings as I did when SA was on. Maybe I never get a good enough signal to get those excellent position fixes that you're supposed to get post-SA. ScottJ is correct. SA was turned off May 1st, 2000. [This message was edited by kitsune on March 06, 2003 at 11:55 AM.]

I had something that might be a lot like what you're talking about -- orange bin, rubber gasket in the lid, latch, etc. Worked well in the Florida humidity in keeping things dry, but one of the sides cracked during my most recent move.

quote:Originally posted by flask:woods are poor places for terrorist targets. in sensitive areas the host may require visible containers, but you still can't beat an ammo can for durability. I'm not really thinking along the lines of terrorists as I am considering the neighborhood vandal. I also love the ammo cans, as you can abuse them heavily with no ill effects and they blend in nicely with their surroundings, whereas a lot of plastic caches are prone to moisture damage and, if uncovered, appear as litter to people passing by. Not being able to see what is in a cache hasn't, and won't, prevent me from opening them, as I haven't heard of anything serious happening to a cacher or any content that was harmful.

I remember when Geocaching had no pay-for-membership services and it has never had any ads. So what kept it going then, and what keeps it going now? The server, bandwidth, etc, all has to be funded somehow. Is all of this kept afloat by donations for the memberships? For all the other companies offering services on the net out there, this is by far one of the most friendly, as there are no intrusive ads or obnoxious e-mailings. For that, I applaud!

Does anyone else feel even the least bit skittish when approaching and opening an ammo can cache? If I were to come across one in the woods without knowing it was a cache, I'd be a bit suspicious. I've never had any issues with caches before, but I tend to feel a bit better being able to see what is inside the cache before I open it. I was reminded of this as the local school systems have become paranoid, resulting in the requirement for clear backpacks.

quote:Originally posted by Sc out:The news are getting worse from day to day... http://scheffleng.lgs.lu/Fotoen/Jota2002/Dcp03562.jpg A good reason to not watch the news, anymore. Ignorance, especially with the way the media jumps all over everything these days and the 'alert flavor of the week', is bliss. Shut the TV off.

So many things rely on GPS these days that it would be almost catastrophic for them to shut it down. We lived with GPS 'jitter' for years before they shut it off and it was never a real hinderance to geocaching. According to the article, the USAF can localize jamming, so I doubt any of us will experience any changes in service during the potential upcoming war.

Sorry to say that do not have a boat (wish I did), but I am interested in helping to clean up! If there is any way I can help, let me know.

More than anything, the article makes me appreciate the thought and design that went into the handheld devices we use. They're doing some impressive math very quickly and very often to let us know where we are! That, coupled with the constellations of satellites overhead, is a huge achievement.

ron50eli -- you are correct, Hillsboro River State Park is nearly spotless. I can't actually remember a park that was significantly trashed the last time I was there, although Lettuce Lake had the standard beer bottles here and there along the back trails. Most everything I've seen in the area is cleaned up frequently. What a change from Atlanta area parks!

I only became frustrated when I was looking for the travel bug that had gone the most miles, which seems to not be possible, anyway. (something about logging locationless caches, etc.) I just think there should be a better way to do it, as I'd love to keep track of my miles, so I'll give it a try in EasyGPS and see what becomes of it. I wish I had started logging my miles earlier, as it would be fascinating to know how far I've gone in my travels! (Answer: not very far. Most Travel Bugs have been many more places than I have. Sigh.) W6DPS DE KE4DYX 73

This sounds like a really cool idea! Hillsboro River State Park wouldn't be a bad place to do this -- there are some very nice places to explore along the river, there. How many people per team?

I took Kodak's4 suggestion and set it to NiCAD -- this seems to give an accurate reading on the meter. Thanks! Capt Jack -- I appreciate the link. I'm hoping Garmin continues to release updates for the III+, as they continue to fix and add some worthiwhile features. My selected replacement (if it ever comes to it) will be the V. Now if I could just find something to store all these batteries I'll be hauling around. Film canisters work well for AAAs, but I've not found anything for AAs.

I recently purchased a pack of NiMH rechargable batteries for my Garmin GPS III+ so that I won't have to spend $5 every weekend I go Geocaching. (The old version of the Garmin GPS III+ eats batteries as if there were no tomorrow). I noticed something interesting on trying them for the first time: after a complete charge, the GPS battery meter indicated that they were not fully charged -- it showed them to be at ~75%. Then I noticed an option in the settings menu to set the type of batteries in the unit: Alkaline, NiCad, etc. Of course, there is no setting for NiMH and changing the setting causes the battery meter to report anywhere from 50% charge to 95%. Does anyone have any suggestions on rechargable batteries? Are they worth it? And does anyone know if the setting really changes much other than the meter? It is going to be really irritating when the GPS reports 'Low Battery' and not even be an accurate message.

Thanks, Aksor+Raskol, this gives me a chance to dust off the old engineering compass and give it a try. I usually go straight for the largest tree, pile of rocks, etc, but in a recent cache outing the actual container had washed away in a flood. The result was a [painful, thorny] forty minute search through all of the piles of pinestraw that the floodwaters had pushed up against every tree to create dozens of potential hiding spots. This was also my first lesson in using a stick to search piles of leaves, straw, and sticks -- there are a lot of snakes in Florida, and I was very fortunate that the one I discovered had no interest in biting me.

I'm curious to know what other cachers do once they "get in close" to a cache (getting to withint 100 feet or so). My aging Garmin GPS III, which I still dearly love and won't be replacing anytime soon, tends to get confused in areas with heavy tree cover, so once I get to within one hundred feet or so and its time to step off the trail to begin the search, the direction I am walking in isn't usually picked up by the GPS very well. Sometimes I have to get back on the trail, walk fifteen paces or so to get a track again, and then step back in the direction of the cache. It doesn't always work, either, as is evident by the thrashing around in brush and cursing that can be heard when I'm looking for a cache. The 'distance to destination', as I've found, isn't always the best indicator, either. Walking in circles in an attempt to "triangulate" the cache usually confuses the GPS even more. Do electronic (or old fashioned) compasses help in a the search for a cache? Does anyone have better luck with WAAS as opposed to non-WAAS GPSes?