BigWhiteTruck

And even if you don't want to spend the $28, you can just spend $8 on CacheMate. You don't need GSAK (extra $20) unless you want to do some fancy filters or something. CacheMate comes with everything you need to put your pocket queries onto the palm in a usable, organized format.

My favorite thread

I generally get a bearing from my truck, then I sprint naked through the woods in one direction counting my paces instead of bringing a gps. I gnaw my initials into the log sheet with my teeth if theres no pen(cil) and then run back tot he truck. But seriously, some people like to be prepared. One mile is a long way if you are injured, or lost.

Actually, you were being questioned by a stranger as if you were a 13 year old kid up to no good. Obviously you were doing nothing wrong, but Mr. Kravitz didn't know that. Unfortunately, it is something you are going to have to live with given your age. It's sad that good kids out caching are going to be harassed, but you just gotta learn to roll with it. Try to understand where this person is coming from: they only want to make sure that you aren't trying to do something mischievious. Once you demonstrate to them that you are harmless and playing a harmless game, they should leave you alone. Unfortunately, some people you meet will have already made up their mind about you before they even approach you, and their questions are meant to get you to say something that will prove to them (in their own minds) that they are right. If you find yourself talking with a person like this, you may want to make a flat statement like: "Listen, I a playing a harmless game trying to find a particular spot with my GPS. I am not out here to damage anything, I am not spraypainting, making a mess, or anything like that. I am on public property and you don't have a right to harass me like this. If you want to help me find what I am looking for, that's fine, otherwise, please leave me alone." This of course will not be necessary if the person is listening to your explanations beforehand, but some people aren't interested in listening to the answers you provide for their questions. You may want to carry some of the pamphlets from Geocacher-U: Full-page (pdf) Wallet-Size (pdf) They will be very helpful in explaining what you are doing. Good luck!

I don't think that there IS a time or place when no permission is needed in things such as shopping malls or store parking lots. For example, if yo go into a Walmart, go to the service desk and look at the signs on the wall there. It basically says that the entire store and parking lot are private property and you are only there by invitation as a paying customer. The moment you are not a paying customer, you are trespassing.

That's just what shorelander was explaining. The program knows the coordinates of the roads, and it knows the street adresses at each end of the road, where the intersections are. It then guesses on the location of adresses in the middle.

CacheMate has all of this info when you use it with pocket queries. You can also do searches for nearest caches right on our palm. Definately the way to go, you won't be disappointed. You may need to clear a little room on your Zire though. deleting a few photos or mp3s should give you enough for hundreds of caches. Here's a good writeup on using it too: CacheMate writeup on cacheopedia.com

I work for GE Inspection Technologies. I am a software developer turned quality assurance tester. I find the bugs that the other developers missed (possibly so BadAndy doesn't have to deal with them).

Just a thought I came up with to ensure that epople are actually reading the description. Post the coordinates right smack dab in the middle of the nearest public road, then in the description, mention that the actual cache is 1324 feet away at bearing 142 degrees, or whatever the actual numbers may be. That way, all the people who read the description will be able to find it, and they also will have read the part about the river. All the people who don't read the description will simply drive to a certain point in the road, park, and then search around in the ditch for an hour, but who cares? Then they'll log a "I didn't find it, but I was there!" Found log, and you can laugh and delete it!

Just read this whole thread, lots of good points. Here's some info that I have discovered when using GE. First thing is the innacuracy of the geocache icons. This is not GE's foult, geocaching.com designed the kml file to be innacurate and move the icons around. I imagine that this is to keep people from using the kml to harvest cache data without pocket queries. Google Earth itself is quite capable of displaying a set of coordinates consistently. If you manually enter coordinates into google earth you will see what I am talking about. About a gpx to kml converter I don't know why you would need one, since Google Earth can open gpx files natively. Just open it with the file dialog, or drag and drop it in. The last poster mentioned making a way to overlay topo maps it's already been done by a keyhole user called 3Dsolar. You can download a kml file that adds this ability to GE here Most of this is covered at this site: How to use Google Earth to accurately display geocaches Happy caching!

The automatic geocaching icons (kml file) feature of google earth that you download from geocaching.com is inaccurate by design the icons jump around because geocaching.com is actually sending dfferent coordinates that are near the actual cache spot, but never the actual coordinates. If you rely on just that, it will be difficult to actually see the exact spot. Further complicating matters, sometimes the images in GE don't actually line up with the GPS coordinates properly. have you ever noticed when the overlayed roads don't line up with the roads in the picture? The roads are in the right spot, the image is off. One way to get around this is to install 3dSolar's google earth addon, which adds new image sources to google earth, like USGS topo and USGS ortho overlays, which are (in my experience) always dead-on accurate. The ortho overlay is a black-and-white photo that is as good or better resolution to the color photos that come in GE, even in rural areas. Combining the ortho view with manually entering coordinates, or importing gpx files instead of relying on the KML file (which changes), you can easily get accurate, consistent results which can help you find caches without a gps easily. Cacheopedia article on this

I guess my post was in response to what I imagine the next action will be, which is locking the thread. That doesn't serve the original topic well either.

Honestly, who cares? Is it going to take up space on the "geocaching topics" forum? No. Not any more than any other post. So it's off the original topic, big deal. Obviously the topic has changed, so let the discussion continue.

I've had the coordinates for the dead drop for quite some time now. Solved the leap year code back in October. Just waiting for an opportunity to travel to Houston. I'll be home by 7:30 tonight

All you need to do to make it watertight is use pvc cement to glue the ends on. EVERYTHING you need is at your local hardware store in the plumbing section. Make sure you get the purple primer as well. You need: Length of pvc pipe (you can cut this to size with almost any saw) Endcap for whatever size pipe you got "cleanout" encap (this is the screw-out type of cap) pvc cement pvc primer (purple stuff) Instructions: Cut the pipe to length with a saw. Try your best to make a square cut Clear te "sawdust" out of the pipe remove any labels on the pipe that are near the ends so they don't interfere with the glue. The purple primer can has a wand built into the cap, brush around the end of the pipe. You are painting a purple band about an inch wide around the circumference of the pipe, right at the end Re-dip the wand an repeat the painting on the inside of the cap. Allow both to dry Mimic the last steps using the cement. Go right over the primer and spread a tin uniform layer. Do it on the pipe and on the inside of the cap. Press the parts together immediately, using a twisting motion. Only twist one way, not back and forth. Make sure you have fully seated the cap on the pipe and hold it in place for about 30sec to a minute. The cap will want to pop off the pipe. Hold it on until it is stable. Repeat the process for the cleanout end. You should remove the center section of the cleanout end before you do this. After the cement has hardened, you can screw the cleanout back in place paint, mark well, and place

You are looking for this. Enjoy.

Yeah, but he doesn't need a database or anything to store the answers, he is one-way hashing the coordinates and then including the hash in the link to the validator as a get request. Then someone writes in the coordinates in the validator, it hashes their input and sees if it matches. It's quite ingenious really. Very similar to password validation on a unix system. This script could sit on any php-enabled site as a single file with no supporting files or databases.

Point is, the OP asked a question and I answered. I did not post my answer to try and convince others that my way is the right way, I merely stated the fact that we do not carry a gun when caching because we don't see the need. To respond to your question, at the risk of going off topic: Yes, usually more than once a week we are called to respond to an motor vehicle accident, many times involving air bag deployment. So, I can see the need for airbags. We, however, haven't had to respond to a single bear attack despite being located in bear country, so I don't see the need for a gun. But, again, this thread isn't about debating the merits of either stance, so having answered both questions I am just going to sit back and enjoy. Cheers! I've been saving that analogy for a while now, and I go and waste in on someone who has a FIRE TRUCK as their avatar! Drat!

I am setting up a series of phobia caches designed to make someone face their fear of various things, like dark, water, heights, strangers, etc. I have been planning them as individual caches, and I was gong to have hints in each one to the coordinates of a final mystery cache. You would have to conquer all the other phobia caches to get the final one. Now I am wondering if I should set this up as a massive multi instead. Pros/cons are: With individual caches, someone can see each cache and therefore be more interested in them, also they can plan the attack at their leisure. With one giant multi, the cache as a whole would be more challenging, but in the future I could split it up into individual caches. What do you think? Would you rather se a series or a large multi?

Have you ever seen the need for the airbag in your car?

Although it is up to you how hard you want it to be, you hould know that there is no such thing as a cache too hard. If it were me I would offer words of encouragement and perhaps some teasing to the whining dnfers. I understand that you want someone to find your cache, but eventually someone will come along who is up to the task.

good idea! well-executed also I would like a copy as well. I would like to see if I can integrate this into a cacheopedia article. At the very least I can host it onthe same server.

Okay, what am I looking at here? Is there a gun somewhere in this picture?

I think the LED can run on that small current because it is a flashing type, and it is storing the current internally in an r/c circuit until the flash.

Great idea! Cached common queries.