xby

Many thanks for your excellent, and incredibly fast, answers. I am fascinated that the service is now 24x7. I rarely see my GPSr 'grab' the service, and over the past few weeks I have been watching to see if there is a pattern. Now I know a bit more about it I shall look for sats 33 and up, and check if the relevant part of the sky is visible.

I saw my GPSr go into 'Diffeerntial' mode for the first time while in Canada earlier this year. That was available every time I used the set. The next time was just a few weeks ago at home when my set went 'Differential' while out walking. But the next day - nothing - just the plain old 5/6/7 metre accuracy. Then yesterday, while in Denmark, 'Differential' again. Oddly this time the reported accuracy varied from a best of 2 metres to sometimes only 7 metres despite being able to see almost a whole sky and the sats being pretty evenly distributed. I did a bit of Googling when I first saw the 'Differential' display on my set and found all sorts of (sometimes conflicting) information. This seemed to suggest that the WAAS service for Europe is being tested and will be on 'soon', and that the 'differential' information is boradcast from a geostationary sat which is one of the commercial TV broadcast sats. Reading this thread it sounds as though the source of the 'differential' information is known as sat 33 in the GPS constellation. Three questions: a) Is the WAAS service for Europe 'on', 'off', or 'in test'? If not 'on', when is it planned to be switched 'on'? Which satellite is the source of the information for Europe? Is it simply another channel in a commercial TC bird or is it a GPS special? Is this known as GPS sat 33? c) Where is the best, definitive, up to date, source of techy info on GPS and the current state of the service - other than this site of course? My Garmin V set seems to simply detect WAAS is available and use it - I do not have to do anything, and I have not noticed any loss of channels when the service is not around.

Just arrived back at home - two hours ago - after six weeks of great caching fun in Auz. Many thanks to all that have placed cahes we have found - which includes a few 'First to Finds', and special thanks to Philma - who helped look for a missing TB/cache, Tangles who also looked, Cassowary who helped me replace an archived cache, and to various other cachers we have been in contact with during our stay which passed all too quickly. We have had such a great time! We flew out with a clutch of TBs and have returned with another eager handful that we will release over the next few days. Already we are thinking about a return visit - this time for a few months. Sadly, one TB we brought from the UK who was in a global race was lost when the cache Farewell to old Sydney was trashed. That was a painful 'low' in our visit as we had been in contact with the TB's owners. Once again thanks to all that have contributed to our caching activities while in your beautiful and VAST country! Caching has taken us to many locations that we would not othewise have visited, and added some icing to the Auzzy Hol cake. Best wishes Gordon

Chickened out on buying the very detailed Mapsource maps of Auz. Bought the 'world map' instead, as we are also going to Canada and China next year. So, now I have: a) the list of all Auz caches; a map (basic) of Auz; c) a clutch of eager TBs waiting to get to Auz. COOKING WITH GAS OR WHAT! We will be looking for caches around Sydney - only there for a few days, Brisbane Cairns Melbourne. Looking at the maps there are PLENTY to chose from! We will be looking out for TBs that want to get to the UK. Cannot wait!

BRILLIANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely spot-diddly-on. Many thanks. Just got to find a map for my Garmin now, so I can see where the caches are. Looks like we could have a busy holiday ahead of us!

I too am heading for Australia in October - with my GPS. How can I get a complete list of coords of any caches in and around Sydney, Cairns, Brizbane and Melbourne? I want to be able to see whic caches are around as we travel and then I can pull the details off the internet in the usual way. Any help gratefully accepted. Gordon

On the car speedo question there are several things which can cause an effect on the indicated speed on a car's speedo. Firstly you need to understand the speedo works by measuring how fast the wheels - more accurately the prop shaft or equivalent - is going around. They have to assume the wheel has a constant and known diameter to convert this to a speed reading. But wheels have tyres that need inflation, and varying pressure changes the diameter, hence the speed reading. Tyres wear - only by a percent or two - but that again will change the diameter. So does the load in the car - higher load and the tyres squish so the effective diameter is reduced. Effective diameter being the distance from the ground to the centre of the wheel. Plus as tyres spin faster they increase in effective diameter as a consequence of centripetal (cf centrifugal) force. Different tyre makes/types have different diameters - again slight but an effect that needs to be taken into account. Makes it all the more amazing that speedos work at all! If I remember correctly on my cars the odometer (measures total distance travelled) is more accurate than the speedo. I suspect the legal requirement on a speedo not to underred does not apply to the odometer - so they can be made with a +/- tolerance allowing the effects I have mentioned - in part - to cancel out. Some track cars have a dopler radar speedo that eliminates all of the effects, but they are expensive.

Is there a way of getting the waypoint co-ords of all caches over a relatively wide area? I often find myself somewhere with unexpected time on my hands. If I could quickly verify using my GPS that there were caches nearby I could then get details (by calling Mrs XBY for example, or popping in to a cybercafe) and go hunting. But without the basic list of waypoints this is not possible. I can see you can collect waypoints a page at a time - but there are many many pages. Am I doing something wrong? We are heading off for a longish break abroad soon. Same issue. We do not have definite plans, and will not know where we are going to be traveling until we get there - and look at the weather etc - so a GPS set filled with waypoints would alert us to caches which we can then look up for more details. Really enjoying this new game/sport/challenge/pastime/entertainment/hobby whatever it is!

I shall have a search. What is the A1 M25 cache called - I am not familiar with the local postcode!

Looking for a couple of TB motels in the Thames Valley to drop a few TBs off next weekend. I am aware of the Royal Berkshire Bug Hotel, but are there any others? How can I find TB motels ?