TheAardvarkFamily

And now it's on the global media... CBS Regards MrA

Very good piece on BBC Breakfast this morning which was surprisingly sympathetic to geocaching; well done to all those involved. Good communications with law enforcement and the bomb squad seems to be the key lesson; although I'm sure the bomb squad made use of the experience for a bit of practice. The bit that was overlooked was how the initial incident started and the police's reaction to the unfortunate finder. What caused the cafe owner to report them? I am interested to know if this cacher has acquired any form of criminal record and if they have perhaps this should be contested, I for one would be prepared to donate to such a cause. Interesting case. Regards MrA

And this one is even more secret?

Hijacking thread slightly... One of the earliest was the "Mole Bowl Cache" on the River Mole... please could someone send me a link to the archived page... I'm pretty convinced I did this cache 10 years before returning to geocaching. I have no record of how I got the details but I do remember the camera in the cache and the challenging time finding it during the days of SA. Thanks MrA No worries... Found it... http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=e427fe9c-5a2c-4793-8654-1b287da60900&log=y&decrypt=

To try and add some sense to this thread! Firstly, the GPS satellites are approx 26500 km from the earth so we'll gloss over the effect of wind! The wavelength of GPS signals is approx 20cm on a frequency of 1575.42 MHz; i.e. pretty much headed into the microwave part of the spectrum. For an ideal signal you need line of sight to the satellites with no obstructions in between. Leaves are very annoying to GPS receivers because they are potentially a great size for interferring with the signals (20cm or half wavelength is 10cm) and when nicely green and damp they have the potential to attenuate the signal significantly. In the absence of a line of sight signal the receiver is likely to be receiving numerous signals from reflections off nearby objects (multi-path), this ambiguity of signal leads to the receiver having to pick a likely combination, one which will vary over time and hence lead to a varying in reported position. In the extreme the receiver will lose lock on the necessary 4 satellites and potentially report a position as an extrapolation of where it was to try and be helpful... i.e. it will assume you are moving with constant velocity whilst it struggles to get another solution. GPS Receivers are not all equal... some perform better than others under tree cover and multi-path... this is why I love my Garmin Forerunner 305. Regards MrAardvark

Well the first one of the new series ruined my evening. Such a shame... a missed opportunity. Very bad they didn't try and improve after the first attempt at a series.

The caches seem to have appeared again. And some of the logs suggest they are similar to those before. Not sure If I can face it. Regards MrA

Just found this... "The Trail of Heroes geocaching promotion has not officially opened to the community and is currently being reviewed by pre-selected individuals who have been sent a specific code to identify themselves. We are using this soft release to make sure we can present the best promotion possible to the larger geocaching community. Please check back in the next few weeks for additional details." Looks like there may still be time to make it fun and accessible Regards MrA

My 2p worth... An idea for next time would be to use existing caches, with cache owner permission, to host the secret codes. They could be temporarily renamed. Only highly favourite-d caches would be eligible. Regards MrA

Just completed this series, including the Muggled cache which was C. I really think that with a bit of peer review/consultation the caches could have been made much better and less muggle-able. I doubt they will last the duration. MOAN ON>>>> For a newbie... I think they fail to capture the magic of GCing. I think the review process failed on these ones. <<MOAN OFF.

Success! Bought a new 600/610/700/710 'digitizer' for the massive sum of US$7 on EBAY which arrived today. Just spent an hour tinkering with the GPS to replace the digitizer and now it's back together as good as new!

My research on EBAY and Google suggest that... The 600/610 digitizer is one part. The 650/660/670/680 have the same digitizer (different from above). The 260w 265w 255w 200w 550 750 770 780 650 680 765T have the same digitizer (different from above). The 1490TV/1490/1490T have the same digitizer (different from above). So it looks like I need the 600/610 part which so far I cannot find a supplier who will ship to the UK. Regards MrAardvark

Do you think 6xx series has a different display from 7xx series?

You don't really appreciate something until it breaks and today I was devastated to find my old Garmin Nuvi 610T which had been in my coat pocket had a cracked screen. It had been in my pocket with some coins and the two must have compressed together causing a broken screen. The underlying LCD display is fine, just the touch sensitive glass is cracked and now unresponsive. Some searching seems to suggest that I need to replace the 'Digitizer'. I think this is the coated screen part. However, I can only see Digitizers for Nuvi 760 on EBAY which looks about the right size... anyone have an idea if this would fit my 610T? Thanks MrAardvark

That is AWESOME. Thanks to both for the pointers.

I know and love the Greasemonkey Map Substituter macro which allows an OS map to be shown for a single cache. Is there some way that I could produce a OS map extract with several caches on it? I have GSAK so can get a Google Map with several caches but I cannot see how to get an OS map. An OS 25k extract with a few caches would be fantastic. Thanks in advance, MrA

Aha! Now all becomes clear! Thanks.

Within the Premium Member Notification feature you must choose ONE of... Type to Watch: Traditional Cache Multi-cache Virtual Cache Letterbox Hybrid Event Cache Unknown Cache Project APE Cache Webcam Cache Locationless (Reverse) Cache Earthcache GPS Adventures Exhibit Wherigo Cache How do I match against "Mystery" Caches? Is it type 8? I.e. Unknown? Thanks in advance, MrAardvark

I have a registered version of GSAK but I can't see how to do that since the MyFindsPQ does not contain the cache names of the unfound caches. The http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 query definitely helps; from there I guess it is a manual process? Thanks for the info. Regards MrA PS I wish I had spelt the topic name correctly!

Is it possible to work out which caches we have been to and logged DNF entries but not found subsequently? i.e. DNF's that were never completed TIA, MrA

Isn't there a risk that once the mainstream is aware that shiny potentially valuable items are left unprotected outside that not so nice types will go around stealing them? Without secrecy will GCs be safe in the wild?

Unfortunately we have a pact whereby to qualify as a family find it needs multiple aardvarks and hence the need to keep the logs separate. The smaller aardvarks are adamant they want their stats to only include finds by the family. Thanks for the feedback.

This might be a stupid newbie question... As a family we use one identity TheAardvarkFamily, the rule being that at least 2 of us need to be present, and individually I use the identity MrAardvark. For this we have two accounts, the family one is premium, the individual one is standard. Sometimes this causes confusions when for instance MrAardvark goes to a member only cache that he found via a family PQ. Also since MrAardvark is not premium he cannot easily generate a MyFinds PQ for statistics. Obviously I would prefer not to pay multiple subscriptions... Is there a better way to organise split personalities? e.g. have an Alias for some finds? I note for example that when caches are published they sometimes seem to have been published by an alias? Thanks in advance MrA

Perfect! Thanks for the resource. I couldn't quite get it to upload GPX files from GSAK but for the maps it is perfect. regards MrA

Newbie Question.... I have been using the GeoCaching Map Substitutor [thanks!] to show OSGB 50K maps when planning a trip however for a complex route I think I need 1:25K to see the rights of way/paths more clearly. Is there an online resource that would show me 1:25K? Ideally one that would allow me to add a few waypoints from a GPX file. Thanks in advance, MrA PS I did try and search through all the threads but couldn't find an obvious answer.