globalgirl

O.K. I'll bite - albeit all the way down here on page uh... goodness 9!. Like "WorldTraveler", I too am a wanderlust. Have specialized in travel to Belize and Costa Rica since - well since (nearly 20 years ago) when nobody had even HEARD of Belize. Just returned from 6 weeks in South Africa and set up a travelogue at travelpod.com so I could upload pics and journal to friends back home along the way. (I am SOOOOOO bummed that I didn't discover geocaching til I returned - come to find out there was a cache at one of the beaches I stayed at in Mozambique, and several in Cape Town - dang!) Needed an apt username for the travelogue, so... "globalgirl" was born.

Nope that's not true geopam - we allow DNFs as well. Shoot, I'm a noobie too (with a DNF under my belt to prove it!) and can surely empathize with your effusive enthusiasm. It doesn't abate - just gets better and better. So many ingenius caches, so much creativity 'round here. Only trouble izzz... It can become a bit, uh... addictive. You might, errr... never finish that MS in Geography!

Thanks folks, for taking the time to spell it out for me. The several examples you so kindly provided make it all clear. And goodness Lord Saw - that O.B.C. is surely remarkable. Suspended magnetically in plexiglass fergoodnesssake - more precious than the crown jewels!

Bless you NightPilot! THAT is what I had finally concluded re: bearing and heading from the reading that I've done. Yet had never found it stated precisely so, and wasn't at all sure if I had it right. Yes, yes - that make perfect sense - ever trying to get them to match (or at least stay close). And I DO halfway understand the numbers - e.g. 270 degrees (i.e. due west, no?), etc. Its just like a compass - trying to line up your path of movement - with the compass point. And YES - no doubt about it. Ever so much better to learn by simply doing (albeit by trial and error oh-so-painfully s-l-o-w-l-y). Unfortunately I don't know any other geocachers, but hope to go to the next local event so will surely learn lots there. Thanks again.

Ah, so what you're saying n0wae, is that "grabbing" for grabbing's sake isn't condoned. I mean, it's not appropriate as some sort of competitive, mean-spirited thing (e.g. like that photgrapher at the TB table at events I mentioned earlier). But handy for when you happen to know the TB# and know that somebody is sitting on a TB and not moving it. But then... you'd have to also have the TB itself - to physically move it on, no? Guess it's only done with the agreement of whoever last grabbed it from a cache - he/she gives you both the # and the physical TB. Then the "grabbing" is just a matter of you taking it virtually through the gc site in order to fully complete both the electronic and the physical transfer. Sorry to babble on, it's been a long day - my brain is mush...

LOL! Just popped back in here to say... All these many posts tonight (here and elsewhere in the forums) - by golly, it pushed me right up to "geocacher". Whoo-hoo!

Well yes NightPilot, admittedly I surely have a lot to learn. And yes, I do understand that I need to be moving for the pointer to work. But I thought that was 'cuz it wasn't an "electronic" compass. I didn't realize that it's not a compass at all! Truth is, it's a miracle I've managed to find any caches thus far at all. While I'm surely not stupid, I honestly haven't a clue about navigation, etc. Oh I read most everything I can get my hands on - about the "asmuth" or whatever, etc. But still haven't a clue what half the things do on my gps screen. Like... "Bearing" and "Heading". Though I've googled ad naseum, I'm still unclear just what I'm s'pose to be doing with these/this information. Thanks to All for your patient advice.

Hmmm... most interesting, Puzzler - thanks. Then again... Are you sure that's not some joke your gps manual is playing on you? LOL, I can just picture you turning in circles each time you turn it on! Ah but seriously, nothing in my gps manual (Magellan SporTrak Map) that talks of calibrating the compass. Wonder why?

My, my, we've all been busy pecking here tonight - I can barely keep up with the replys. Truly thanks folks - I now get it. No doubt (given these 3 loquatious posts alone) I shall soon graduate to "geocacher". And yes, thanks - makes sense that premium members can choose their own as a perk.

OMG! I just noticed that others have seemingly self-dubbed titles/captions under their avatar. Still... some have just "geocacher"... Question is - if we can put whatever we like in place of the Tadpole, how do we do it? Me? I was thinking of something demure and dainty like... kick-a** lass or somesuch...

Well o.k. - love the hysterical sarcasm folks, but seriously... Howcum, for instance - all my forum posts (like Joypa) have a silly "Tadpole" designation - while others don't Is that some sort of catagorical system that Groundspeak employs? If so, what is the criteria for passing muster and moving on to grownup (i.e. dumping the tadpole tag on my posts)? 6 months from join date? 50 caches? Clearly there's some pigeonholing going on...

Good question Obie15, I've been wondering that myself. And sorry Stunod, but your answer doesn't quite expain it. I mean... Just HOW is it that you grab it from another cacher - HOW do you do it? Can you just grab it from ANYBODY? Don't you need the number? From a cache other than the one the system thinks it's in? What do you mean? Could you give us an example? Now this begins to shed some light, but I still don't understand how it all works. So say you know someone who found a TB in a cache, but hasn't yet logged it in on the TB's page (I presume the only way you'd know this, is if you happened to be out with said cacher when he/she grabbed it, else... hear him/her boasting about it in a bar or some such, and then what - rush to the keyboard???) Still... how then do you somehow "grab" the TB? Are you saying that if you happen to somehow know the TB's # - you log it in as yours somehow? For example, I'm sitting here now with 2 TBs that I got from caches. I've logged both in on their respective TB pages. Are you saying that somebody can "grab" them from me before I put them in new caches? And/or... Are you saying that if I hadn't yet logged them in to their pages - they could somehow be grabbed from me? Sorry if I seem dense Stunod. But I too (like OBie15) have scoured the entire gc site, and often find that things like this are glossed over. The TB page is a good example. It keeps tossing out "or if you grab it", etc. but never seems to explain just what that means. Now I HAVE learned that you need to clone out the number in any pics you post of a TB (and have done just that in the 2 that I posted). And I've also read here in the forums about - something about a "TB Table" at gc events, and how some folks take pics of them - presumably to snag the numbers and then what? "grab" them as their find when the next get to a keyboard? All very confusing, and no doubt NOT. Surely there must be a simple explanation for all this, yes?

Woa! Now hold on just a minute. Noobie here, but still - if you say that electronic gadgets [like your GPS] can play havoc w/ a compass - then how on earth is it that there's a compass IN my gps??? I mean, yes, it makes sense that iron, electromagnetic fields and such would decidedly affect a compass. But how is it then, that the compass in a gps (presumably) works accurately???

Thanks adampierson - yes I have 2300 mAh. And though they might not last quite as long alkaline (though surely longer than these cheapo dollar store jobbies), g-knows a $20 recharger is a good investment. Otherwise, with the gps, the digital camera, etc. shoot - I'd need an HMO plan for BATTERIES!

Speaking of batteries... noobie here w/ a gazillion questions, many no doubt utterly dumb , but nonetheless... I too have noticed my gps (Magellan SporTrak Map) acting a bit squirrely and then come to find out, the batteries were near finished. I've been using a bunch of very cheap akalines I bought at a dollar store about 6 months ago, and clearly you get what you pay for. Then again... the gps is so new, perhaps it just drains batteries like crazy. Now I DO have good recharable batteries that I use for my digital camera. But these are NiMH and the specs in my gps manual says it takes AA akaline. Question(s) is/are: 1. Can I use NiMH and 2. Does it matter if they're rechargables?

Hi mcb, Purely a geocache neophyte here. Don't even qualify as a tenderfoot 'cuz I've yet to tread a single footstep in search of (much less finding!) my first cache. But I'm utterly intrigued and fear that total addiction is just around the corner. Am very adventuresome, have scoured most every inch of this (fine) site, but... still haven't the first clue how to actually begin! Guess for starters I need a gps unit, but the prices seem daunting and I don't know what I actually need. I mean, what's the most basic unit a newbie can get by with? Would your Garmin basic Yellow Etrex do? Don't know if I can get by without a user manual, but would you consider selling the basic one for something closer to my budget? I presume it works, and would serve me for getting started with geocaching, but do I need special batteries, or plug-ins, or cables and such too? I'm very excited and anxious to get started, but a bit afraid to take the plunge for something I know so little about. Guess what I'd like to know is - which of your units would be the best for someone like me, and what's your best price for it? globalgirl, who - regardless - IS determined to set forth tomorrow to try to find her first cache in the nearby neighborhood - even w/o a gps!