gatoller
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Posts posted by gatoller
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Is it possible to program a Chirp as a travelbug hint? I'm thinking it would be fun to have one that basically describes me and how to best pick me out of a crowd, so that a chirp receiver would be able to search me out at an event to get a travelbug find.
I'd like to set it up so that the receiver doesn't get the TB number- they sort of have to work for it.
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I wanted to ask this one directly, not within another thread that's 8 pages of other information to wade through about pros and cons. It's a very simple yes or no question:
Are caches that absolutely REQUIRE a chirp-capable GPS in order to be found allowed?
In other words, a cache with no physical stage or puzzle-type stage at all, only the chirp signal to give the cache location. I've heard it both ways so far, and would love some clarification.
Thanks!
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I'd never even dare ask -- my car TB has no visible number below the TB Bar Code, just a "Chirp" data radio transmitter and the yellow "Beacon" icon.
Aw dude, you didn't. Now I'm going to have to buy a chirp-capable receiver before I can log your car.
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Actually, this was discussed on the GetSatisfaction site - it's already in the planning stages. For both people that decide to get one of those devices.
Haha - 'both'. That's classic.
You don't get the point of the whining, tho- I'm sure there's already someone mad because it isn't HERE NOW, even though the phones aren't.
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I just purchased a new Verizon Samsung Galaxy phone and was thinking of downloading Groundspeak GPS on it. I read the reviews on the phone and they're very mixed. Any suggestions? This program is $10 and I'm not sure I want to install it if it isn't reliable.
discobayer
It's fine- nothing earth-shattering, but a decent app. I bought it mainly to use as a paperless companion to my Garmin, and it's working great for that. Worth 10 bucks, which is pretty cheap when you consider it all. Like any app, it's got it's quirks. Like most things in the world, there's also a lot of folks out there who will hate anything, especially if it's not free and won't fix the bathroom sink as well as find caches.
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I figured I'd get an early start on the whining. (just kidding)
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A few weeks ago I removed a BIG firecracker from a cache in Florida.. it was one of those illegal home-made ones that are commonly called 'M-1000' crackers, made by cutting a stick of dynamite in quarters and waxing the ends with a fuse in them. This is the type of cracker that took a guy's arm off on the Fourth of July this year.
Whoever put it in there is beyond stupid. I soaked it in the Gulf of Mexico for a bit (no, not the oily part), then crushed it and buried it. I always wonder about those things, I figure the people who make them should be incarcerated on just plain lack of brains, as they clearly don't know what taggants are, and that they are in all dynamite.
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I suggest that in the future, the 'app that shall not be named' be referred to as 'Voldemort'. It's shorter, and has much more comedy appeal, which is truly what it's all about, in the end.
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I have downloaded and installed the other 'Wherigo' player, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet as the nearest cartridge is 50 miles away.
Search the market for 'WhereYouGo'.
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This forum has the best trolls.
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This is very clearly an attempt to stop a specific Android app's activity. The author has been told his app violates the site's terms of service, but he refuses to stop what he's doing.
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About two weeks ago I was walking to a cache while looking down at the GPS, and walked face-first into a tree branch, I thought. Turned around to look at it after I'd extracted myself, and it was a very healthy new growth of poison ivy. I am susceptible, so I took these steps:
1. Headed straight home, which was fortunately only 10 minutes away.
2. Grabbed the dish detergent from the sink on my way to the shower.
3. Got the contaminated clothes off, put them in the washer with plenty of soap.
4. Turned the shower on as cool as I could stand it, and lathered up with the dish soap.
5. Rinsed well. Repeat the wash with dish soap.
I'll report happily that this works very well - the dish soap is the trick, as it's an oil breaker, and gets rid of the ursosol oil from the poison ivy.
If you can't get to the shower with dish soap fast, then the Tecnu is reportedly the way to go.
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If it was put there that long ago, what you found is a letterbox, not a geocache. Letterboxing has been around for 100+ years. The only odd thing is the size- most letterboxes are larger to accommodate a stamp.
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Im not saying your are lying, Im just skeptical.
I have to put in my vote of agreement here. My 'troll alarm' may be a bit quick to go off after so many years of newsgroup/forum reading, but I don't think so in this case. I went to school for robotics back in the day, and have a pretty good grasp of the costs and challenges involved in something like this. The numbers here just don't add up, not even close.
IF this fella has a robot that can find a geocache, and I'm going to be generous and say within a mile of deployment point, then he needs to seriously be working for a military contractor, because he's got something even they don't have.
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While such a feature is clearly possible, it would eat your battery for lunch. It would require the GPS to be on all the time, and you'd see 2 hour battery life, tops.
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I don't think I've ever seen anything 'naughty', but knives, a pack of cigarettes, and recently one of those paint scrapers that uses a razor blade as a replaceable edge. I wondered what went through the person's head as they dropped the razor in there- "Gee, won't the next person be surprised when they reach in!?"
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There's a local cache near a lake that is very easy to find, and often found by non-cachers. Some of them are pretty bad (you dare not leave a travelbug or coin in this cache, and I once found a pack of cigarettes in it), but a few have written some pretty hilarious stuff in the logs:
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Log them as 'Found', then log the 'Needs Maintenance'. I'm pretty sure you can do it in either order, so at this point you could go back and create 'Found' logs to get your count right.
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That's pretty normal of any GPS unit- there's a certain accuracy of the thing depending on the 'geometry' of the satellites at any given time, and also due to 'signal bounce' from local buildings, trees, rocks, etc.
Once you get to where your 'distance to goal' is less than or equal to the 'current error', just put the device away and start looking for the cache- chasing the spinning pointer is a sure road to frustration.
No GPS will put you dead-on perfect within a centimeter (at least not the current space-based units). Consider also that when the person hiding the cache took their readings, they may have had a 15 meter error due to GPS accuracy. When you arrive, you've got 15 meter error also, but yours is in the other direction. Now you've got up to a 30 meter error to deal with, and you've no idea which direction.
The GPS will get you to the area- the find is going to be done using your wits, perception, and patience.
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When I looked at it, I thought - "man, imagine if they'd made all those stages of a multi.
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I am going crazy trying to simply download a cache to my motorola droid. I have the app geobeaqle but cannot get a cache site from geocaching to my phone. I have tried the loc. file download along with "to phone". HELP.
Actually it's easier than you think, but it's a bit different, because it uses the web pages, and sets up GeoBeagle as a 'provider'. Here's the steps in short form:
1. At the main page, click 'Geocaching.com'. It will navigate to a web page that shows caches based on your current location, by distance. To be able to see it, zoom in by double-tapping on the page, be sure you don't tap on a link.
2. Select one that you'd like to search for. It will navigate to the web page for that cache. You will be able to review the cache, read the logs, and so on. Now it's time to get to the navigation part, and this is probably what's confusing you. Scroll down to the section of the page with the heading 'For online maps...'. Select 'Google Maps'. A window will open titled 'Complete Action Using', showing several options. Choose 'GeoBeagle'.
3. Welcome to the navigation screen. Follow the arrow to the cache, you've got that cache loaded to GeoBeagle now, it will show up on the cache list until you delete it. If you've got GPS Toolbox installed (I highly recommend), you can tap the compass to get a more detailed compass. From here, you can hit the menu button and see the cache on Google Maps, log finds or DNFs with SMS messages, and so on.
Hope that helps!! I personally prefer CacheMate these days (I can drop a PQ into that), but I'm really looking forward to the 'official' GC app.
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I use a Droid along with my Garmin, mostly for the paperless aspect. However, I can speak to the GeoBeagle/Droid issues a bit, because I've used it that way, too.
First thing you want to do is to look up an app in the Market called 'GPS Status' by EclipSim. It's free, get it. It will provide you a better compass for GeoBeagle- once you're navigating to the cache, just tap the compass and it'll pop over to the GPS Status compass with the cache as the target point.
On there, you'll see a notation to the lower left of the compass that says 'Error'. To the lower right is 'Dist'. Once your distance to the cache is at or lower than the error, just put the Droid away- you're within the error radius, and watching the compass spin just just a good way to annoy yourself. Consider 'Ground Zero' to be an area about twice the size of the error you're getting, and just look for it. Between the error you get (and there's always some), and the error the original hider had, you could be a bit of a distance off. The challenge of caching is that last few feet, where technology leaves off, and your senses kick in.
The Droid is a pretty good GPS, but it doesn't have the antenna that a dedicated machine has, nor the battery life. I like mine as a phone, and as the paperless caching tool, but it's not really a full-on replacement, as I see it. If I weren't out for six-eight hours at a time in the rain, it might work, though.
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How about this one:
"It's all fun and games until your cache gets muggled."
That'd keep non-caching folks wondering.
Simple 'Chirp' question
in General geocaching topics
Posted
You managed it pretty well.
That wasn't the question really - I figured that every cache needs a container of some sort, so there's a place for the log.
That's more it- it does tell me that there will be caches that require specific equipment that not everyone will have. In some ways that's similar to Wherigo caches, but at least those are a unique type, easy to differentiate. My hope at this point is that any cache hiders that do make a 'chirp-required' cache will be clear about that in the description.
Personally, I won't hide a 'chirp-required' cache, because I don't want to leave anyone out. I do see some great opportunities for these to help without excluding folks- my first example would be a park that had several caches in it- you could put chirps at the park entrance, so folks driving in could get the local caches loaded into their GPS units easily on the way into the park.
Thanks for the answers, everyone. Now I'm clear.