Crystal Sound

GCG4W3 - A Grate Cache ... In a Woodland Kind of Way WARNING: SPOILER !!! Is an ammo box, hidden in a storm drain, under a grate you must lift/remove before retrieving the cache. The drain is in the center of cul-de-sac with 2-3 houses surrounding it. The hider lives in one of the houses. The cache gets lots of positive comments. Many get to meet the Harry Meister himself.

I wouldnt trespass... But, I've had a couple marks I've pursued that were obviously on someone's property. I have on a couple occasions, knocked on the front door and asked for permission to hunt. So far, I've always met with agreeable persons. In one case, the landowner pointed me to a mark that wasnt in the GC or NGS databases, but didnt know about the one that was. I eventually recovered both marks, and showed the landowner the previously unknown one. On another occasion, the owner joined me in a search. Unfortunately, neither of us found the mark. We found the witness post, which the descriptions put at 20+ feet from the station. Due to a 138,000 volt transmission line overhead, I didnt feel that my metal detector would be of much use with so much electro-magnetic interference from above. Im betting the mark is likely still there, just under dirt and cow-pies.

Wow! That's really cool! More excellent work, Holograph! I'm glad to see my niche in south-central Ohio shows up, let alone a darker color in my county.

FYI - More than likely - that 25-pin port is not Serial, but a Parallel port. If it is truly a serial port, a "null modem" might be needed. A little late now, but I put this info out there just in case somoene else might have use for it. Anyways - the USB-Serial adapters are what most are going to, for lack of serial ports on computers.

A local nite cache gives coordinates to a spot, to which from there you have to follow the reflectors with a flashlight... You dont exactly find the cache itself with the GPS or the coordinates.... This doesnt sound much different from a puzzle or other cache you have to figure out the final coordinates, or project a waypoint, or whatever. Having served in the military, and an "expert" at landnav, your idea sounds like a fun exercise to me.

A couple other things you might try: I'm not sure what kind of contacts your particular model has, but you might try bending the contacts outwards a bit. This can help them hold the batteries a little tighter to the contact. If the contact is a folded piece of metal, this works well - as well as putting a bit of foam or something, inside the "V" shape of the contacts might help hold a bit tighter. You might also visit your local Radio Shack and look for a product called "DeOxit Power Booster". You can get it in a "pen" form. Apply some of that contact cleaner to the contacts, as well as some on the batteries themselves. I use this stuff regularly on all kinds of electonics problems, and I've seen it work wonders. I've used MANY different kinds of "cleaners" and most dont work. This stuff does. (I do not have any ties to Radio Shack or Caig Labs (mfgr) - I'm a VERY satisfied customer.) I've had the same issue with my GPS on occasion. A careful bending of the contacts, and a dab of the DeOxit, and it's "better than new".

I have a Foretrex 101 and havent had any problems... BUT: a few things you will want to check... 1. Make sure the Foretrex is set to Garmin protocol in the setup screen. This is the setting most programs will expect the GPS to be set to. 2. I've found in some programs that the foretrex setting doesnt work or doesnt exist in the setup options. For example, on my Mac, in Nat Geo Topo, I get much better results using the "etrex" setting. On the PC, EasyGPS seems to like "gecko" better. So, you might try a different setting for which GPS you have. 3. If you have a palm, or other device that uses the serial port, sometimes that application will tie up the port, and whatever GPS program you are trying to use will error. Try disabling hotsync, ect. 4. Make sure the cable is plugged ALL the way into the foretrex!!!! Dont worry about pushing too far and damaging anything, but it does need to be seated fully. It's VERY easy to only partially insert the cable, thus not making good contact. I've had to check this a few times myself. I find it helpful to slightly twist the plug while inserting. You might also make sure there's no gunk inside the foretrex' port. If that doesnt work, reply, and theres some other things to check, but the above are the common issues i've seen.

My mother just bought a 30 foot RV and went off to D.C. and VA Beach a couple weekends ago. She took her iBook with WiFi card and was glad she did. I"m not sure which campground she stayed at, but she said they had wireless internet there, and she made good use of it. I'm finding many hotels have wifi anymore, about half are open (no pw needed). I still keep my dialup account for roaming use (as well as the server space i get), but i find i'm using the wifi card more than dialup when i'm "out". (I have broadband at home)

I"m always finding new uses for my GPS, particularly work related. The most recent comes from last weekend... I do sound & lighting work for a wide variety of events. Last weekend, I was asked to provide sound coverage over a multiple-city-block-area. This meant, I had to run ALOT of wire to the different locations where speakers would be located. Using my handy GPS as a (long) tape measure, I was able to easily approximate how far cables would run, where speakers would be placed, coverage areas, and more.

Does anyone have a photo recovery of any of these? E - Earthenware pot G - Glass bottle J - earthenware jug I wont ask about the Dolphin........

Woo hoo! THANKS !!!!!

One of my caches, GCN5TZ - Devil's Tea Table generates a few logs that "make my day". My favorite has to be this log: June 5 by Blaiz&Random_Hero (1 found) What a great adventure! My son and I went out on our first geocaching adventure together today. We chose the Devils Tea Table, as we are both fairly new to the area, and thought we would see something unusual. And did we! The formation is awesome! What a great place to hide a cache. We left two lizards, and took a can of silly string. Great Hike:)

About a month ago, I got really lucky... $169 - Garmin Legend Adventure Pack - Topo USA, Mount, Car Adapter, Case, and video... I wont say where I got it as it would be moot. I found the adventure pack on sale, and due to a couple of mistakes that were made (all in my favor), I got a really good deal.

An *EXCELLENT* one I've done: GCG29M - Where's the Floodwall Located in Portsmouth, Ohio, along the Ohio River. Local artists have painted murals covering the floodwalls complete length. Murals tell the history and development of the area and introduce many people of historical significance. THe paintings are very realistic - often photographic quality. In fact, the subject of question #1, I have mistaken the "fellow" to be alive upon first look. The floodwall itself is a virtual guided tour of the areas history. Mr. Bloodhound did an excellent job on this virtual.

Like this one? 'The Rapture of the Deep' Three years, and it still hasn't been found! Wow, that's pretty cool. I cant wait to make a visit there and do that cache. Mine's in a bit shallower water though, and (if all is according to plan) you have to make 2 separate dives (as there are 2 quarries in the area) to get all the information. I'm not saying much, as it's still in the "build" stage, and a few details are in flux. However, I am making it such that non-divers can solve the puzzle and find the cache. Just how a non-diver can accomplish it, well, that's part of the puzzle for them to figure out.

I'd be game for such.. here's my wishlist: * Ability to export/import .pdb for cachemate on the palm a must. I'm tired of using 2-3 programs just to manage/convert waypoint files for my Garmin and Palm. I do a fair amount of benchmark hunting and other stuff. I find cachemate's features (especially log functions) to be great for such, but it's "messy" trying to extract the info for computer editing. * Export to National Geographic Topo! would be nice, but i can survive w/o. * Garmin Protocol support, including waypoint symbols. * GPX/LOC support. * Tracklog & route editing would be nice. * A real nice feature would be a screen to show "active" gps information - position, time, speed, ect. Also, being able to create waypoint here. * I work in 10.2, but that shouldnt pose an issue. Yea, I'm still waiting on pigs to fly....

I'd go with the coordinates, and the comment that it is XX feet below that place.. From there, it's up to the cacher to find it. I dont see it any different than having to find the way across a creek or other obstruction. I'm working on a multi-part puzzle scuba cache. I plan to give the coordinates above the objects in question. It's up to the cacher to figure out how to get the answers to the final stage cache.

You might look into the previous owners of the house. Perhaps one of them was a surveyor or such, and had the disc in their possesion and decided they wanted it there.. Now just *why* would someone want a benchmark next to their house, I have *NO* idea... It's not like I dont have a USGS Pipe Cap mark (i found destroyed) sitting in the flower bed in front of my house.

Glad to hear it all worked out for you. Chalk another one up for Garmin's excellent customer service.

I've been using Trimble's software... http://www.trimble.com/planningsoftware_ts...Collection-8425 you can download the software and a current almanac file there, for free. I read of another package somewhere and tried it, but contrary to the posters experience, i found I like the trimble software better, and it seemed easier to use. Note: This software is gear towards professional use - meaning - it's not all laid out and set up for the novice. You'll need to play around the setup - but it's not too difficult to figure out.

The "power cord" on many units, as well as the circuits that power the backlight, often use a switching power supply. As my hearing is rather sensitive, I can hear MANY devices' power supplies while in operation. Usually I hear the sound coming from the supply itself (or the unit with the backlight) - but i have found a few times when such a unit has interfered with something and the noise comes out of the speakers of the affected unit. Its possible there's a shielding or filtering issue. Trying the new cord Garmin is sending would be a good try. You said it's coming from the car speakers.... Is this with the radio off as well as on? By chance, are you listening to AM radio? AM is *VERY* susceptable to interferece. If so, do you still have this problem with FM ? How about where you are tuned? I've noticed i sometimes get more noise in my car, when i'm tuned to "lower" stations, than the "higher" stations. As Butano commented, I have legend also (not the legend C) and havent noticed this issue. Try the new power cord - if that doesnt help, try checking a few things I mentioned above, let us all know what your results are. OH yea, and keep working with Garmin - their customer service is really good. I'm sure they will do all they can to help.

I'm probabally stating the obvious, but.... You left out a number of details, so I"m going to just throw some questions out there in response... Are you in the woods? This time of the year, foilage is quite dense, and affects satellite reception. Last night, while visiting one of my own caches, my unit had me over a 100' area (underneath dense tree cover). When I placed this cache, it was about 2 months ago, and much less cover, and i was only bouncing maybe 30'. How strong of a signal are you gettting? Are you noticing that you arent getting as good of a signal from the satellites as you used to? The comment about antennna is pretty good. Yes, the GPS unit is MOSTLY digital and "programming" but there is an RF analog "front end" - particularly an amplifier between the antenna and the chips. RF amps can sometimes get a little funny, so it's possible there is an issue to your unit. You said it got wet on the inside? Did you mean inside the battery compartment, or inside the unit itself? If it was just the battery compartment, you are probably okay. If it's inside the case itself - your best bet is to have Garmin repair it. If none of the above are suspicious, I'd be willing to bet your receiver is fine... How about map datum? Is your unit set to WGS84? Depending on where you are, the differences between NAD27, NAD83, and WGS84 (and/or any others) can explain some inaccuracies. This could make or break you, once you are at the cache location. Does your unit have a battery or power save function? That will make a unit bounce more than the "normal" mode. Do you have WAAS, is it on or off? It's possible any of the above settings (if you have such) could have gotten changed somehow - it might be worth checking them. Just my $.02 - before taxes, tariffs, and other surcharges. Edited for spellung and some minor corrections.

I looked at the 201 when looking at units, but I decided that the ability to put new batteries in the unit, rather than going for a recharge, made the 101 more attractive to me. Yea, the 201 is about .3" thinner than the 101, but i dont think the difference is that noticeable. The ability to change out batteries, when several miles back in the wilderness, is worth the peace of mind. Waypoints can be entered on the fly with the enter/pageup/pagedown buttons to scroll through values / positions. Once you know how (which isnt tough), it's not too hard to enter data "on the fly" while in the field. It's kinda like how you set time on a wristwatch - one button advances, the up/down buttons change the value up/down. A little cumbersome, compared to a full keypad/keyboard, but still usable. The data cable is definately worth it for downloading several waypoints at a time, or backing up the unit, interfacing to mapping programs, ect. You can download the manuals for any Garmin product through their website. When looking at my first unit (which ended up being the foretrex) I downloaded several manuals, to get an idea how it worked and what features it had. If you have the time, it might be worth a peek. The only differences I could find were thickness of the unit (the 101 is thicker), colour of the unit, internal battery of the 201, and the 201 comes with the data cable / charger - 101 does not. If you are handy with a soldering iron, or know someone who is, a cable for the 101 can be built easily with radio shack parts, or you can buy online cheaply.

I'd say yes.... I bought my ForeTrex 101 as a first unit last August... I dont regret it... I've since bought 4 other units (GPS 38, 45, etrex legend, and a single board engine i'm playing with in an embedded application). I've played with a number of others.... Of them all, I still like the Foretrex best - especially for the caching and hiking i do now. Yea, the legend has topo maps loaded on it (now) - but I like my NG Topo maps on my laptop better) Its very lightweight, and since it's on my wrist, I dont have to worry about dropping it, or it hanging in my way from my neck as I"m bending over. Battery life is pretty good. I"m get over 16 hours from Rayovac alkaline (cheap) batteries, about 10 hours from radio shack nimh rechargable, only 4 hours on nicad. It seems to do very well at picking up satellites - it seems i rarely lose signal with it. I've not done any distance running for about 10 years, but I could see some uses for my foretrex if I still did. I think it would do well for that. As I understand it, the Forerunner's are better set up for running (timers and stuff). I think the foretrex might have a stopwatch function in a menu.

I love it! A Rube Goldberg if there ever was one!