just B0B

I bought a 76CS in the summer of 2005. I selected it over the 60CS for its Marine Database and larger internal memory. I reasoned that performance would be equal since both had the same electronics and antenna. This was a BAD assumption. The 76 was worthless in any kind of tree cover (or even laying on the front seat of the car). It is fun to see all the nav aids on the screen as you motor into a Cribbean Island harbor, but the 76 is worthless on land without an external patch antenna. At $450, it has been an expensive Earthmate.

I propose adding a "Discovered It" option for logging geocaches. Caches logged with this option would not increment the member's "Found" counter, but would otherwise be treated as a "Finds" when running PQ's or searching for "Nearest Caches I Haven't Found" and so on. This constructive twist to the "Play the Game as You See Fit" chant would allow cacher's to opt out of the "number's" game and play on without the burden of having to manually keep up with what caches had been visited and discovered. (and would instantly make "Discovered It" players better than all the numbers hogs )

1. Perhaps for the sake of being "clever" N038° 67.118' is an alternate way of expressing N039° 07.118' or 2. Could the offending "6" have actually been "Ø" Making the coordinate N038° Ø7.118' ? A more educated guess could be make if I knew the coordinates of the first stage.

Home office is in the US of A, so they'd probably prefer $30 U.S. (sorry to hear the news about the Crock Hunter)

For quicker and better help, include the cache waypoint next time! ------>The Land Before Time GCGXRW From the ICON on your log it appears that you posted a reviewer note. As noted above, use the 'Update Coordinates" log selection. The resulting post will have a ICON that is a yellow square with a green triangle in the lower left corner pointing towards a red bullseye in the upper right corner. (And the coordinates will change at the top of the cache listing. Moves are limited to 0.1 mile or 528 feet or 0.174 minutes. (Your's moved about 127 ft according to my map SW, so you are well within the limits.)

Looking at the finds on nearest 80 caches in the area, it looks like the caching pace down your way is pretty slow right now. People tend to have more time to cache on the weekend, and even then, school has just started back (or is about to) and therefore time for caching is at a premium for a lot of people right now. I would suggest that you: 1. Be patient. 2. See what happens over the weekend. 3. Post a maintenance note saying there will be a 5 dollar bill in the cache as a FTF prize.

Great concept, however the abstract analogy appears lost on some folks here. One question before I commit: Are you talking regular sized frisbees or those lame little 1 inch diameter jobbies? (Edited twice for spelling)

I did a little "geo forensics" and I see that your first cache has a unique container, an interesting cache name and is hidden just off a rural road next to a stream. Two of the first 3 finders complemented the unusual container. It sounds like you are on the right track to me! A word or two about micros. They are not "bad" for geocaching, however meaningless lame hides HAVE given micros a bad name. With that said, first and foremost, don't hide a micro in an area that will adequately accomodate a regular sized cache. If you apply the same techniques to a micro hide then it will likely be well received. Find a meaningful location that someone from across town or from out of town might not know exists, like a city park, historic marker, trail head for a new trail, a veterans park or war memorial or a museum. With a location identified, find a good hiding spot that will support a unique container. Unique can be a fabricated item, a hide a key rock, a ornamental frog from a garden shop, a painted bison tube hanging from fake ivy on a fence; use your imagination. Hide one at the local WalMart but PLeeeeze, not a film can under a lamp skirt! Make it interesting and put it in a high muggle area so it is a challenge to retrieve and replace. What is "redeeming" about a WalMart hide? It makes it easy for out of towners to find the place AND it gives traveling geocachers a quick fix (especially important if they are saddled with a carload of geocaching adverse grumps.) Regardless of what you hide, be creative in your selection of locations and cache containers, place the hide and use the comments and feedback from your finders to gauge the quality of the hide.

There are only so many hours in the day, so I figure the ornery forum "Gurus" with tens of thousands of posts here probably know little or nothing about actually FINDING a cache, and are simply subject matter experts on forum postings. Ignore 'em, they long ago forgot what they learned in kindergarten about good manners.

That seems odd. I would suggest contacting other cachers in your area and asking if they have similar results. 75 feet seems like an excessive error in elevation unless you are up against a cliff where you are not seeing a full complement of satellites. I can tell you that indicated elevations at sea level along the East and Gulf Coasts are typically right on the money.

Some mapping software allows you to change the format in which Lat/Long are displayed. Look under "Options" or "Edit" or search the "Help" database within the mapping software. If this is not an option, you will have to convert the decimal portion of each coordinate from decimal minutes to seconds. To perform the conversion to seconds, multiply the decimal minutes times 60 by example 34° 21.333' becomes 34° 21' 20"

I still want to know why there isn't an "Ignore Cacher" button to clique on? Erik and MtnMan were reviewers for Alabama when I got started with caching. Out of 30 hides, I never had a problem getting a cache approved. I followed the guidelines as I understood them and included enough info in the note to reviewer to explain any potential conflicts. I guess I was in a "click" and didn't even know it!

Sorry about that. I'm new and want to sign up for premium, and I'm willing to do the annual thing, but I'd like to take advantage of the non-recurring offer, but both buttons perform the same transaction according to the paypal site. Go ahead and sign up for a year via Paypal. Once you have signed up you can go back into your Paypal account, look under "history", find the subscription and cancel the automatic renewal.. All of this is explained in the course of signing up for your premium membership and is really straight forward.

Actually the practice of signing cache containers originated here in North Alabama, as evidenced by the following log entry from A Shocking Experience #4 (GCMMRH) ======================================================================== March 3, 2005 by wesleykey (xxxx found) Found the container. What a sneaky hide! I lacked the needed "stuff" required to open the container. So, I signed the container. TFTC!!======================================================================== The cache was a plastic electrical disconnect box on a utility pole with a 3 tumbler luggage lock on it. The combo was hidden in plain sight on the cache page, however this cacher prides himself for not reading cache page descriptions and hints. Said cacher now holds the uncontested RECORD for having the bumper on his Toyota pickup truck signed with a Sharpie at every event he attends! edited to add picture

Allow me to quickly point out, the "Pocket Caches" Ed refers to are different from the Pocket caches being discussed in this thread. The caches Ed is referring more closely align to temporary event caches and are in no way associated with active or archived GC approved caches. They are no more than a film canister or other small container with a log. The finds are logged against the Event page, by those who choose to. Others log a note or don't log at all. It is definitely a regional thing. Across the state line in drat19 country it is highly frowned on, along with logging other forms of temporary event caches. To be honest, logging pocket caches was what I was introduced to as a newbie. As I approached my 1000th find (probably 250 "Journey" caches, 750 micros - SUE ME), I rethought my position and purged my inventory of 50 or so "questionable or weak" finds. I did this purge strictly for my own satisfaction and confidence in my numbers. I did NOT do so to appear "BETTER" than anyone else and dang sure didn't do it because I was concerned about "Cheapening" someone else's statistics. Despite the fact that the TENOR of your post sounds like it's meant to be a direct personal attack against me (as opposed to a respectful difference of opinion), the spirit of the CONTENT of your post actually sounds pretty good to me. I read your post as follows: You DO care about your stats, you DO care about the integrity of those stats, and you DON'T care what anyone but yourself thinks of them. As long as we don't play the stat-comparision game (in which case my post-mid'04 comments would surely arise) (and I'm entitled to my opinion as much as you are to yours), I say seriously, non-sarcastically, and respectfully: CACHE ON. No personal attack on you or any individual was intended! I would make the observation however, that standards of acceptable behavior vary by region, so comparing your accomplishments to those in other areas is like comparing apples to oranges. Allowing raw numbers to raise your blood pressure is just silly. I am sure your cache count (hell, I haven't looked, I don't even know what it is) represents more effort expended than my 1190 some odd finds. It also means that your journeys took you to many more noteable, remarkable and rewarding locations than the many WalMarts, Guardrails, Cracker Barrels, STOP signs and Cedar trees that I visited along the way. Wouldn't you think it silly of me if I were to resent your good fortune? For the record, until the guidelines dictate otherwise, I will continue to log temporary event caches as finds when that is the intent of the event owner. I tell you this so you can decrement your opinion of my cache count by whatever degree that makes you happy. As stated before, I am not going to lose any sleep over it (and really wish you wouldn't either). Don't get me wrong. I don't endorse the logging shennagans that some folks engaged in at the recent event. Activities and behaviors that violate the widely accepted interpretation of the GUIDELINES should be discouraged and frowned upon. As for CACHE ON, a new regular size cache (actually significantly larger than an ammo box) was listed near my neighborhood this morning as I was walking out the door for work. It is in the woods. On the side of a mountain. Off of the trail. Amid poison ivy, chiggers, ticks, amongst rocks known to harbor mountain rattlers. Luck for me it is only 600 feet or so from my front door, so I am going to go now and get it. I expect it will be just as much fun as the creative micro I found on the way home yesterday. If I develop a case of poison ivy, I am pretty sure it will not have been from the micro!

Allow me to quickly point out, the "Pocket Caches" Ed refers to are different from the Pocket caches being discussed in this thread. The caches Ed is referring more closely align to temporary event caches and are in no way associated with active or archived GC approved caches. They are no more than a film canister or other small container with a log. The finds are logged against the Event page, by those who choose to. Others log a note or don't log at all. It is definitely a regional thing. Across the state line in DRAT19 country it is highly frowned on, along with logging other forms of temporary event caches. To be honest, logging pocket caches was what I was introduced to as a newbie. As I approached my 1000th find (probably 250 "Journey" caches, 750 micros - SUE ME), I rethought my position and purged my inventory of 50 or so "questionable or weak" finds. I did this purge strictly for my own satisfaction and confidence in my numbers. I did NOT do so to appear "BETTER" than anyone else and dang sure didn't do it because I was concerned about "Cheapening" someone else's statistics.

Haven't seen anyone in these threads from Alabama that has appeared shocked OR surprised. That should tell you something...

Groundspeak could just offer the requested options rather than leaving numerous users in the position of inventing their own cumbersome work-arounds or suggesting that users launch lose - lose battles with corporate IT policy makers.

I recommend getting an ISP that does not filter ZIP files. Need a g-mail invite? I work for an agency which shall remain nameless for purposes of this discussion. The agency does indeed block "Zip" files. They also block access to open mail systems such as yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc. I use my agency email account because instant notifications and all other mail are forwarded to my Blackberry 24/7. I find this to be quite useful, for obvious reasons. Sure, I can run the query somewhere other than work, and hopefully I will remember to burn off a little bandwidth at gc.com swapping email accounts (and doing the account validation hokie pokie each time) but it seems like it would make good sense to offer a little bit of flexibility to the feature instead.

The new Pocket Query feature allowing you to get a PQ of your finds once a week is unavailabe to users whose ISP filters .zip files. Need the option of selecting file format (i.e. full file, not zipped) or the option of specifying and alternate email address for the PQ. As it is now, I have to change my email address under my profile so I can receive the PQ, then change it back to my normal account. If I forget to change addresses, I have to wait a week to get it right. How about a fix for this problem?

I propose a Waymarking subcategory under "Vehicles" entitled "Muscle Cars Wasting Away" The subcategory requirement would be to locate high performance cars from the '50's through '70's that are sitting in barns, cow pastures, backyards, in the woods, etc, waiting to be recovered and restored.

Almost went a week once! I am obviously not "Master of my Domain". I guess that's why I have 8 caches titled "KRAMER! Where'd You Park the Car?"

What was the question again? Somewhere in the thread it was suggested that micros equate to low quality. Bull. As a frequent business traveler, micros have taken me to neat city parks, landmarks, old cemeteries, historic sites, museums - the list goes on and on. That's not to say that I haven't been disgusted by an afternoon of urban caching in which 15 of 20 finds were found under a lamp post skirt or a candy tin under a trash can holder at a bus stop or city park - but even then I did find a nice park in a strange city. These "lame" finds simply inspired some personal groundrules for the micros I hide: #1 NO micros under a lamp skirt! #2 See #1. #3 Series can be great with one simple rule - every hide has to be different from the others. If your city has 10 WalMarts, find 10 different hiding spots (and the more muggles, the better). #4 Use micros to highlight areas of local interest. I get hits all the time from locals and out of towners, saying thanks for bringing me here. #5 Hide a few micros in the woods for the poison ivy/snake bite junkies. #6 I've hidden several micros and traditionals close to far reaching trail hides specifically designed to draw more people to a seldom visited site. Bottom line, use you imagination and set a good example by hiding challenging, creative caches - and write a good 1st person posting narative to promote them. Just my 2 cents.