Borst68

Celtic Rock? Have you ever listened to the Killdares? I have heard of the band but have not heard their music. I'm sure we'll catch them some day at a concert/festival. Bands in heavy rotation on the iPod. Great Big Sea, Enter the Haggis, Gaelic Storm, Saw Doctors and Carbon Leaf (although they aren't really Celtic, they get lumped in and they do play many Irish festivals). There are some other Celtic bands that get a little play on the iPod.

I saw a TB log recently where the goal was to placed in a certain cache in Wisconsin. It started out in Arizona, moved to Texas, Colorado and eventually to Wisconsin but not to the desired cache. Then it was dropped off in Maryland. It made its way south and eventually back to Arizona. I guess if you are going to launch a TB, you have to have a sense of humor about it. Its like a message in a bottle cast into the sea. You may want it go to the Bahamas but it could end up in Iceland. Just like poster above with the Geocoin in Portugal...

I have a Garmin Dakota 20 on the way. I purchased a 2 gb micro SD card for it. There are larger HD cards available but they are SDHC (high capacity, IIRC). I have heard that some electronics that use SD cards will not work with a SDHC. Does anyone know if SDHC cards will work in a Dakota 20? Does the average geocacher need more than 2 gb? I don't plan on having too many maps on it at once but will have NY and probably a Canadian map. TIA and happy caching!

ETA: Here's a good place to start: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=230083 On Garmin's web site you can compare the features of many of their GPSr.

I am new to this also. I have been using Blackstar on my Blackberry for the first 5 finds. I tried to go out last Sunday and it would not connect to a satellite. Despite considerable effort on my part, I couldn't get it to work. I decided a "real" GPSr was a good idea. I looked over this forum and the many threads and recommendations. There are plenty of good opinions here and good information. I settled on the Garmin Dakota 20. Many cachers like it and use it. The Oregon series are also nice but pricier. They have better screen resolution but many find the Dakota 20 easier to read in sunlight. It has most of the same features the Oregons have. The Oregon 550 has a camera but I didn't feel I needed that. The BB has one and my wife usually carries a better one anyway. I wanted to get something beyond entry level (my Blackberry was that...) that I would not outgrow quickly while not spending a small fortune. The Dakota was $315 all said and done, which I felt was a decent price and provided some decent bang for the buck. YMMV and happy caching!

Looks like he listened! Replaced the cache and log the day after my visit (3 days after maintenance request).

As you can tell, I'm new at this... I didn't look back far enough in the history log to see the second NM. The CO hasn't been around since 4/2009. Looks like that should be archived or adopted.

We have visited a couple of caches in our area that leaked badly. The log book and entire contents was soaked. We managed to sign on in an index card we supplied. We emptied out the standing water and put the contents back. Obviously the CO needs to replace the log and correct the leaking issue. Both of the caches were visited two days prior to our visit and the finder logged a maintenance request for the cache. We logged it as found but did not log a maintenance request since someone else had already done so. What is the etiquette for this situation? If someone logs a maintenance request is it necessary to log another one two days later? If it goes weeks or months without remediation I think a second maintenance request would be in order but two days doesn't seem like enough time. Thoughts?

The ipod is loaded with mostly Celtic Rock and obscure bands no one has heard of. We listen to it in the car. I have been very successful in getting my daughters (9 & 12) to listen to stuff other than Hannah Montana and the Jonas Bros. Some may claim Irish drinking songs is not a fair trade but disagree.

There is a thread about the new BSA Geocaching merit badge here. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=238436 Happy caching!

Thanks for your replies. I did get it work correctly (I'm not in Lake Michigan anymore). I tuned off the cell connection for a few minutes and then reconnected. Then I started up BlackStar. At first it had trouble finding satellites. My wife and I went for a walk and it connected once we got to the end of the street. The location and altitude were correct. Hopefully this doesn't become a recurring problem Thanks to everyone who replied.

I DID NOT find the cache. You can't see ANYTHING at the bottom of Lake Michigan at 131 mph!

Greetings all. New to Geocaching and the world of GPS. I am using the Blackstar GPS application on my Blackberry Storm. I went out for the first time over the weekend with my daughter. Despite heavy cloud cover and rain, Blackstar behaved admirably. It got us very close to where the cache was hidden. Today I went out by myself. Beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. Blackstar was TOTALLY off. If found 3 to 4 satellites but had my longitude off by 8 degrees!. In stead of locating me near Buffalo NY, it put me in the middle of Lake Michigan. It had me 391 miles away from waypoint (which would be correct if I was in the middle of L. Michigan). It had me 600 ft below sea level (bottom of L. Michigan.) It also clocked me coasting down on sidewalk on my bike at 131 mph. When I got home, I did 171 mph between the kitchen and living room (bet I could get that power trail in the Mojave done real quick...) Obviously something is amiss. I exited Blackstar several times and had it reacquire the satellites but that had no effect. Is this a regular occurrence with GPS systems or am I just lucky (or REALLY fast)? Is this only an issue with Blackberry and/or Blackstar (buy are real GPS cheapskate!)? Any hints or tips is greatly appreciated. Scorn, ridicule or humor is also welcome. TIA and happy caching!

Hi Janet, Don't be discouraged. You'll find some eventually. I went out for the first time last weekend with my daughter. We had 5 cashes selected that were not far from the house. Two are not there anymore. Two more we couldn't find. We finally got one on the fifth and final try of the day. Despite our poor track record and the cold/rain, my daughter and I had a great time. We'll be back out this weekend for sure. The advice of looking for bigger (non-micro) caches is great advice. All the ones we looked for were micros. One that we missed is a magnet on a pole. These are much harder to find. Going with something easier is great advice.

Thanks for the advice!

Greetings all, I am new at this Geocaching/benchmarking thing. My question is on intersection benchmarks (spires, towers, et.al). From the FAQ.. My question is, what do I do with the picture once I have taken it? I looked for an option to upload a photo when logging a benchmark but I could not find one. Just not sure of the procedure for this. TIA