sbukosky
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Posts posted by sbukosky
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The #1 use of a PDA is to carry cache pages and hints with you. Become a premium user and you will have that function enabled. The software needed is free at Mobipocket.com
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Oh you will get suggestions! This question has been asked many times. I'm on my second one now and it is a Garman V. I think that is about the current top featured unit for off road and on road. My first, and I still have it, was a Garman eMap. I like having road maps and the Garmin V does automatic road directions. There are other less expensive units but none have the road direction capability of the V. If you don't care about that feature, the Garmin 76 seems to be a well liked, new model.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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I blew out my serial card twice so decided to try a USB to serial adapter. It gets tempermental and I often have to reboot things to get the GPS and program to communicate. Where it really fails is with loading maps. I'm able to load one map and maybe two. I can't get more than that to load. I'm told that the USB adapter won't allow firmware upgrades either.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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But generally speaking, I like caches to be off trail enough to be out of sight of the trail. I don't worry about ''volunteer trails'' provided the area is not a sensitive area.
I think some people are troubled by many park rules stating to stay on the trails. Holding to that rule would pretty much eliminate most conventional caches and limit you to either a micro cache or virtual cache. I was just on one today that is in a nature trail park and the cache was located only a foot or two off the walkway. Not much of a problem in the middle of January here, but what about when the weather warms and more people are around to see someone with the cache? I suspect that within two years, just about every kind of park will have rules for geocaching.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Considering my other hobbys, I don't have much money tie up with this. But, the cost of gasoline does become a consideration. While I needed a new car anyway, I bought a Subaru Forester because of my desire for AWD but still get 20+ MPG. Also, if you do frequent, quality hides, that gets to be some money too.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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This oneHas baffled many cachers. After I found it, I took a friend there. After he gave up looking for it, I pointed to it and he still had trouble determining it to be a cache, even though it was clear out in the open. Don't want to give it away but it remains a good one!
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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You might have a blown out serial port or ports. If you've done any ''hot'' connections or disconnections with the serial port, it is likely blown. I've had that happen twice and am using a USB adapter now, but it is a real PITA. Can't use it for loading maps. Actually it will work for one or maybe two map sections but never have I gotten it to work for the whole memory load. Only for uploading and downloading waypoints and tracks.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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The Garmin V is my second GPSR. Fantastic unit. I've looked at other brands and nothing comes close. When you experience the autorouting, you won't ever want to be without it. The only grumble you'll hear from owners is the smallish amount of memory and the need for loading detail maps more often that one would like to on a trip. An annoying but minor complaint.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Was there a fence or No Tresspassing signs at reasonable distances along the road? If not, I see it as public land. Further, ''stepping on my soap box'', I see ALL land as public land. God didn't deed it to individuals or families. If someone purchases the right to hoard a parcel of the earth to themselves from the collective public, they must fence it off or otherwise make it clear by signs that its their own piece of earth, as long as they pay their taxes, and nobody else dare set foot on it. Of course, the collective public bullied some others off of it first. ''stepping off of soap box''
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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The suggestion to let the unit sit and stabilize for a few minutes is good. Though, you can sometimes see those coordinates swing around. Sometimes the cache is under cover where a good reading is hard to get. Here I will step out into the open to get a good reading and compare the distance and direction the GPS reads to my actual distance and bearing from it. I will then adjust my north and south coordinates until I'm happy with the results. But, for situations where a good reading is hard to obtain, a good clue is in order.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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I've haven't used a walking stick but on occasion have used a branch for a little bit of steadiness. An old injury flared up a few weeks ago and rather than miss some hunting, I grabbed my old cane that I used during rehab. Found that it really helps to have that turn in the handle for hooking on trees and such when ascending and decending hills. It must look rather hokey, this big,old guy in the woods with a backpack and a cane! Time to find the right walking stick!
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Wow! My head is spinning! Thanks for the response!
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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I'm not a fan of anonymous email and make no secret about my name or address. So, when I get an email through geocaching.com, I just hit reply and too often there is no reply address and it gets eaten by geocaching.com. So someone wants to not send their email address? Ok, but lets make it default to sending it and make those not wanting to send it have to check the box. Please.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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True to the sport? I think virtual caches are a valid pastime but not a cache in the true sense of the word. You will get a variety of opinions but suffice it to point out that they are accepted here. IMHO, if a cache of any physical kind can be placed nearby an attraction, I think it should be done. But that is only my opinion. I have a few virtuals that I've sponsored myself.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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quote:
Originally posted by Cavess:The act also states that "the specific location of a significant cave may not be made available to the public". This includes GPS coordinates.
There's something scary in that. Oh well, of the few caves in western Wisconsin, I have been on the lookout for new ones, though I'm sure any are on private land. If I find one, as long as I don't do a Floyd Collins, I'll let you know first and promise not to make it a cache.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Going down the list of messages, I have yet to see any geocache vs cave damage example. What does a bunch of kids vandalizing a cave have to do with geocaching? Its sounding more like cavers don't want ANYBODY in their area.
If it is dislike of geocaching because it is bringing more people into remote places, it is only going to increase. One good thing I see happening with geocaching is that as more and more people partake of it, public land managers will be forced to accomidate us taxpayers wanting to visit our land.
Whoever owns the land at a cave entrance will have to deal with protecting it. Placing blame on geocachers as a whole only invites someone to become indignant and do something stupid in retaliation.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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quote:
Originally posted by Capn_Skully:I have read all the disclaimmers about dangers and other aspects of caching. In the past two days I have come across two cache sites I am not really happy about the danger aspect.
From your profile,''I have ideas for some great boat only caches!''
Some of us are not too keen on boat only caches. This is indeed, special equipment and greatly reduces the teams that are able to access it. My point is that it all depends on whose ox is being gored. Live and let live and let the logs reflect the quality and opinions of a cache.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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I think it is safe to say that most geocachers prefer to be inconspicuous. I'm not fond of poking around for a cache where many people can see me. While I have gone on some urban caches where I had to poke around in bushes and such, it is not the area of choice.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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I still find myself wishing for features that have been discussed in the past. It would be nice to have a list of suggestions posted and have administration mark each with something showing that the idea will be worked on or won't be worked on or whatever.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Looks like all the non-answers are a resounding "no".
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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As most everyone has said, it depends. I've gone back several times and spend several hours looking for one that I knew was there and was intended to be a very big challenge. Others, most recently today, I've given up after ten minutes or so because it was in a location that was too urban and had a high probability of being MIA. Oh, and the hint sucked!
After having a few hundred finds under my belt, I find that the preparation and the journey often are more pleasurable than the find.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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In no particular order:
Camera - digital if possible
Binoculars
Compass with sight
PDA loaded with cache data
LED flashlight
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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Midwest Express has approved using GPSR's enroute. However, a flight attendant saw mine and said I couldn't use it. I turned it off, not wanting to make any reason for the air marshal to ruin my life.
In the future, when entering the plane, I will show it to whatever officer is greeting people, get approval, and make sure an attendant is watching.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
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We've got two topics going here and both are interesting. I've asked local cachers about the problem with an area being pretty much saturated with caches and for those with a few hundred finds, that amounts to driving for a few hours just to get somewhere to find a new cache.
About a year ago, I placed one in a park and soon someone placed two more there. Some locals were concerned about this, though I wasn't. My cache went MIA after a fair amount of finds, so last weekend I put another cache in the park but in a different area. Seems like some people are happy to have something new to hunt. My point is that while there may be lots of caches in an area, if you've found them all, you're going to wish that there were more. My question is how do we manage this situation and keep things interesting and of good quality?
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin
distance ettiqute
in How do I...?
Posted
Locally it seems pretty well accepted that we like new caches to take us to new areas. Once the area becomes saturated and many hunters have found the caches, then it would be good to add to a park or area, but in a different area. For example, a park has an old cache on the north side so place the new one well away from that one so someone returning will travel through new area.
Steve Bukosky N9BGH
Waukesha Wisconsin