Muddler

There is a work-around for the "insert disk please" issue with the Mapsend software and it has been discussed in several places here and on other forums (yahoo). It does work on both Topo 3D and Direct Route. I use a Laptop in the car and the CD issue drove me crazy till I got it fixed.

I too wanted a steel point on the end of my staff. You will need a grinder and drill to place this homemade point in the end of your staff. Go to the hardware store and purchase a "Grade 8" hex head bolt, get one with a 5/16" diameter shank. Drill a 5/16" hole in the bottom of your staff and put some Epoxy glue or polyurethane (gorilla glue) glue in the hole. screw in the bolt and let the glue set for 24 hours. Go to the grinder and sharpen the head of the bolt to a point. I did this about two years ago on a staff I made and have put a lot of miles on the staff and the bolt is still sharp and holds very well on rock. Happy Hiking!

This has been discussed before in these forums and elswhere on the Net. Yes it can be done and there are instructions out there to "alter" the exe file for Topo 3D and Direct Route. Cheers Muddler

Read this! if you want to get some great ideas on cache containers!

I went through this drill over and over until I stumbled on something that works every time for me. I have an Explorist 500 and an older Sony Laptop running XP. I have the Exp 500 attached to the LT and the software running. What I found is that I needed to switch the Exp500 to the File Transfer mode, let the computer do its "Bink-Bonk", then switch the exp500 back to the NEMA mode. There is something in this action that causes the PC to recognise the Com Port that the GPS is using. It works every time for me and up until I found this I could only get the LT to recognize the Exp500 only very rarely!!

Yep! Both of the caches I have hidden had a special FTF prize. It has met with great success I have had really good replys from the FTFers. I will do all of my future hides with a special FTF prize hidden in an offsite location.

For what it is worth, I have found several benchmarks and found that after letting the GPS set for a while ( 15 min) I got pretty close to the stated location of the BM. The EPE was down to 10 feet and I got a warm fuzzy that I could pretty well count on the readings I was seeing. I agree that there may be causes for erroneous readings but after checking several BMs, I try to believe the GPS.

For what it is worth! I have an Explorist 500, older Sony notebook and Delorme Topo 5. Originally I had problems (read, could not get the notebook to talk to the 500) but I stumbled on a way to finally get the two to talk. I am talking about using the notebook to use the 500 data to show my location on the Map. What I found was that if I started the software and then hooked up the 500 to the notebook, I could not get the notebook to recognize the 500. I had this similar problem with Mapsend DR and Topo 3D. What I found out the other day was that if I would goto the communications menue on the 500 and switch to a file transfer mode, allow the notbook recognize the 500, and then switch back to the NEMA 2.1 setting, I can connect every time to Mapsend DR, Topo 3D, and Delorme. I don't know if the 500 is initialized and starts sending data or if it resets something in the comm drivers and the notebook recognizes the data the 500 is sending. It works so I don't really care.

I think he deserves an award for the best dried arrangement! Good luck in the future, and stay away from the briars!

The MS S&T software is used on a PC and will not xfer maps to the Explorist. Using MS S&T on a laptop will allow you to connect a GPS into the computer and the software will use the output of the GPS to show you where you are on a moving map.

I may be missing something in the question, but I always thought that 180 degrees was south! Generally speaking if 0 or 360 degrees is north on a compass, then 180 is south. Now if the OP is asking what is 180 degrees from east it would be west. Maybe the OP could explain a little more as to what the 180 is referenced to, a compass or a arbitrary direction.

Try this for an explanation of the rating. ClayJar When you hide your first cache you will find this link to help you determine the difficulty ratings listed on the setup for the cache. Cheers Muddler

Found a dirty fork once! Really strange! Cheers Muddler

Natural springs and artesian wells are two different things. An "artesian well is a deep drilled well through which water is forced upward under pressure". The pressure is dirived from the pressure of the aquifer, which forces the water in the well to a level above the grounds surafce making it flow at the surface without the aid of a pumping mechanism. Springs on the outher hand are not from a well drilled into the deep aquifer. Springs are the natural flow of water at the surface caused by some natural process cutting through or exposing the water bering zone of rock or sediment. They are caused by two totally different processes and only have flowing water in common. Artesian wells are caused by acts of man, springs are caused by acts of nature. Cheers Muddler

War Eagle! 1977 Alumni Everyone need to know the location of the Eagle that flew at the Olympics! You get My Vote! Cheers Muddler

Without getting into a whole lot of geologic specifics, typically a spring is where water naturally comes to the surface. This is usually where an aquifer intersects the ground surface. I a small fashion you would call them a seep where they have significant flow in the order of tens of gallons per day you would consider them a spring. What I was wanting to categorize were springs that flow hundreds to millions of gallons per day. Florida has many. The water is crystal clear and cold. I am not looking for Waymarking springs that are considered small. Usually the larger springs have some associated history with them. Like the founding of a town Ponce de Leon, Florida, or silver springs, Florida. The history would be a very interesting sidebar to the natural beauty of the spring. Cheers Muddler

I live in a small southern town and our post office handles mail for a number of zip codes. This is true of larger cities also such as Miami, Florida. But the idea of Waymarking McDonald's when there are tons of those around and there are usually multiple in a town of any size and the town would have one PO location why would you want to limit the Waymarking of a significant Government facility that is so important to a community! To really be a town you need a post office, and you need to know its location! Cheers Muddler

Its to broad! If I go on a dove shoot and kill the limit to I give cords to each kill? Just the first? The last? What if I am hunting with a group? This gets a NO vote! Cheers Muddler

Why do you consider it broad? In the thread you referenced, they talk aboout Lamposts! How many lampposts are in your town/city? How many post offices do you think there are in each town? A lot of Cities only have one, that is pretty unique, I would not consider it broad! Cheers Muddler

The location of natural springs that have a significant flow of several hundred gallons per day. Usually these type of water sources have some history tied to them usually settlers to the area or native Americans used it as a gathering location. Some documentation or regional facts would be required. Most states register or track the conditions of these significant springs as indicators of aquifer conditions. Cheers Muddler

Every town has one and in a small town they are easy to find. But trying to located the Post Office in the City can be tough. Where is your Post Office? Cheers Muddler

C'mon tell us what ya really think! He did! Muddler

On my first hide I left the cords in the final stage of the cache to the FTF prize, which was hidden away from the final stage of the multi. Mossy Pond Cache The FTF thought it was a real bonus to get the extra stage. The FTF prize was a collapsible hiking stick. I got rave reviews. On my second Hide I left the cords to the hiding location of an LED flashlight. It was well received also. The Nellie Cache I like leaving a nice FTF prize. And I spend a lot of time on making and hiding the caches I have hidden so far. I hide what I like to find. Multi-s, Puzzles and nice SWAG. Its worth the effort and I know others will enjoy the find. Cheers Muddler

Clyde: I am looking for a way to remove the quotation marks from cache names when I export to Cachemate. I end up with about 60 files out of alphabetical sequence when sorted by cache name because they have Quote Marks as the leading character in the filename. I can get rid of most of them exporting to a GPX file then converting through "cmConvert" before going to Cachemate (there is an option in cmconvert). I have searched for quotes, quotations and quote and quotation no luck. Is this possible inside GSAK or am I just missing the option somewhere doing the export? Cheers Muddler

If you have mapping software you can plot points on the map and measure the distance between the points. In south Alabama I have found the the Latitude lines are approximately 0.12 miles per 0.1 minutes change. Longitude on the other-hand is 0.1 miles per 0.1 minutes. I use these as rules of thumb down here. Where you live will be slightly different. Latitude will stay the same as you move N & S, the lines are equidistant apart. Longitude on the other hand will decrease as you move north, the lines move closer together as you move away from the equator and toward the poles Cheers Muddler