[Geocach Etiquette]

... You cannot trade for a TB, it isn't a trade item, no matter what you put into a cache you have no right to someone else's travel bug. People who trade for TB's or think they are tradeable items simply fail to grasp an elementary aspect of this activity, every travel bug you encounter belongs to another geocacher, the geocacher who owns the TB selects the mission, .... You can't share TB's except by buying and placing your own for other geocachers to move. .....

 

huh?? when did someone assuming ownership of a TB become an issue?

 

trade = take something, leave something...

[Geocach Etiquette]

 

Slower Pace, you are right there are people out there that want to get as many TB's as possible, but I think you may be forgetting that if a TB is taken, then one should be left in it's place for the next cacher.

 

Travel bugs are not trade items, there is NO requirement that you must leave one to take one.

 

In my original post, I meant to say "but I think you may be forgetting that if a TB is taken, then one should could be left in it's place for the next cacher." I agree that there is NO requirement that you must leave one. The OP was woried that they were taking something away from the game. If they are woried, then they could put one in when they take one out.

[Geocach Etiquette]

This has probably been discussed before, ....... Anyway, what are YOUR feelings on someone visiting a cache they have already found to snatch a Travel Bug? Not far from here is a person who I feel is intent on logging travel Bugs as much as logging caches. He must have all the caches in a certain radius on his watch list. When a bug pops up he dashes off and retrieves it. He does log them and send them on their way, but in my opinion he discourages others, especially newcomers, because they seldom get a chance to find their very own Travel Bug.

....

Once I log a cache I never return and get a Travel Bug from it, even if it is a Jeep. I feel the next person who visits should have that privilege. I don't even go back to my own hides to get a bug, whether it be a Jeep or rare Geocoin. Am I shortchanging myself? ....

quote edited for length.

 

Slower Pace, you are right there are people out there that want to get as many TB's as possible, but I think you may be forgetting that if a TB is taken, then one should be left in it's place for the next cacher. I am sure your local hound has done this and is not hoarding EVERY TB they have found. With this in mind, then no "shortchanging" should occur. I have revisited a cache to grab a TB that I wanted, and traded evenly. Trading removes any guilt that I may have. But I am not a TB hound. So what if you have been there before!! The fun it moving TB's is just that: FUN. I believe you are shortchanging yourself, no guilt is required.

[funny cache]

Just found one in the Edisto Beach area, near Charleston SC that was a crackup.

 

There just happened to be two big & evenly spaced large knots on a tree about 6' high. Someone made a female's bra-top to place over them, tied a grass skirt beneath and got some face pieces (plactic lips, eyes & nose) to nail on the tree above . . . cache name had to do with 'Beach Babe' . . . funny stuff!!!

 

It faced oncoming traffic and had an ammo can nearby . . . I must dupe this somewhere.

 

I would love to see a pic of that.

[Caches Below Grade...]

I have done many caches that were below grade. Some were easily gotten to by moving leaves or other debris off the cache with a hand swipe. I've definitly seen the fake sprinkler heads and the fake termite traps. The most elaborate was an ammo box below grade surrounded by concrete blocks to form a nice little bunker with a cammo cover on the spot ..... and this was obviously dug by someone who may or may not have been the actual cache owner.

The important thing is that I have never needed a shovel to find a cache! ImpalaBob

 

Agreed!

 

I believe the intent of the rule is that we should not be out there with a shovel & axe trying to find caches, digging everywhere, like in the movie "Holes." It is not right to dig up the ground looking for the cache.

 

 

It should be acceptable to hide a portion of the cache below ground level as long as the finder is not required to move dirt to find / access / read / sign the cache.

[How Many Ftf For The Month Of May 2006?]

I have never had a FTF and I doubt I could ever say that I ONLY had 4 FTF's for the month.

[Caribbean Maps For Garmin]

Thanks all.

 

I will try the maps and see how helpful they are. The trip is in June and I will post a response when after I make the trip.

 

teald024

[Caribbean Maps For Garmin]

I have a garmin GPS. Does anyone know where I can find detailed maps of the Caribbean / St. Lucia?

 

I am planning a trip in the next few months and would love to have more than a big black blob. The standard BaseMap that came with the unit shows my hotel out in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Teald024

[Outstanding Geocaching Picture]

Marge... What am I going to do with this guy?? I though I told you to call the guy who can part water!! I already KNOW where the stupid cache is.

[Snow Caching]

I agree with 'the hermit crabs.' It all depends on the cache. I had 2 DNF's for a cache last summer/fall. It seems that the dense leave cover above, heavy brush and leaves on the ground make it impossible for me to see. Once the snow came, it make it easy to spot the large pile of sticks/leaves the cache was under.

 

The camo'ed box might also stand out more against the (generally) white snow.

 

I would imagine that micros in the woods would be difficult in the snow if placed at ground level. The couple I have done were hidden above snow level.

 

teald024

[U.s. Gpsr In Europe?]

There are no issues. This is why is it a GLOBAL Positioning System reciever. I have used my in Japan, U.K. and the Netherlands.

 

Only thing to remember, Latitude lines increase ABOVE zero as you go East in the Eastern Hemishere. The GPSr knows this, but may seem backwards to the operator.

 

California is W121 (-121) , NY is W072 (-72)

Netherlands are E005 (+005) , India is E073 (+073)

 

Cache away....

 

Opps, my bad.

 

I meant to say "Longitude lines increase ABOVE zero as you go East in the Eastern Hemishere."

 

I also had no issues with overhead sats. They were spread out just as I see them here in the States.

 

Teald024

[How Do They Map Coordinates To Named Locations?]

For purposes of mapping addresses, that information generally comes from the US Census. It's not coordinate-based, however.

Think of an intersection as a dot, and each road connecting dots as a link. What you might see on Google Earth as "1st Street" is actually a whole bunch of those links connected together. Now each of these links has information on the lowest and highest house numbers on each side of the road. For example:

 

300 O===============O 386

 

So the numbers on one side of this imaginary link go from 300 to 386. What most mapping software does is if you're looking for, say, 340, it'll just mathematically guess where that is (that is, it'll go 40/86 of the way from 300 to 386).

 

The simply answer is that for most of the country, specific coordinate data doesn't really exist. For the most part, local land boundaries and such are tied locally and not globally.

 

SLer

 

Edit: Clarification

Thanks Shorelander. I understand what you're saying about segments between nodes. There still has to be a process that knows what businesses /homes/etc lie between the points on the line segment. I can't figure out how my software knew that JB's grill was on the corner of an intersection. Google earth can take addresses and map them. There has to be some database for correlation.

T

 

Your GPSr knows the address of "JB's grill" is 340 Main Street, Anytown, Any State. It finds the address just the same way as if you were looking for the address and then chooses the best route to get you there. the Software also knows that even numbers are on one side of the street and odd numbers on the other.

 

My maping softeware (Garmin City Select NA), has Point of Interest names, addresses and phone numbers all stored on the DVD. When I download the data onto the GPSr, the same is saved for future reference.

 

teald024

[U.s. Gpsr In Europe?]

There are no issues. This is why is it a GLOBAL Positioning System reciever. I have used my in Japan, U.K. and the Netherlands.

 

Only thing to remember, Latitude lines increase ABOVE zero as you go East in the Eastern Hemishere. The GPSr knows this, but may seem backwards to the operator.

 

California is W121 (-121) , NY is W072 (-72)

Netherlands are E005 (+005) , India is E073 (+073)

 

Cache away....

[What Do You Do...]

I am a Mechanical Engineer by education working in the technical sales dept of my company.

[Just Wanna Show Off My Cans]

very nice paint job. looks like the camo that hunters wear . Painted on so it wont slip off like cloth will.

[How Do U Use Your Gps?]

I originally bought it to use with my quad in the trails. Found Geocaching when searching out the unit I wanted to buy. Now I use it much more frequently to cache and getting me to unknown places in the car.

[test my avator]

test 01

[City Select V7]

I live in a very populated area near Albany, NY. About a year ago, there was some construction done to change the location of the roads to put in a Shopping Plaza. The roads showed correctly, but the location of the businesses was on the older main road, not on the new Plaza road. You would still be able to find them using the routing feature, but not take you to the front door.

[Legend - Topo Vs Metroguide Software]

I have an eTREX Legend C. All below information is based on Mapsource products.

 

With the base map provided with the GPSr, the Auto-routing feature work for Major interstate highways.

 

I pruchased Topo for the US and the Auto-routing capabilities did not change. The GPSr did not regonize the road data with the Topo maps as available roads. They were just shown on the map.

 

I then pruchased City Select North America v7. The Auto-routing capabilities are awsome and can be done both in the PC and on the fly in the GPSr. The routing feature works the same as any online website like Google or Mapquest.

 

Basically it comes down to preference:

Topo if you want topo lines and non-routable road maps

Metro or City Select if you want routable maps and buisness details (addresses)

 

hope this helps.

[City Select V7]

I just installed City Select North America v7 on my computer (with XP). The software comes on a DVD so a DVD drive is required. Apparently with DVD ROM's being more populiar now, Garmin didn't feel the need to provide the data on 3 CD's. I also had to buy the DVD writer that I had been putting off.

 

If I remember correctly, the HD space requirement was 1.6 Gb actual space. The install puts all maps and software on your computer.

 

As a side note, when you install multiple Mapsource products on your computer, you need to select which one you want to use after you open Mapsource. There should be a drop-down menu. You can not view Topo data and City Select data at the same time.

 

hope this helps.