Blaidd-Drwg

OK, as a retired Artillery NCO (13C), with a four year stint in the light infantry (11C), I used the UTM system regularly. For plotting points on a paper map, the UTM system can't be beat (IMO). However for Geocaching, I guess it just doesn't matter to me. I use EasyGPS to load the caches in my GPSr and select the waypoint by using the 'go to nearest' function. I then follow the arrow to the area and 'Voila' there is the cache. I've recently changed my display to 'statue'. Being the cronologically impaired individual that I am, I'm still more comfortable in feet and miles. That's what my car odometer reads in, so I just find it easier to use. So I guess what I'm saying is that if a person has to have a paper map, then UTM is probably the way to go, otherwise since I'm only going a few miles and to a single point (most of the time), it just doesn't matter.

I feel really stupid. I'm always up for a math problem, but when I look at the cache page, all I see are the place-holder coords. I don't see any other coords or vectors. Where are they, or do we have to be really smart and come up with them on our own?

From the Team Madog compound,(near zip 73017) there is 1 cache at 4.6mi (<5mi), 6 total at 10 miles, 18 total at 20 miles (I still have two of them to find), 42 caches at 30 miles, and 315 at 50 miles. Since I normally drive 37 miles each way to work, driving 50 miles for a good cache hunt is no big deal, even in these days of $1.85 gas

I'm not heading out there, but I was there in January. I would highly recommend the following virtual: Most interesting Virtual in Phoenix My wife and I got a big kick out of this one.

OK, throwing in my $0.02. As I recently upgraded to WiFi within my house, here goes. When your system detects a WiFi connection, if you are running XP, a box will say to click here to connect. Clicking on the box will cause a window to open showing the WiFi net name. Highlight the name and click connect. You should then be able to cruise the internet. Of course this is easier said than done. There are a number of things which may keep you from connecting. First is the SSID of the WiFi spot. This is a name, and if it isn't broadcast, then you can't connect, unless someone tells you the name. Another potential preclusion is the use of WEP or WPA. These are encryption routines and again, unless you know the code, you can't get in. I too, live in a rural area and recently got a satellite hookup for my internet service. I then set up a home WiFi network that enables all of the computers in my house to access the internet, allows sharing of files between systems and allows all systems to use a single printer. But in answer to your initial query, the first part of this diatribe is all you need to know.

As a retired army SFC (E-7), I often used a PLGR while in Korea. Now as a US Army civilian employee, I recently had the opportunity to take a few civilian contractors with me to Kuwait for participation in and support of OEF/OIF. While at the CONUS Replacement Center (CRC) at Fort Benning, GA, I took an opportunity to educate the contractors on the fine art of using a yellow ETREX. Our organization had purchased several to aide in our navigation, once in the desert. I managed to get them to understand all of the entry and use options and then took them out for a small land-nav course. The first bad habit I had to break them of was ignoring the roads and paths and following the 'go to' arrow. Bad habit number two was, not marking the start point. I did make one mistake during my training of my fellow travelors. I told them that the GPS was more than accurate enough to get us to within 30 meters and when we were in the desert we should be able to locate a military unit, when 1000 meters away. How wrong I was. Once we got into the desert, there were times, where you could not see a mile square area of vehicles due to the blowing dust, and in fact, without the 30 meter accuracy you couldn't find the location. However, practice with Geo-Caching is a great way to train for many military type missions.

Thanks for the responses. I guess I'll keep looking, and hopefully someone will come up with an answer some day.

OK, I've got my new copy of TOPO USA 5.0. Can anyone out there tell me a way to take a GPX or LOC file and bring it into TOPO. I know that you can transfer the points to a GPSr and then from the GPSr bring them into TOPO, but I'm looking for a way to accomplish this without having to hook up cables. I'm just lazy and the only thing I want to bend over to grab from my easy chair is another cold drink. Also since I'm lazy, please give specifics. For instance, if you tell me to use Babel, then please tell me which output formats to use.

Another interesting site that discusses updating the firmware is http://www.geocities.com/etrexkb/ This site tells you how you can alter some of the text screens to show your own information. I've done this process on both a yellow etrex and on a Vista, both without any problems.

I sometimes have a similar problem, and it seems to be when the batteries are getting low. Changing the batteries seems to cure the sympton.

My meager finds. When I get to a system that will let me access it, I'll add the GB sites. Never mind, I will try this later.

This is a test of adding a jpg in the middle of text <p> <img src="http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/thumb/6a0a1aad-830c-4eb4-bb19-6651601e868b.jpg" </p> This is only a test. If this had been a true emergency, you would have been directed to some other silly place

I purchased a USB to Serial adapter at Radio Shack. It was in the $30 plus range. It seems to work fine with my laptop, which is running XP Pro. The only problem is if I have hotsync for my PDA (Tungsten E) enabled during startup. This causes a Com port conflict. The USB-Serial adapter picks Comm port 5 for my GPS and this is also the port for the PDA, no matter which USB port I plug into. So when I receive the error message from easygps, that it can't find the GPS, the first thing I check is to see if Hotsync is activated and terminate it, if it is.

Oklahoma

Thanks all for the comments. I'll be trying it soon

OK, got that part, now do I need to check the box above which says the description is in html or is that understood? Is there a way to preview the page before submission.

OK, I'm finally ready to create my first cache. I have the container and I'm ready to go, except I don't know how to create the cache page. Yes, I have looked at the page creation tool provided on the website, but I want to add a slight twist to the mix. My intent is to provide a location near the actual cache and include within the cache discription a coded message which must be decyphered to obtain the actual cache location. The message will be a jpg. My question is: Can someone explain in excrusicating detail, the method of placing a jpg in the middle of the cache description. Also, is there a way to preview the page, before it is submitted for approval? Thanks

Man, I'm a sucker for stats. Of my closest 100, the closest unfound is 29.3km from the house. the furthest unfound is 63.4km from the house. There are 6 unfound virts 27 unfound traditional 2 unfound multis. All told, the found percentage is a wopping 65%. A month ago, it would have been much higher, but there has been a flurry of new caches in the area, about 10 of them.

Counting only those caches I've found within 100 miles (99) vs the available within 100 (433), gives me a fta ratio of 22.86%. If I were to use my total finds (202) to the caches available within 100 miles (433), I'd get to report 46.65%. The 22.86% is problably closer to the true intent of this exercise though.

My wife and I took the recent 3 day weekend, flew to Phoenix and got a rental car. We cached in Phoenix and then drove up the hiway to the Grand Canyon. I'd plotted a lot of caches along the way and over the three day weekend, we found 23 caches without pushing hard. 14 were traditionals, while the remaining 9 were virts. Probably the most interesting was a virt in downtown Phoenix that contained a lot of dressed up bronze statues.

I was in Kuwait when my charter membership expired and my wife forgot to send the check, like I asked. I sent an email asking if my charter status could be reinstated along with my payment and they did. Many thanks.

I never made it to Iraq, but the Garmin WorldMap program had most roads for Kuwait. The use of this would require either a Legend or Vista to load the maps onto. While in Kuwait I used just the plain old yellow etrex along with paper maps. Things worked out find. Good luck over there.

I know the reason it was archived. I finally put it on my watch list today at lunch and made plans to start carrying my camera and GPS when I go out to lunch. I saw a yellow jeep today, just after putting the cache on my watchlist. I won't tell you the other 9 locationless caches I've added for near term finding. Hopefully, the powers to be won't archive all of them too.

As Quills said, get EasyGPS. This is a free program that. It is available on the Geocaching.com Links page. When you download it, you'll get a smilely face on your computer, where-ever you have it installed. Mine is on my desktop. Interestingly enough, it doesn't write entries to your registry file, so if you want to put it on a system you don't have administrator rights to, it will still install. Once you have it installed, you'll want to log onto the Geocaching website and perform a search. Using the check boxes on the search results page, identify the caches you wish to download info for. then click download. You may be asked what format to save your files in, as well as location. Pick the .loc format for use with EasyGPS, and give it an appropriate name. To open the loc file, just drag and drop it onto the EasyGPS program and it should open. You'll find several simple function there for manipulation of the waypoints. Downloading to your GPS is fairly straight forward after setting the preferences to identify your GPS. Good luck.

Team Madog has cache finds in 13 states, plus England. One of the states logged is with only a virtual. I'm traveling to Indiana the week after next and hope to pick up Indiana and maybe Ohio, to add to my count.