Delawhere

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Any guesses where I am from? Actually, I am orginally from California and when I told friends and relatives that where I was moving to, they all said...

Several of my caches are submerged. I use a bison tube. My log sheets are write in the rain paper so that damp hands or a drop of water from the rest of the cache container doesn't ruin the log sheet. I haven't had a problem (frantically looking for a piece of wood to knock)

I have a 3 inch diameter, ~18 inch PVC pipe. I have an removable drain plug on the bottom because it never occurred to me to drill a small hole. I used a muddauber (sp?) screen at the bottom to prevent the cache from falling out the drain. It would have been easier to drill a small hole! I found that I could reach in the pipe and grab the container so I added a rain spout basket contraption on the top to prevent this. Since my cache has Gilligan's Island theme, I used a long rope to attach a plastic pineapple cup to the cache. The pineapple rests on top of the basket contraption to keep leaves out. The whole thing is glued to a dead tree that is next to a creek. There is about a 4 foot steep embankment to the creek so cachers throw the pineapple into the water, use the rope to raise it and then fill the tube. It takes about 4-5 pineapples worth of water. Since most of my caches are animal themed, I placed a bison tube inside a rubber squid and attached fishing floats to both ends of the squid. I didn't want people trying to turn it upside down etc. so the outside of the cache says "Add water to sign log" It also has a prominent "geocaching.com gamepiece, waypoint GC12M3W" sign on it so that muggles don't think that I am trying to use a pipe bomb to blow up a dead tree in the middle of the woods. I hope this helps.

Am I supposed to post an "Owner Maintenance" log when I check on a cache and everything was fine? There were no DNFs or problems noted prior to my visit, I just wanted to see how the cache was holding up. Thanks

No, the signatures are in great shape. I guess printer ink is very different than ball point pen ink.

I am a huge fan of the rite in the rain paper. One of our caches is a large piece of bark that has a piece of ritr paper attached to the entire underside. The bark is velcroed back in place. The cache has been out in the woods for about six months and still looks as good as new. A couple of my other caches are submerged. The containers themselves are a little unique and cannot be waterproofed so I use bison tubes to hold the log sheet. I attach the bison tubes to the cache containers. They survived the winter intact although one of them has been inactivated for a few months while some sort of work is being done on the pond. The cache is still there but it is difficult to retrieve. They have the pond aerators turned off so there is a thick layer of algae on top of the water. Yuck. I also use the ritr paper for a cache that needs water added to it to retrieve the log sheet. I figure that the cachers that sign the log sheet will have wet hands by the time the retrieve the log sheet. I hate it when I have to sign a soggy strip of paper! The ritr doesn't get soggy and is easy to write on. I was not able to use my printer on the ritr paper. The ink easily smudged even after allowing it to dry for several days.

° ° Super!! The number lock trick worked!! I also never thought about copying and pasting it. Thanks

Let me preface this by saying that I know about the various coordinate calculation/conversion programs like geocalc. I am trying to teach middle school kids about geocaching and coordinates. Note that I am (obviously) not a teacher, I am just a parent. I found this wikipedia article on how to convert coordinates. Looking under the "Ways of writing coordinates" paragraph I understand the conversions between the first two and the last three sets or strings of coordinates. They are fairly straight forward if I keep track of units (degrees vs. min vs. sec) and think of the degrees as hours. I do note that I get a slightly different answer when converting from DMS 40:26:46N to DegDec. When I do the calculations, I get 40.446111N rather than 40.446195N on the web page. Why am I getting a different answer? What I REALLY do NOT understand where how the third and fourth (40d 26' 21" N 79d 58' 36" W) coordinates come from. Where does the 21" come from? Doesn't the " mean seconds? So the third and fourth coordinate strings have 21 seconds? All of the other coordinate strings have 46 seconds or more specifically 46.302 seconds, right? BTW=I know that difference between the third coordinate and the fourth coordinate just substitute the degree symbol for d. I don't know how to enter the degree symbol using my laptop since I don't have a number keypad on my laptop. I only have numbers on the top row and <alt176> doesn't work like it would if I was using the number keypad. How do I enter the degree symbol on my laptop? One last question-am I correct in assuming that the coordinates listed on the geocaching pages are based on dd.mm.mmm? On the wikipedia article referenced above, this the last set of coordinates in that paragraph-right? So if we were looking at a geocaching.com cache page we would see the wikipedia location as N 40d 26.772 W 079d 56.932. Ok, this is really my last question. Converting to UTM requires trig and algebra right? I don't want to go there. Thanks for your time.

My son is on his middle school Science Olympiad team. They will be attending the National Science Olympiad competition in Kansas next month. I just found out that one of the trial/pilot events for this year's competition will be geocaching! The description for the event can be found here, click on "Cache Me If You Can." The competition will NOT include the Geocaching event that is also listed on the page. The Cache Me... event sounds much more interesting. http://www.soinc.org/events/trial/index.htm Hopefully they will set it up like last year's; from the description on page 3, numbers 7, 8, 10 and 11, it looks like there will be actual swag! Hopefully our state competition will include geocaching next year so I can help coach! I was the team coach for the anatomy event this year. Learning the parts and function of the nervous system is not nearly as interesting or fun as geocaching.

Ok, it seems like I finally can figure out how to find coordinates in Google maps. Cool! Even though I don't need it for Google Maps, how do I type in the degree symbol?

Good timing! I was going to post the same question. I appreciate the answer(s). This seems like such a basic question that I am almost afraid to ask this... How to I enter the degree symbol? I don't see it on my keyboard.

OP again. Is there an "I am an idiot" emoticon, smilie or froggie? I just found the online manual for the 76CSX. I should have held down the Page button to turn the compass on and off. I was looking for a menu setting. Silly me. Thanks again.

OP back again How do I turn my compass off on the 76CSX. I have sifted and sorted through every page and menu and cannot figure out how to turn the compass off. I was out with a geocaching group last night. Every one else's arrow was pointing "this away" and my arrow was pointing "that away" Arrggh! Why in the world would they make a GPS where you can't have a arrow and the compass at the same time. At this point in time I feel like the 76CSX was a complete waste of money. Thanks again for you help. Any suggestions on how to turn the compass off?

Unfortunately, I have the same problem with either course or bearing pointer. I wish I had remembered to try it with the compass off when I was out trying the other suggestions. Thanks again

Hi, this is OP again. Thanks for the suggestions. I have the correct battery type-alkaline. I have backlight set to zero and it set for daytime use. I goofed when I was trying grasscatchers suggestion to turn the compasss off. I didn't realize that I was supposed to do turn off the compass but I did the other steps. When I first started using my Garmin V I figured out that you had to be moving to have the arrow point in the right direction. When I was out today, trying the recommended suggestions I was again having problems. At one point the arrow was pointing me in the opposite direction. When I told it to recalculate it again started pointed me in the right direction, for awhile, then it again began pointing me in the wrong direction. This was while continuously hiking. I have tried holding the unit level and the unit upright. I calibrated it, after replacing the batteries, with the unit held horizontally. I appreciate the recommendations. Any more ideas before I contact Garmin. Thanks again.

I am having trouble with my new Garmin 76CSX. I can't get the arrow "point" me in the right direction. I have it set up for track up and course pointer. I do not have the follow road option chosen, my apologies for forgetting what the other option is called. I have calibrated the compass after installing new batteries. The arrow sometimes points me in the right direction but then will start pointing in a direction maybe 45 to 120 degrees off of the course. I am comparing it to my Garmin V which I am comfortable with. I have even tried this when searching for a visible benchmark in an open field. The V points me the right direction whereas the 76CSX will lead me away. The "distance to the cache" (or whatever the field is called) is correct, it will accurately count down. The arrow actually points at the correct (according to the Garmin V) compass heading. In other words, let's say I am heading due south. Both units will say that I am heading south. The V will have South at the top of compass and the arrow will be pointing straight ahead, in my direction of travel. The 76CSX may have West at the top of the compass but the arrow will be pointing towards the South on the compass, thus leading me in a 90 degree different direction. If I follow the arrow then the "distance to the cache" will increase, alerting me that something is wrong What am I doing wrong? I have tried changing to various combinations of North/Track up and Course/Bearing etc. and cannot get it to work. One last question. This unit goes through batteries much faster than I anticipated. I get 3-5 hours, usually closer to 3. Is this normal? I have it in daylight mode. Sorry about the long post. This has been really frustrating. Thanks

I am sure this has been covered before but I couldn't find this in the archives. I'm not sure how to ask this question. What determines cache size-volume or the visible dimensions of a cache. I recently placed a cache that is 18 inch x 3 inch x 1/2 inches thick. It is a piece of bark that has the log paper attached to the inside layer. I listed the cache as a small cache but one of the the cachers in this area told me that I should have listed it as a micro since the volume is micro sized or less. I also have another cache which has a container that would ordinarily be a small cache but the cache itself is not hollow so I attached a small bison tube to the cache. Is this a small or a micro cache? On this cache I said it was a small cache with a micro log. Thanks (edited to add more questions)

What is the difference between Cachemate and GSAK? Do I need both? Thanks

Got it! Thanks!!

I just received my Garmin 76csx. I seem to be having problems in downloading waypoints. I am using GSAK, which has 250 waypoints listed from a query. The only problem is that only 50 waypoints are actually downloading into my GPS. I have tried downloading with a blank card as well as the pre-loaded map card in the GPS. I thought the waypoints downloaded to the internal memory of the GPS rather than the cards. Any suggestion? I also have a question that seems so basic that I am almost embarassed to ask it. Is there a difference between a GPS and a GPSr? Thanks Delawhere