Team S-J

Hi, Number 26 is Team S-J with Mr & Mrs S-J with Jon & Nath.

We're off to New Milton so have loaded up my Legend and PDA with enough cache data to at least get one cache done over the weekend! Kids eh!

I tried to renew a few weeks ago but as the insurance and MOT etc were all due about the same time it wouldn't accept that the insurance was valid. Used the other easy method, gave it to 'er indoors to take to the local PO

Any chance of enabling hyphens as in "Team S-J" Ta

We were down at the Roseland back in 1999. My youngest was just 12 days old! The local midwife team actually came out to the campsite. The eclipse then was quite disappointing. We just had a brief glimpse as the whole thing finished through the thick cloud. We all crowded round a t.v. that had been put in a gazebo, but when the time came we all stood outside. It did go quiet and cooler. When every anybody asks I just say "it went impressively dark". This morning my youngest wanted to go see the latest eclipse as he couldn't remember the one in 1999. Bless. Spent a bit of time trying to find a webcam of todays eclipse but was very disappointed that there were no obvious links from a quick google search.

No you shouldn't suggest a "copy" of TomTom.

You could also do with setting up the GPSR data connection. That way you only pay for the data, not the time spent on air. Last month while on holiday I spent about £2 on voice calls and £12 on data calls. I'm on PAYG and found that you have to contact you provider to get half the services switched on. There isn't a monthly cost just PAYG for voice and data calls. I found http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html was good for getting the settings needed if you can't get then sms'd directly from your provider. The best caching site for use on a PDA is probably http://rtr.ca/geo which I have used to log finds while at the cache itself, and wap.geocaching.com for official wap access. I've found using the PDA and phone is okay for most caches, but you can't beat a paper copy for those tricky multi's.

I'd always go for the best GPSr you can afford. I bought a Legend for Greenlaning but since then have used it more for geocaching and routing. So the better (more functions) the GPS the more uses it has. I've been using my Legend quite happily for a couple of years. The rubber outer band has split but I've stuck it back and it's okay now. It is waterproof for those rainy days and boat use. It has sufficient mapping for local use. Following routes on it in the car is okay even with no sound an limited garphics. I'd like to be able to have tide calculations on it, mix metric and imperial units. i.e. 200m on foot while 40mph in the car. But for what it can do I'm more than impressed. Over the years I aquired Mapsource Europe, a car charger, a serial cable, a combined car charger/serial cable, a bike mount, a neoprene case and a love of high performance batteries. ( I did get a set of Lithium batteries for use on my motorbike as wind chill seemed to kill normal batteries but I sold the bike before I got to try them). If we know where we're going I load the maps in for the area I need. I also load as many routes as I think I will need and all the local geocaches. We've travelled across Europe with it and found that as long as I did my research before we left for bits of map and routes, I've got to where I needed to go. We even took a laptop and ran nRoute but it was too cumbersome for in car use. The POI are rather limited as it just hasn't got the localised database. In fact I'd rather have a little less detail on POI for more map area. I've also been using an iPAQ 4150 for storing cache details and using the bluetooth to my phone to get on the net if I have missed any information for a particular cache. I'm now deciding what to do next. I like the look of the Legend C but can see all my cables will be obsolete. Or do I get a bluetooth GPSr and TomTom or equiv for my iPAQ. Or buy an in car GPS system. Good for navigating, bad for Geocaching. I've been looking at the Mio 269 which has European maps built in, which is useful for my semi-regular runs into France. It just lacks the geocaching aspect. There do seem to be quite a few applications for swapping POI's but I haven't found anything definative about being able to convert gpx files into the Mio system. I've also come across a few web sites that show that you can actually run WinCE applications on the Mio which looks promising. If I can geocache using a car navigation system then at least I'll be able to recoup some of my losses by selling all my Garmin kit. So has anyone got any experience of using one of these car navigation systems for geocaching? Robin

Please no. I have a 9 year old and 5 year old and would never think of taking a picture of them everytime I go out. That's really being too protective. On a slightly similar noteI had an email from a coleague with a clever idea from the Ambulance Service. It was to add a contact in your phone that is listed under ICE (In Case of Emergency) if there are more them ICE2 ICE3 etc. If you are unable to communicate with any emergency personnel then they can look through your phone and contact someone. Seems like a sensible idea. Just make sure it's listed in the I's.

That's odd. I'm sure I'm about 14 but my passport says 42.

Two members of Team S-J went down to London this morning. They were heading in different directions when they got there before 8:00AM. Once all the explosions happened they were on to each other via mobile and have met up and are both okay. Not sure what time they will be home tonight but thats hardly the point. As for the comments made earlier. Human nature is a weird thing. Comments made in haste are often regretted later but if made with honesty at the time than only a simple apology is required rather than being lambasted. My thoughts are with everyone caught up in these horrific incidents.

I've been using one on my motorbike for a couple of years. The only problem I have is that due to windchill the batteries fade out. I've recently invested in a neoprene case, and some lithium batteries which I hope will cure the low battery problem. I can't see that these would really be an issue on a push bike though.

We had a Vauxhall Sintra (sorry) it had a heat reflective screen. A very very very thin metalic sheet. You couldn't see it but it blocked any gps signal. I used one of those sucker type phone mounts and stuck it to the drivers side quarter light. It was mostly ok but the passenger couldn't see the display. Since then we've moved on to a Galaxy. This has a heated front screen which you can see as a load of very thin vertical wires. This doesn't appear to stop the gps signal significantly and we can mount the gpsr anywhere. So you probably have the heat reflector type screen and other than get a re-radiator your're stuck with crummy signals in the front. Hope that helps.

We look forward to the interesting and challeging locations you find for them

There are too many "why here caches". Maybe a rating system will be needed. All those "why here", "poor cache" caches could be put on a yellow card. If not improved then red carded. I'm not a very active cacher so the quality of cache is far more important to me, and more importantly, to my kids. Just finding another box in a hedge in a field doesn't inspire them to go out again next weekend. I've previously set two caches. I was hoping to set one for every ten finds. One cache was trashed and the other removed until permission is sought. Even as a virtual I still get a few visitors with more than favourable comments about the location and the journey to the location. I quite like the idea of the moderators being allowed to remove caches if they think the quality level, by visitor logs, isn't up to scratch. This would also resolve the quality issue at the same time.

There aren't that many free hot spots available in reality. If you want to log finds or find caches you'd be better off setting up a bluetooth phone with GPRS. It works a treat with my 4150 and R520m. Although the R520m is a bit of a brick!

Hi, I'm also due to drive over to France in March. I'll be going from Calais to La Plagne then back via Disneyland. Does anyone know if there is a list of geocaches that can be imported into mapsource (anything will do as converting isn't a problem). For the UK I use rob & lisa's site to download mps and gpx files for parts of the country then cut and paste in mapsource. It's something like that I'm looking for. At the moment I've just gone to the geocaching web site and downloaded those caches where I know I'll be. I just wanted to be able to download everything along my route. Of course with 800 miles to cover I doubt I'll get a chance to stop to geocache but as I speed past on what hopefully will be empty autoroutes I can say "there's a geocache just over there" whilst looking hopefully at the family.

Distance isn't really the issue, maintenance is. If I live in one part of the country but work or visit another on a regular occasion then I can't see that the distance has anything to do with it. However, I quite agree that dumping a physical cache in a once visited location is not good form.

As part of my job I sometimes have to travel to the northern parts of Sweden during the winter months. You can spot visitors when the aurora is active as they can be seen peering into the sky. The locals have seen it too often to bother looking. It really is an amazing sight, especially when the colours are bright. I really hope you get a chance to see the lights. Sometimes when they are quite dim it looks like high cloud but then the light shifts. In Sweden it can be somewhat more dramatic with the shifting being very rapid. It's one of those must see before you.....

The worst thing about having Sky is that it doesn't matter what day it is or what time of day it is, on some channel somewhere there will be an episode of The Bill. I hit "next" faster than I do for QVC. It's probably the grimmest program in the world

We offer our sympathy to Mark's family and friends.

My only problem with micro caches is they are usually put where a trad cache would be too obvious. But this means micros quite often get trashed as they are found by muggles. However, it's amazing what you can get in a micro and I do smile at the various methods of folding the log books and also in seeing how small you can write with a blunt HB.

Most caches seem to contain tat . My 8 year old has even stopped swapping things as yet another McD plastic-thingy just isn't worth it. I used to leave key rings either Lego ones or ones from places I'd viited but to swap something like that for some broken sea shells (true!) it stops the kids wanting to find more treasure. 'er indoors isn't too impressed either when we open the contents. Maybe there are too many TNLN cachers who could, with a little effort try, to stock up caches. Moving content on isn't helpful either. It usually involves getting someone elses tat to lower the quality of your own. I've recently had one cache trashed and have removed another. Both of which I consider to have not only been in interesting places but had a pretty good level of decent contents. Considereing the number of 100+ UK cachers you'd think there'd be all sorts of interesting things to be left and found. The other thread was about TB's. I don't see these as being cache content nor geocoins or any other type of "move me on" stuff.

You could I suppose say the web cam at the Nare Head in Gerrans does show Wanna Pinna's Cottage but I never seem to have much success in getting hold of current images from this web cam. The cache is in the middle of the far headland.

I recently got an iPAQ 4150 which is just fantastic. I matched it up with a bluetooth phone (R520m big but cheap) and loaded GPXsonar. I download the loc file for the UK from http://www.roblisa.com/geocache/uk.html . Just make sure you edit the file replacing any "&" with "and" as it messes up the gpxSonar import. It all works a treat. I still have my Garmin Legend for the search and use the iPAQ to get the cache details. There is nothing worse than finding out that the cache was an offset cache after you get home. I'm not that convinced a bluetooth gps unit would help as I don't use the ipaq to map. Once you start using a decent PDA you find all sorts of uses. I wouldn't leave home without one. Now where did I put it? Useful links http://www.roblisa.com/geocache/uk.html http://rtr.ca/geo http://gpxsonar.homeip.net/default.aspx http://ulanoff.com