kbraband

Thanks, Jenn! Don't worry, Nebraska, S. Dak. and N. Dak. You can still come and visit. OK... Kansas too.

Bingo

Yes! Here's one more.

I think you're referring to home locations of geocachers. This functionality is not available on geocaching.com, but you could do it using Google Latitude if you had a group of geocachers who are all willing to opt in as your "friends". Even if you don't have a smart phone, you can set your home location on your computer and reveal it only to your friends.

Another important aspect to keep in mind about your Magellan 2000 that has not been mentioned is that, according to the manual, it only shows coordinate accuracy to two digits after the decimal. Newer GPS units (less than 10 years old or so) have three-decimal-place accuracy. This is somewhat important when you search for caches because your accuracy won't be as precise as with new units, which may cause you to search in a larger area at ground zero because you won't be able to enter the full set of coordinates that you find on the web page. It will be even more critical if you hide a geocache using this older unit. I should say, other geocachers will be even more critical. Expect to see posts on your cache page from people who search for your geocaches complaining that your coordinates are "off." It used to be that a 40ft. margin of error was perfectly acceptable. Nowadays I see people complain that coordinates are "off" by 10 or 15 ft from what the cache owner listed.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year from America's heartland!! IowaAdmin

Where are you located? We'll be diving at Grand Cayman this coming Feb.

I agree with the Keystone dude. Here's me (IowaAdmin) being interviewed for a certain podcast about geocaching during Midwest Geobash '07.

You're kidding, right? You've been at this almost as long as I have.

East of Rock (GC1G5H9)

In that case, it would be helpful for Groundspeak to be consistent also. In the guidelines it's repeatedly spelled "Earthcache."

I think I can sum up most of the comments that have been posted so far: "It would be a great show if only it had ME as the host!"

Hi, A.R., To clarify my posting from nearly three years ago... As you know, reviewing geocaches is a moving target. The guidelines and practices change over time. I have since had discussions about this particular topic of electical equipment with other reviewers and with Groundspeak powers that be. What I now do is in the case of electrical equipment caches is ask the cache owner if he/she has permission to place the cache where it is. Most of the time the answer is predictably "no" although I did have one recent example where the owner said he did have permission to place a cache on a box that he said was a cable box, so I held my nose and approved it. Thanks for your cordial discussion of this touchy but important topic. kbraband aka IowaAdmin Whoa! Seriously? Reviewers can now make up unpublished guidelines and enforce them, or not, even on existing caches, at their whim? Groundspeak has unpublished policies that some Reviewers abide by but some don't? The last I heard if a cache was within the guidelines the Reviewer must publish it. Has that changed? Whatever happened to 'If it's within the guidelines hold your nose and publish' which, I think, has always been the norm for caches a Reviewer didn't care for? "This policy is endorsed by Groundspeak and most approvers."... well then, shouldn't such 'policies' be in the Guidelines? It's not that I am against the restriction, it's that I am against unwritten and unevenly enforced rules. When did perceived safety become a guideline, or a policy, for that matter? And what happened to caches that were once acceptable becoming grandfathered when the guidelines change... must we now archive all of the electrical box caches? Edit to add: This isn't about IowaAdmin, a person I respect and appreciate, please keep it about how we are to know and follow Groundspeak's policies and guidelines.

What's OP?

Very nice. Might even get more teenagers interested in geocaching.

You'll get more responses by posting in the Wisconsin Geocaching Association forums. See: http://www.wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?n...wforum&f=10

I put out a cache with one of these plastic containers and was disappointed with it. The seal didn't hold well and the contents kept getting damp.

Check out the Iowa Geocachers Organization at http://www.iowageocachers.org/ They have regional forums, including one for NW Iowa. http://forums.iowageocachers.org/index.php

Please don't put a cache in such a box. Here's one reason why: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/lofiversi...hp?t129586.html This also applies to non-live electrical equipment, because it only encourages geocachers to open all such boxes.

In Feb. 2001 I had been a GPSr owner for about a year and was searching the Internet (this was pre-Google) for information about GPS user groups. I found a posting in a Yahoo users' group by a guy named Jeremy Irish suggesting that people check out a new GPS-based outdoor tracking game. I followed Jeremy's link and saw there were no active geocaches in Wisconsin, so about a week later during a business trip to Chicago, I found my first cache there. I came back to Wisconsin and hid my first cache.

This is on topic I think... I guess I qualify as the grandfather of geocaching in Wisconsin: Out of 480 pages, on page 480 I placed the oldest active cache in the state. On the next oldest page 479, I own three. As a fellow old-timer recently said, "Back in my day we carved our GPS receivers out of hickory."

I'm a volunteer ski guide for blind and visually impaired skiers through the B.O.L.D. program of SE Wisconsin, so this thread is interesting. The blind people I know through the program are active physically and have more ambition to to take on challenges than most sighted people I know. I think some of them may be interested in geocaching, so I'm going to check out some of the links provided by previous posters. Thanks!

February 2001. Her name was Beverly.

I like to bike to caches whenever I can. I put about 800 to 1,000 miles on my road bike each year, and another 100 to 150 on my mountain bike (both Specialized). I also like to hide caches designed to be hunted on bicycle, but most geocachers don't bike.

Excellent advice, WebChimp. I hope you don't mind that I just "re-purposed" (plagiarized) it for my blog this morning. kbraband, aka IowaAdmin