Paul G0TLG

I've got that all working well now, thanks chaps: Just one question. At the moment my finds show as yellow for most of them, and red for the temp archived or gone ones: What do I need to fiddle with to make all finds show yellow regardless of status? I could probably work it out, but I expect there's someone here who's done it already!

Mine is called "Diesel Doris" - only really had two bad experiences that I can remember, and they weren't really bad: Once she told me to turn right at a left-turn-only junction, and once she tried to take me down a private-residents-only road. As someone who routinely drives alone, I wouldn't be without her...

Some reference to getting lost in Belfast?

"Altoids" tins appropriately painted are pretty good as well: They normally last a year or so before becoming rusty and needing replacement. And you've had the fun of eating the mints

I was hoping for loads of 4x4 fun in the snow this morning - unfortunately Southampton only had about an inch, and most of it had melted by the time I left for work

Yep, PMR is the way to go (says another radio ham ) Unless you're in a rush and HAVE to have them for this weekend, keep an eye on ebay: These come up all the time, and sometimes I put in an insultingly low bid just to see what happens, and often I win - I'm getting a reasonable collection (don't ask!). Don't necessarily worry about getting a matched pair - as long as they're UK spec PMR, they'll work together.

Sandy Balls Titty Hill Handcock's Bottom Cuckoo's Knob And there's one they don't list - High Titton (on the South Downs Way just outside Amberley)

Score submitted at 11:30 PM - bet I'm the last. Unless Nobby Nobbs hasn't entered yet, of course If only my number of caches was as high as the points I actually scored, it'd be a decent entry.

I agree that your motivations are good, and environmental concerns are real and important. However, I think people on here might be a bit more sympathetic to your cause if you had some experience of those 24 caches, so you could say something like "I've done 20 of them, and more than half were placed so that people had to trample wild flowers to access them" - or whatever. You can't really say that caching is having a detrimental environmental impact when you've not logged any finds for so long. Unless of course you have other experience/evidence to back up your claims? But if you have, and don't tell us what it is, you can't blame us for not taking account of it.

I live about ten miles from SenselessThing, so I guess that makes me the first of his "neighbours" to contribute to this thread. I've done most of the caches that are within 5 miles from him (I've done 15 of the 24, and have fail-to-finds on 3 others) so I think I can claim to know the area pretty well. I'd just ask - which of those caches do you think is too close to another? And which, if any, do you think are of sufficiently poor quality that they shouldn't be there? Some of them do look quite close to each other, but because of the layout of private land and footpaths in the area are some distance apart when you consider travelling distance. Few, if any, are cache-and-dashes, most are a reasonable distance from the nearest parking. Looking down the list, I can't think of any of those 18 caches I've either found or attempted, which hasn't been in a high-quality, enjoyable location. I bet there aren't many clusters of 18 caches we can say that about. (Edited to add: I've just noticed that the OP has only logged one of the 24 caches in his 5-mile radius - and it's one he owns anyway! How can you criticise 24 caches based on the experience of one, which you placed yourself? I would add that it's one of the ones I've done, and it IS good!)

Got mine too! Yay! Just think...half an hour ago I'd never heard of Dokshukino in Russia...now I can even spell it (with help)!

Well, this is where I'd draw the line... Cacher "Harry" collects a TB or coin from a cache and keeps it rather than moving it on: Is either theft of personal property, or treating "property donated to the caching community" in a way different to what the donor intended (depending on how exactly you view TBs and coins once they're released) Cacher "Joe" moves a cache to a different hiding place without owner's authority: Prevents others finding the cache until it's sorted (cache page changed, or cache put back where it belongs). Cacher "Fred" logs a find on his own cache: Inflates his numbers but has no effect on anyone else Cacher "Charley" logs a find on a cache which he logged last week: Inflates his numbers but has no effect on anyone else. As far as I'm concerned, cheat at the game all you like, as long as you don't spoil anyone else's enjoyment of it...

Sounds familiar - I think I did that one recently. It caught me out in exactly the same way

,,,and people who DON'T practice it think there's something odd about those who do (just ask my sister )

Like the OP, I don't have a serial port on the laptop. The USB to Serial adaptor defaults to COM 5, although I think that's configurable. I don't use the Garmin software, but GSAK works fine with my Foretrex 101 through this device, so whatever it is, it ISN'T that the Foretrex doesn't work with a USB adaptor. Sorry I can't offer anything positive (other than, as someone has already said, check you've got the right COM port selected in the Garmin software), but I hope I've eliminated a potential negative. All the best Paul

Yesterday I found the final stage of a multi using only the clue - the intermediate had eluded me, so I decrypted the clue and tried every likely-looking spot. I think the cache was in the 475th place I looked... I've done a similar thing a couple of times before, when I found myself close to a cache but without a GPS: Plot the co-ords on memory Map to get the rough area, then use the clue to find the cache It's all part of the game!

Yep, what they said...go get it! Oh, and welcome on board

Nothing more to be said, other than "Well done you three!"

Excellent news, and thanks for updating us. I'd also like to hear some detail of what happened, if you can stand to relive it (from a professional point of view as well as as a cacher - I'm not JUST being nosey!) Paul

TomTom can indeed be very dangerous. If my mate Rob catches up with the person who nicked his last Thursday, they're going to find out just how dangerous. Does anyone know if they still work after being...umm...inserted?

GPS? Garmin Foretrex Time caching? Registered with GC.com in April 2002. First cache found April 2003! (I take a while to get organised sometimes ) How did you find out about it? My chums of Team Tate told me they were being filmed for the TV programme “Inside Out”, which was doing a feature on caching. I said “What’s that?”, and the rest is history, as they say! Most in a day? 14, on the Kennet and Avon Canal, in the company of Paws for Thought. FTFs? Dunno really…ten-ish. I don’t normally rush for FTFs but sometimes I’m lucky, and there have been a few so close to home I HAD to go for them! How do you take your listings with you? Using Cachemate on my iPaq. TomTom running on the iPaq to get me to the parking, if it’s an area I don’t know already. Favourite 5 caches found excluding events (no getting out of this one!) Mumbles Hill Cache near Swansea GC8E77 Common Find Me – it was my 100th, and I did it with Team Tate (see above!) GC5548 Ripley Castle (North Yorkshire) GCH2N9 Beacon Book Box (Hampshire) GCF7AB Dales Way – Cetal Wella Slit GCXCFT Favourite 1 cache set? Blog Standard: The Blogger’s Bog GCNDXB. It’s in one of my favourite places and the finders seem to have enjoyed it. What roughly is your "Found" to "Did Not Find" ratio? Don’t really know – I’ve been back and found most of my DNFs later. How many caches in the dark have you found? Only a couple. I don’t really like night caching, I keep walking into trees and falling in the mud! 5 caching annoyances? Dog poo Big scary dogs that the owners can’t or won’t control Ten thousand muggles appearing just as I get to “Ground Zero” “What’s the Point” caches – caches placed in an area with no merit whatsoever just to get the placer’s numbers up Clues that are absolutely no help – if I’ve decrypted the clue it’s because I need it! 5 caching pleasures? Great scenery Visiting new areas Meeting loads of nice people Getting some quality exercise Playing with gadgets Easiest find? Isle of Wight – the Lungbuster GCC93B. The previous finder hadn’t concealed it properly and we saw it from halfway across the field! Hardest find? The Orange Tree Which Bears No Fruit GCF641. Such an easy cache that had been found by everyone including unaccompanied six-year-olds, this took me about six visits and became quite a joke among local cachers. Hardest puzzle completed? Enigma Variations 2 – The Nine Knights Templar GCHYM7. As you might guess from the title, a nine-part puzzle multi that took me about six visits to complete. There should be more caches like this! Hardest puzzle yet to complete? Probably Enigma Variations 3, which is promised but hasn’t been placed yet!

Whoa, hang on! Give people a fair chance to respond before you close it! Date permitting, I'd certainly attend.

There's a cache near me, placed with permission in a cemetery. Sadly, a member of the team which placed the cache is now buried in the same cemetery: The cache page asks visiting cachers to say hello to Bob on their way through. On a recent cache-meet, a tour of the area ended at this cemetery so Bob's friends could do his cache, if they hadn't already, and visit his resting place. Caches in cemeteries CAN be disrespectful, but one placed with permission is unlikely to be: It certainly isn't true that they all are.

I suspect this will improve the service for people who only have one or two PQs for areas they visit regularly (eg nearest 400 to home), and set up a special one for areas they're going to visit, as they'll only have a couple of clicks every month - compared to the improved server speed which'll come from not running PQs that people have set up, don't need any more, but haven't bothered to disable. It'll inconvenience those who run loads of queries to give them the whole country, but apart from a few exceptions - people who regularly travel at short notice and don't know until the last minutes where they're going, for work for example - I don't really understand why anyone would want that anyway. Setting up surplus pocket queries that you don't really need as a "revenge attack" on Groundspeak, as one person has suggested, is all very well - but it isn't going to bother Groundspeak all that much. Even if everyone who cares enough to want to do it, does it, the removal of not-needed PQs will probably result in a net reduction overall. Even if it does significantly slow the system down, it's going to inconvenience fellow cachers a lot more than it does TPTB.

I've come a bit late to this particular party - but I agree, a bit of standardisation must be good. GSAK exports the additional waypoints by waypoint code, rather than associating them with the cache name*, so the code is the first thing that pops up on the GPS screen. Knowing that having done "S1", the next stage is "S2" is helpful *Unless someone knows different of course And yes, there are some total yoghurts out there who'll stuff the system, either deliberately or through inexperience - we were all inexperienced once, and I'm sure we've all done daft things (I know I have). But the way to eat an elephant is one mouthful at a time, a convention is just that - it starts with a few people doing something, and then grows. And if a few people still don't do it...a convention that's almost universal is still better than no convention at all.