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gpsfun

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Everything posted by gpsfun

  1. Cache types, and therefore the icons, are not changed after publication except in rare situations. If people have found a puzzle cache or a challenge cache, and if the icon were changed, the statistics of the finders would be automatically altered to show that they had found only a traditional. Among other things that could cause persons who have qualified for a challenge by having found certain cache types to no longer be qualified. Exception situations could include errors in a cache page that can be corrected before finds are logged on the cache page. Exceptions are very rare.
  2. Could you give us the TB?????? code or a link to the travel bug's page on the geocaching site? That may prove helpful. Edit: Nevermind - here's the Ursula The Small (Bear) page: link
  3. The testing NOTAM states "During testing, the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable within a 15NMR centered at 381542N/0762602W or the PXT VOR 225.3 degree radial at 2.2 NM from 4,000 FT AGL to FL400 and above, and a radius of 17NM at 50 FT AGL." (Bold applied by me) If this is correct, geocachers with their feet on the ground should be unaffected. The signal may be unreliable or unavailable at 50 feet above ground level in one case and above 4,000 feet above ground level in the other.
  4. Most likely, a reviewer will not see your reviewer note if the cache is already published. Find the published log, which is usually the first log on the cache page, click the publishing reviewer's nickname, and use the send message utility to send a message requesting it to be unarchived. It will be essential to include the cache GC Code (GC?????) in your message.
  5. It will help if you can identify the town or at least the county where you are located as well as what sort of help you have in mind. Cachers like to help new players to get started.
  6. mpilchfamily beat me to the "find a local group" idea, which is a pretty good way to start. Geocaching draws folks from many walks of life together because of the common interest in the sport and you will almost always find a few cachers at an event that you can be comfortable with and who will be willing to help you get started. Here's another page that lists upcoming events in North Carolina as well as the most recently published cache listings. http://www.geocaching.com/local/default.aspx?state_id=34 If you are interested in geocoins at all, hundreds of cachers will be attending the Geocoinfest U.S. 2011 event near you on Saturday, October 15. See the event listing here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f7846a9a-9035-4351-90bf-46c8ca7daca4 We're always happy to have some new cachers to find our caches, and when ready, will hide some for us to find. Hope this helps. -Brad
  7. I generally suggest contacting the cache owner to ask for a hint or a nudge in the right direction in situations like this. Determining how to arrive at the answer to that question is probably part of the puzzle that the cache owner expects you to solve.
  8. They're a good group and they even let me attend events sometimes. They have also jointly hosted events with the Georgia Geocachers Association (GGA).
  9. Several years ago I inadvertently left my folding cane/hiking pole/poking device at a cache in Indiana while I was there on a business trip from Georgia. The spouse of the next visitor to the cache thought it was a trade item and took it home. To make a long story short, they shipped it back to me - and I still use it.
  10. pyromomma, I'm never too busy to help the geocachers of South Carolina and neighbors who cache in South Carolina. Plus, I have the real answers. Ike's pretty close, though. -Brad
  11. In the case of a friend or acquaintance I might drop them a note saying "I think you might have meant to say..." The most troubling thing that I encounter is the use of texting shortcuts and abbreviations and the associated grammatical errors. I suspect this happens in many languages and friends in the education field tell me that many students are incapable of writing grammatically correct sentences. wtevr
  12. I have been doing some testing for publication in a Knowledge Books article on the site and I can say that coordinates taken with my Samsung Fascinate using the Groundspeak application are quite close to coordinates taken with my Garmin 60CSx. HOWEVER, it is necessary to do the things with the cell phone that some of the old timers did with early GPS receivers, and that is to take multiple readings and make a note of them until you find at least three or four sets of coordinates that are pretty close to the same. Between readings, walk away from GZ and then approach GZ from a different direction. At that point, disregard the outliers and average the ones that are close together. I have done this under a completely clear sky and in a fairly heavy pine forest and I got coordinates that were within just a few feet of what my Garmin got using the same process. Observations: 1. Upon arriving at a location and enabling the phone's GPS feature, a minute or two might elapse before the phone's GPS figures out where it is. This is not unlike traveling several miles from home before turning on a hand held GPSr, but it could take a bit longer. The only way I have found to determine that the phone GPS has synced up is to look at a geocaching map and noting that my position is shown accurately. If you are in an area with no landmarks, that might be difficult. 2. At one point I noticed that having my GPSr turned on near my phone seemed to cause the phone's accuracy to diminish sharply. This observation has not been validated or verified, but I have that on my list of things to do. This is not an endorsement of the performance of every phone on the market. Your mileage may vary.
  13. First, a disclaimer : this is an angst-free post, any inconsistencies - real or perceived - in the guidelines does not distress, irritate or infuriate me. I merely ask out of curiosity. Just to push at the boundaries of that statement. Would you, as a reviewer, publish a terrain 5 (special equipment required) event? How do most reviewers (or, at least, those that you know) feel about such an event? I have published an event that involved meeting at the base of a mountain and hiking to the summit where there would be a meeting and a hot chocolate snack, with all of the fixings being backpacked to the summit and back. IIRC it was on the night of a full moon. I cannot recall the terrain rating but it was open to everyone who wanted to attend. No puzzles to solve, no premium membership required, no special number of finds to qualify, etc. Just show up and go. I do not take on the responsibility of being a spokesperson for other reviewers, so I cannot respond to the second question.
  14. Groundspeak encourages geocachers to create and attend events because the social aspects of the game are a healthy for it. Geocaching serves as a common area of interest that draws together people from a wide variety of vocations and locations for fellowship and conversation. Events usually include food and trackable item exchanges, and perhaps an educational program. This is why events are to be open to everyone and without barriers like premium membership as a hindrance. The OP's interest in adding a creative touch is noted but I believe the idea runs counter to the event philosophy. Also, a better way to bring forward an idea to add something to the game is to write it up on the feedback site. Open any cache page and you will see a tab marked feedback in the left margin. Persons who favor the idea can add positive votes which can cause the idea to rise to the top of the list.
  15. As the reviewer who counseled BBWolf+3Pigs, let me add that the current statement from the guidelines reads "Event caches are gatherings that are organized by geocachers and are open to other geocachers." The key or operative word relevant to the idea is "open." That means that attendance at the event cannot be restricted to members of some club, residents of some city or state, persons who have found more or less than "X" number of caches, etc. It is really best to make event participation easy and straightforward. I went along with Mr. BBWolf's idea because the cachers in his community expect such things from him, and I didn't want to let them down.
  16. Writing only for myself, I can say that volunteer reviewers really don't want to be drawn in to unresolved cache maintenance issues and there are good ways to relieve them of that task. First is to resolve cache problems when they are first noted in a log. If there is a reason why that cannot be done right away, adding a note to the cache page stating why there will be a delay and providing a date by which the issue will be resolved lets the community and the reviewer know that the issue has not been forgotten.
  17. This might be a good point at which to start providing specific information such as cache GC Codes that support these statements. What area specifically, specific references to the "blasting" being mentioned, how frequently is "all the time," and how it is known that the persons making these references have not visited the area referenced as "our area" would be a good start. It is quite difficult to appreciate and respond to vague references, limiting forum participants from being able to reply helpfully.
  18. Did you just answer your own question?
  19. You have encountered a difference in spelling of cache names. Searching for "San Geronimo" will not show San Gernimo Creek #4 because there is an "o" missing in San Gernimo Creek #4. Try again searching for San Gernimo and you will see numbers 2, 3 and 4. Hope this helps.
  20. Actually there is this thing called deferred revenue, which is considered a liability until it becomes relevant to the business at hand, such as a payment received for work that has not yet been performed. In other words, the revenue for future membership benefits cannot be recognized until those benefits are being used.
  21. For a little more detail you can read the Knowledge Books article here
  22. There is no Needs Archived attribute. The CO was probably referring to the icon accompanying the needs archived log, and that went away when the log was deleted.
  23. The button could be pushed when it's convenient for the reviewer and not the local FTF hounds. I have a shortcut on my desktop for the New England weather maps.
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