Aurock

And, just like that it is letting me in. Something odd going on, that's for sure.

Looks like there were some updates to the site again today. And, I can't seem to log in to geocaching.com this morning. Coincidence?

I'm also not able to log in to the main geocaching.com site as of 10:26am CDT. Is anyone else still having problems?

I'm working on building one matching the drawings from the OP now. I've had trouble getting the rings right though, no matter how I cut them I can't seem to get them to the right size and cut perfectly square. I'm going to try stopping by a local machine shop and see what they would charge to cut the rings for me. When buying the parts, I accidentally bought a piece of 3/4" cpvc, instead of sch 40pvc. Since I wanted to stick with exactly what the drawings listed for this first attempt, I went back and grabbed the right piece. I wonder though if using cpvc for the inner part of the lock would work, instead of using 3/4" pvc and sanding it down to fit in the 1"? The CPVC fits inside the pvc, with just a bit of a gap in between. I'm not sure if the gap would be too wide, so that it messes with the locking mechanism. I think once this cryptex is finished, I'll go back and re-make the inner portion of the lock, with the screws sticking up, and see if it works properly with the rest of this. For those who have built larger versions of this cryptex, I expect it took some time to find all of the right size components for the larger version. Would you mind sharing the list of components you found worked together? I'd like to build one big enough for trackables and maybe small swag items.

Okay, so it's perfectly capable of covering larger areas. I had seen examples that were maybe 1-2 sq miles, and that seemed far too small to be of use.

If I were to subscribe to garmin's birdseye satellite imagery, how large of an area can I download to the oregon? The demos I've seen looked like they chose a fairly small area, so I wonder if it can handle bigger, or if it's expected that you download the small area you want, then when you want to move beyond that area you erase that part and start over.

Well, I see this morning that amazon has dropped the price on Oregon 550 to $299, so i'm going to jump on it while I can. I hadn't cared much about the camera, but for the small price difference now, I'll go for it.

One other thing to consider -- It seems like the Oregon 450 has been around for a couple of years. Is it likely that a new model will be released sometime in the next few months?

Faster, as in fewer steps to get to what you want, or as in more responsive when you select something? Do the screens load faster, or is it just fewer 'clicks'?

Can you offer any examples? Not that I don't believe you, I just don't know what sort of things might be possible with one and not the other. Montana is definitely out, just based on price. It's already a splurge just to look at buying a GPS, especially when I have a working gpsr and iphone. No way the wife would let me spend more than our house payment on a new gps. I've read that the 't' models aren't worth the money, as better topo maps are available for free. Since you have a few, would you agree with that assessment? As I said, I'd read mixed reports. I ended up with the impression that it would likely be more accurate, especially in any marginal areas, due to locking onto more satellites at once and potentially having more sats available to lock on to when under tree cover or otherwise getting poor signal. I think it was anecdotal reports from users of the devices that left me thinking it helped. Is there anything definitive one way or the other from an "official" source on the matter? Again, not trying to argue, I don't know that you're right or wrong, I just haven't seen anything but user opinions/anecdotal evidence, and garmin's marketing-speak on the subject: I think this is one of those that as long as I'm used to the etrex, I won't miss the bigger screen, but if I had a bigger screen I'd hate to give it up. Thanks for the input!

On my Venture HC, I can delete caches individually or in bulk. Is that a feature that was removed in newer models?

I'm considering buying a new GPS to replace my Etrex Venture HC. I currently use the etrex and my iphone 4s to geocache, but I think it would be nice to have a gps that can hold the full data about a cache instead of just a few characters. I've looked at the new etrex 20 / 30 models, as well as the Oregon and gpsmap 62. Comparing all of the various models, it's hard to see what the real differences are between them. Here are a few things that jumped out at me. What am I missing? etrex 20 - $169 Glonass support - I've read mixed reports about whether this would improve accuracy or reception in most cases for US users, but it sounds like there is probably some benefit. Full details of caches stored in the gps [*]etrex 30 - $244 Glonass Full details of caches digital compass - This seems like it would be very handy [*]Oregon 450 - $282 Touchscreen - Is this really useful, or just a gimmick? Full cache details digital compass [*] 62s - $374 Full cache details Digital Compass Better Antenna/reception? - I see marketing speak about holding a fix under tree cover. Is there really a difference in reception? I believe all of the above have wireless communication available with other GPS units, for sending/receiving caches. That seems like it would be very useful, if the other gps happens to be a garmin. Is this how they program caches into GPS units at events? Do they typically only support one MFG, or is there some way to communicate between different brands? I've also looked briefly at units from magellan and delorme, but since I have a garmin now, I'm not sure how those brands compare. I don't see any compelling features those have that the garmins don't, but am I overlooking anything? Actually, I take that back, the explorist GC looks interesting. It seems to hold far more geocaches than any of the others, and is cheaper than all the rest. What's the downside to that one? Thanks!

LOL, Ok.

I started adding people to the friends list feature recently, but I don't see where it really does anything. I found a thread from back in 2007 saying that it would be getting more functionality soon, including the ability to subscribe to friends finds etc, but I don't see any way to do that. Am I missing something, or was this feature abandoned?

I was thinking a preform would be perfect for this. I was just talking about placing such a cache today, where the container is attached by a string to something near the water's edge, the leg of a dock or such. At the moment though, water level could play a big factor in the hide. With the drought this year, the container would be farther in from where the water's edge normally is. When water levels return to normal, that means the container will be deeper in the water, and also that I need to be careful to place the out of water end of the string up high enough that it won't be underwater during a normal season. Plus, the cache probably wouldn't be accessible for a couple of months out of the year, when the surface of the water is frozen...

I've been debating logging a cache as found that I helped my son hide. It's been out for 6 months or so, so it's not like I'd be claiming FTF for anything. I helped him every step of the way, choosing the location, applying camo, etc. so there wasn't anything for me to 'find', but I'm annoyed by it every time I look for caches in my area that I haven't found and it's near the top of the list. I need to make that map dot go away!

I've got a place I'd like to create a firetack trail for a night cache, but as there are other caches nearby I wanted to ask about how the .1 mile rule would be applied. I can't imagine that each individual firetack would be considered a physical element of the cache, would it? And if not, then is the starting point for the trail considered a physical element, or just a 'trail head'? I can definitely place the end point far enough from other caches, but it would be hard to make a trail of significant length if no single firetack can be within 528ft of another cache.

I just got an Etrex venture HC from a friend. I have sent several caches to it from the web page individually. Is there any way to do this in bulk, rather than one at a time? Edit: Found the answer here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=262534