n7viv and DB
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Posts posted by n7viv and DB
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FYI - this is a direct quote from an email this person sent out about his ET trip - guess his memory isn't as good as it was when he was braggin it up!!!
"And then we could see some other cachers out on the horizon, about five miles in front of us. They actually came by us on the ET HWY logging caches while we were doing the head. We started to pour the coals on. I was almost smoking the tires accelerating from cache to cache. As soon as the guys got in I would push the throttle full open from 528 to 250 feet to the next cache. Then I was power braking from 250 feet to zero feet at the cache. The guys would jump out on a dead run. as soon as they were aboard again, I had the throttle full open repeating the story above. We reeled the other team of cachers in about ten miles of hard caching as described above. We actually had smoking brakes. But by God we caught up with them. When they saw us coming they started running back and forth to their Jeep. We just laughed and poured on the coals even more. We got right up on their rear bumper. We could of passed them, but xxxxxx said let's just stay behind them and keep the pressure on. They lasted about two more miles and then they called it a day. One of those guys was xxx from xxxxxxx. We sure had some good laughs over that one. I'll bet they never forget the day we ran their asses ragged. They were looking pretty worried there at the end. It felt real good to reel them in from way out on the horizon as just a little black dot far off in the distance."
Seriously - this is exactly what N7VIV and DB sent out in an email blast to numerous people!
I guess Rebasport figures I would deny sending the quoted email above. I won't deny it. I did send it and it's all true. And we were having a blast doing it. But we never held up any traffic or interfered with any.
So what's her point? I didn't break any laws. And during the period of time described in the story above. The cachers we were pursuing and us were the only vehicles on the road. So is it bad to enjoy the game with your fellow cachers?
Rebasport needs to get a life.
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Thanks, n7viv and DB, for a first hand response. I have a number of friends who have already gone and I have tickets & reservations to head out there in about a month. I'm so glad that you posted your explanation though. Despite that I have a number of friends who have talked to me about it, if I try to post it's just heresy. The fact that you have personally visited lends a credibility to it that I couldn't do.
I think the reason so few people post who have actually gone is because they've "been there and done that" and don't feel a need to now explain (or even justify) their reasons for going.
Again, thanks so much for posting your stories
I sincerely wish that the "problem children" (term used very loosely) - whether they be cachers or noncachers - had been ticketed and fined. Maybe if the stories had carried over that you better behave this particular way, then people - cachers or noncachers - would conduct themselves in a proper fashion.
I just didn't feel it was fair to blame cachers as a whole. Or the Nevada Highway officials for the need to archive the series. Most of the highway where the caches were located is long and fairly straight and you can see for 4 or 5 miles either direction. Most of the hazardous area is in one spot where the very tight twist and elevation changes were located.
The other major problem was people not thinking about traffic coming down the road. And how where they were parking affected the flow of that traffic or the safety of others. There were many complaints about people just parking right on the road, blocking one lane of traffic. We paid special attention not to do this. And when the Sheriffs and Highway Patrol officers came by us they just waved and smiled. Because they could see we were making an effort to not block traffic, or slow it down.
But the one geographic area where the snow plow incident occurred, is no ones fault. It's just not a good place to stop for any reason. Even if you had to change a tire through there. You'd be taking your life in your hands.
For the most part the local residents are friendly and helpful.
I don't think anyone is to blame. It's just circumstances that build up over time. Just smile and go geocaching. It's over and done with. It was fun while it lasted.
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Well I find this thread to be some most interesting reading. It appears that most posters on the thread have no first had information on the E.T. Trail and the surrounding area. Now on the other hand myself and two other cachers completed the trail in October 2010. So as some would say, "Been there did that". So with some personal knowledge of the trail and the area, and most importantly the local residents. Here's my take on what the complaint was about.
When driving down a two lane highway and stopping you have to use some common sense. Since I was the appointed driver in our team I'll explain further. You have to realize this is a desolate Nevada highway with fairly light traffic at "times". I would keep constant watch on the horizon in front and behind us at all times. I was fully aware of when a vehicle appeared on the horizon. I got pretty good at calculating when that vehicle would arrive at our location.
There are areas along the route such as where the caches first came into discussion where the snow plow incident occurred. That were very dangerous. There is a real windy narrow up and down area. Very difficult for approaching trucks to make any adjustment to miss you if you are parked on or close to the highway. But common sense should come into play here for us geocachers. Park your vehicle completely off of the road. I did. There were several near misses when we we there. Not us, other cachers/vehicles. The owners of the A'lien Inn in Racheal Nevada, operate a large truck on the highway each day. One day to keep from killing some cachers, the driver had to flat spot a new set of tires on the truck to avoid an accident. He wasn't happy about the geocachers that day. Also one of the local EMT's works at the A'lein Inn and she told us plenty of stories about close calls and wrecks caused by the cachers. To say they were less then impressed why we were there, would be an under statement.
But they weren't mad at the geocachers for playing their game. They were made at the idiots that didn't use any common sense in where they parked. And not paying attention to when and what they were pulling out in front of. We saw many police officers go by while we were doing the trail. One Nevada State Police officer actually stopped and ask if we were okay. When I explained, "Yes we were just geocahing". He said,"Okay have fun" and continued on down the highway.
There is a difference in how you handle the situation of parking along the road. Common sense plays deeply into being safe. If the highway was clear to the horizon in both directions, I would just stop on the edge of the lane/road. And idle while my partners ran for the cache and signed the logs. All the while I was watching the horizon for another vehicle. If a vehicle was approaching I would pull completely off of the road so they could pass completely free of any danger of an accident. It's so easy to be curtious.
The ill feelings along the trail were caused by "people" not necessarily all geocachers doing stupid things along the highway. The police officers and highway workers we spoke with were happy and pleased with us and the way were doing things along the road. So responsible geocachers didn't cause the problems along the E.T. Trail. The cachers that made the tremendous effort to build the trail for others to enjoy, should be commended. It's a shame those of you that didn't get to do the trail missed out. We took many pictures along the route as the scenery is wonderful. Sorry to see such a fun thing end the way it has. But don't be to critical of something you know nothing about unless you have been there and talked to the people personally.
Just my opinion. Not trying to flame anyone.
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Well I don't know if this will help or not. But I did this in a cache back in January 2005. GCMJQ0 Communications Error?????? If you like what you see send me an email and I'll tell you how to set it up.
N7VIV...........
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OK, I've had this question for a while now. Whenever I read about operating practices I inevitably come across something like the following: (Bold empahsis added)The 50.110 MHz international DX calling frequency has been used for more than 20 years, but its original purpose has been largely eclipsed by the dramatic increase in 6-meter activity over the past decade. It was intended for making initial contacts with stations outside one's own continent when the band was dead. It is still used that way, but widespread abuse, crowding and consequent QRM around 50.110 has dramatically undermined the DX calling frequency's intended function.
It is probably most useful now as a place for American stations to listen for DX before the band opens. Leave 50.110 MHz clear so that others have a chance to hear intercontinental DX stations calling CQ. Resist calling there yourself. You merely make it impossible for others to copy weak DX stations you may not be hearing. If you feel the urge to call CQ, pick another frequency. You will be more likely to be in the clear on the DX side, and you will not interfere with those who are assiduously monitoring 50.110.
Now, this question doesn't just apply to 6m or DX calling, but I see quite frequently words to the effect of "listen to but never call on the calling frequency." This just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean I can see that if you are to call on it, someone else may not be able to hear a weak signal call. But, if that's the case, who would EVER use the calling frequency and what would you be listening for? I mean, in the case above, yes you may be talking over a weak signal, but c'mon... isn't the whole point of a calling frequency so you can call other stations to make contact? American stations are never allowed to call, only listen for them? Again, I go back to the point of what is a calling frequency for if you're not supposed to call on it.
Please someone explain the logic to me.
This may help you a lot more than sitting there monitoring the call freq. What I'm referring to is similar to fishing. When you go fishing you throw your hook in where you think it looks good. Then when you get a boat and you're using a depth finder/fish finder, you notice those places that look good don't always have fish. Same thing here. So don't waste your time looking and listening where the DX isn't at.
I'm a DX hound and have been for years. I started asking around long time ago about how others discovered their rare DX contacts. Here's the answer in a nut shell. DX-Cluster, once you arrive there book mark this website. You'll need it if you want the really rare stuff.
Now look over at the left side where it says "Custom Spots". Click on 50 MHz. Now you are viewing the latest spots worldwide of the known activity on 6 meters. You can see who heard or worked whom. What the frequency was. And you see the time and date of the post in UTC time. They also are posted by mode.
You can also post there.
You will find this DX-Cluster very handy for conditions on all bands and modes. Click around the bands and you can see how the "Grey Line" affects long range communications. Pretty soon you can see that some of the conditions are predictable depending on the time of the day and where the stations are located on the earth.
Hope that helps you out a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I removed some functionality that I believe may be slowing down the site. Please try it again and let me know if it works now.
Alright it's fixed....Thanks Jeremy 
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Don't keep testing browsers. It isn't a browser issue. For some reason your travel bugs are having issues when being dropped into the cache and this would be a server issue. We'll look into it. Thanks for the additional info!
Okay I'll sit tight. One more small piece of data. This is happening no matter what TB or which cache. Seems to be across the board so to speak.
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I can't reproduce it on that cache.
What travel bug are you trying to drop in there?
I saw you drop your TB several times in the cache.
Here are the TB's I was trying to drop in the cache: TBJWPE, and TBKFEZ.
Also here are two more screen captures to look at. Notice that they are coming back from Groundspeak. One of these I was using IE 6.0, the other Mozilla Firefox 1.5
I also have Opera 8.5, they all produce the same error messages. Also I have five computers on a network with various OS, from 2000 NT, 98, ME, XP. All get the same error message return.
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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Paid for two thanks..........
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Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I'm unable to get the travel bugs to move from my possession into the cache. I've tried the "Found It" log option, and then mark the appropriate TB's to drop. Then I tried the "Write a note" log option also. Even went and tried different computers. Tried on 05-Jan-2006 and 06-Jan-2006. Get the same error message over and over. And what's really frustrating is the "text" portion of the log goes through and is posted on the caches. Just won't move the TB's into the cache. Any ideas??? Here's a screen capture of the error message. Remember I've tried multiple computers.
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Mr. 4BOWS - KE6GTE
Mrs. 4BOWS - KE6MEB
4Bows I didn't know you were Hams, I just got my ticket KE7FWH
Hi Guys,
I know the 4bows dad, I believe he has a N7??? call. He and I used to talk all of the time when I was mobile down near Twin Falls.
Congratulations KE7FWH, on that new callsign. You did a real nice job on that radio install!!!!
Love ham radio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Involved in lot's of ham radio events.
Currently the Vice President of the Boise County Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
and the co-owner of the 145.25 repeater here in Boise, Idaho.
N7VIV....
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Just curious, is it mainly listening to conversations? or talking and listening? is it a party line type situation? (like CBs but only on a larger scale)? What are you all actually doing?
Depending on your personal interests, there are many modes to explore. Here are just a few.
APRS; is a mode where you can track yourself and others that have a APRS transmitter. It even has street level mapping so you can see where the person or station is actually moving. In real time. Here's a link to an internet website where you can move the map around to your area and watch the transmitters moving. APRS Here is another great website for info about this: More about APRS
Another mode which most of the others have been writing about is using VHF/UHF repeaters to talk to other people.
We also have amateur television which a lot of people find very fun. Just imagine transmitting a signal over the air to another person and they can see and hear you at the same time just like regular TV. Also there is a part of this called Slow Scan TV. It's really cool. Say you're in the USA and you want to send a picture to a friend in New Zealand. It's a piece of cake on Slow Scan TV.
Then others like CW or more commonly known as Morse Code. You can literally talk around the world on CW. It's a great mode. Now you're going to meet people that don't want to learn morse code, and that's Okay. But if you really like to play with radio communication. Then CW is where it's at. When the conditions get real bad, CW will always cut through. And trust me when I say that making a contact on CW will have you making back flips in your radio room. Think of it this way. You've just built your first 40 meter CW transmitter kit and got it all tested and it's up and running. You've measured out the wire for your antenna and hung it between your house and the tree in the back yard. You put your head phones on and you start dialing around listening for a station somewhere far off. And suddenly you hear, CQ CQ CQ delta 68 charlie CQ CQ CQ. ( D68C) You don't believe your ears. You don't know where he is but you know with that callsign he's far far away. You scramble to answer him with your brand new radio that you just finished building and your shiney new morse code key. And to your utter amazement, he answers your call. You've just made your first morse code contact. Later you look up his callsign and find out that he was on the Comorros Island off the east coast of Africa. And you made the contact with 5 or 10 watts. I actually made that contact from Boise Idaho. Although my radio puts out more power I was running low power at the time. Here is an example kit:40 Meter CW Kit
Packet radio is another real fun mode. Basically you type back and forth with your computer over the air. Here's more info: All About Packet Radio
Another great mode is PSK31, it is also another digital mode like packet. I use it qiute a bit. I live in Boise Idaho, and early in the morning before the sun rises. I can work stations in Europe, like Norway, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, etc. With ten watts and 135 feet of wire antenna, and my radio and my computer. You just type back and forth in real time. It's a lot of fun. Here's a website with lot's of info: All about PSK31
The thing with ham radio is it has something for everyone. No matter what your interests are, there is something that will perk your interest in ham radio.
There are many voice, and digital modes to explore and let your curiousity lead you into many projects.
If you want to know what license a ham has or where they live you can put their ham radio call letters in a call sign data base like QRZ.Com Call Sign Data Base and it will tell you everything.
Get your ham radio license and start having fun, 73's from N7VIV
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Good grief -- I just THOUGHT I had found a lot!
Hi JoeFrog,
Good to see you on the forums. Thanks for the coin trade.
Better not hijack the forum.
Thanks LaRobley for all you do.
We are the first in Idaho to hit 900 caches and 900 TB's. We did that on the same day. And no we didn't get the majority of the TB's at TB gatherings. If you check our profile , you'll notice that we have cached the entire pacific northwest to get those TB's. As a matter of record the few gatherings we have been to, usually we are the ones bringing the bags of TB's for the other cachers.
Working our way to 1000 TB's. Made it to 937 TB's yesterday. We use a tracking TB for our caching adventures. It reached 16,270 miles yesterday.
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Following the OP.
I agree, there are a lot of TB's that seem to be listed on a given cache page for months after they have disappeared into the mist.
I have a hard time believing that anyone smart enough to get a job that pays enough disposable money to afford a GPS, let alone learn how to play the game, is not smart enough to bloody well log their find.
What is it? Once click, one 6 digit number and a second click? You really don't have to leave a comment, its optional.
Before we hear again the "Everyone gets to play the game the way they want" bit and before you folks even wind up, its not OK to not log your TB finds and moves.
Period.
Some people like TB's and will go out of their way to find them, especially if they are cool in some way. If these folks are planning a trip in a certain area, they may go for a cache only because of the TB.
With gas pushing $3 a gallon, and heading towards $4 before too long, its a significant burden to go on cache trips for a lot of us, especially those on fixed incomes.
We need to be willing to be more responsible and think of each other when we move these.
Boy can I relate to the above quote. As a cacher that has always found the TB's a real fun thing to chase, and 937 TB's found. This lack of logging is very troublesome.
Although through the years I have developed some methods to help preserve the gas. But I agree, how difficult can it be to log TB's.
Now before the newbies get upset. I'll give you a free ride. Newbies deserve a free ride for a while. We were all there in the begining, but after a while the free ride ends.
Here's a prime example of a free ride ending. Here's a cacher idahowolfpack that built his profile on 22-July-2004 and in his profile proudly announces that they are "Engineers". I would say that takes considerable higher education to reach that point in life. And now they have a registered profile that is nearly fourteen months old. They just picked up their first TB. They proudly logged the fact in the cache log. But never logged the TB into their possession. I see this all the time.
It's sad that we live in such a highly educated nation, and have such a tough time playing a simple game.
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40 meters is a great band for a net. At night the band lengthens out and you can cover the whole USA.
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Even though I love ham radio and think CW has a niche, the future of ham radio is not CW. With chat rooms, text messaging, email, and internet, we have to evolve with the times. The "I had to do it so that means you do too" attitude will slowly squeeze ham radio out of existence.
Just my 2 cents
Bob
Lowering our standards has been slowly degrading our society. But that doesn't mean we can't learn new things. But on the other hand, some of my most prized possessions in the ham shack are QSL cards from around the world that I did on CW. I happen to love contesting. I have a friend, some of you know him. His call is AA7YE, and he was a big influence for me to learn high speed CW. Dane consistently runs 70 WPM when we contest together. I'm still struggling to get above 35 WPM, but it's still fun. And it teaches kids to try harder. Not make excuses. I have a grandaughter that hangs out in my ham shack that is four years old. She has learned her alphabet and can do about 7-8 WPM on CW. Boy when she grows up, look out. I'll have to build her a water cooled key, hahahahaha....
Best Regards,
Jake N7VIV .- .-.
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Extra Class here, catch me on the Farm Net 3.937 at 2:00 UTC
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Extra Class
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Can anyone confirm that he physically has the bugs? It would probably be pretty easy to go through the TB gallery and find bugs where the tracking number is visible and falsely claim the bug.
Perhaps it's time for a bug dispersion event.
Jamie
He has our Boise Idaho Taxi Racer TB, and a TB that belongs to Grampapa from the panhandle of Idaho.
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There is a newly created profile as of 30-April-05, remorser profile
This guy created this profile and then logged 156 stolen TB's into his possession. All of the logs say, "ihaveit". The "Boise Idaho Taxi Racer" is my TB. If you read the logs on the TB's, a pattern starts to appear. Many of the caches have been archived because of vandalism. Also this guy likes to disassemble the TB's and leave pieces of them near the caches where he took them.
From the logs it appears he is in the Denver Colorado area. He has trashed a lot of caches. How can we locate this guy and stop him?
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What if you or a family member gets very ill and the last thing on your mind is hiding a TB in a ammo box under a rock somewhere?
That actually happened to me. I picked up a TB and then got very sick. Spent quite a bit of time in the hospital. One day I get a real nice email from the owner of the TB. I wrote back to them apologizing for keeping their TB out of circulation. I was on the mend and planned on soon returning to geocaching. The TB owners were very understanding and wished me all the best. They said that when I got to feeling better that would be soon enough for their TB to be placed. I kept them informed of my progress as I recovered. Finally I felt like caching again and I put their TB in a cache. I sent them an email right away. They returned my email with a great big thank you and best wishes for my continued health.
I think the real true answer to these TB's is communication between the owners of the TB's and the cachers that have picked them up. If we are just curteous to each other it will go a long way.
Just my $.02 worth
Best Regards,
n7viv and DB............
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As a TB addict I have 5 to 10 TBs in my posession at all times (and I seldomly keep any longer than 2 weeks). If I come to a TB hotel with many TBs in them, I just swap'em.
TBs and their owners are happy about the movement.
Cache owner is happy that his cache still has lots of TBs.
Olaf
I appreciate the out of towners visiting the TB hotel. And it's nice when there is lot's of TB's in the hotel for them to trade.
I don't like to see someone just empty the hotel and leave nothing. That sort of defeats the purpose of the hotel. The way I see it, the hotel provides a convienent spot for cachers to have access to lots of TB's at once.
Bring ten or twelve and trade to your hearts content.
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There were 467 travel bugs logged into (GCHAZV) Second Annual Geo-Woodstock.
That would really help my score. Just hit 300 TB's yesterday.
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Go to the bug's page and email the owner and see if he can help you. The only way I know that this can be corrected is with the TB #. I have know some new cachers who have gone back to the cache to get the numbers before the bug is picked up again. What they COUGH Cough Cough !!! learned is to keep a journal for yourself and each cache you visit. I write the cache name, what I left what i am taking what bug & number I am leaving and addotionally what tb & # I have picked up from the cache. This has helped immensely especially when caching 7-15 or more a day. I also now do this with a personal palm pilot.
I have e-mailed the owner and am waiting for a response. I would pick it up again but it is a 55 mile drive. I do have a pocket PC but have yet to find a decent tracking software to use.
This is a lesson I learned the hard way long time ago. I also keep a record of all TB's and caches. After logging 278 TB's you wouldn't want to lose your data.
Here's a little trick I use. I just use "Pocket Excel" on the PDA. I have one file for "Geocaches" named by year, and one file for TB's. Here's the really important part. Save these files to "Memory cards" and not the main memory on the PDA. That way if your PDA locks up on you out in the field and you have to do a soft reset, you don't lose your data.
Then when I get home I just drag and drop the files from the PDA onto my desktop on the main computer. That way I always have a duplicate record.
Just take the time in the field to record your cache trades and your TB #'s. And don't forget to save each time you change the record in the field. That way it is recorded on the memory cards.
I also do a "Pocket Query" daily for "All" (limited to 500 caches, that I don't own, that are active), "Found", "NF" (not found), "TB's"(caches with TB's), "Newest" (that I don't own) caches within a 100 mile radius. I transfer these files to my memory cards on the PDA. Then I use GPXview to view the file info in the field. The nice thing about GPXview is it's just like sitting in front of your computer at home. You have all of the cache info displayed as well as "Hints", and the last five logs. Try it you'll like it. I find that the "NF" file is about 2megs in the PDA. I also upload the NF file into my GPS and I'm ready to hit the road.
Best Regards,
n7viv and DB...........
Alright it's fixed....Thanks Jeremy 
Archival of E.T. Highway Series
in General geocaching topics
Posted
The closest we ever got to the other cachers were within a 1/2 a city block. We never broke the speed limits on the highway at anytime including when were accelerating.
And the part Rebasport has left out of her story is, her now constant geocaching partner "Airspeed" was one of the two other people in the car with me. And he was smiling and laughing right along with us in the car at the time described. So if three of us were enjoying the trail together why is it I'm the only one wrong here now?
And there is no statute against hard acceleration and hard braking. So I have nothing to explain to any officer. I never broke the speed limit. We were in a 10,000 lb vehicle. It couldn't reach the speed limit in 250 feet. And decelerating hard in 250 feet without anyone behind me is not against the law. You better brush up on your laws that govern acceleration and deceleration.
And how someone twists this into being a "bad geocacher" I'll never understand. Driving this way has nothing to do with being a bad or good geocacher. It's just a little tough on gas mileage and brakes.
And my two partners in the car were enjoying every moment that we were doing it. So now it was all wrong. Get real.