CraftyKel*

Oh, don't other brands of camper have tea-making facilities? And what if you're on a hike? Pretty sure you can't carry it with you

Or the CO's might need a prod Not all venues are fully re-opened yet. For example, at the mountain biking venue of Hadleigh Farm, some footpaths are still closed until the clearup and making-safe of the site finishes next month, at least one cache there is still inactive because it's unreachable. But I daresay a few will likely never be reactivated due to CO's losing interest

I'm still fairly new, but already I'm struggling to write much about many logs. When I started out I'd write a paragraph or two in most of my logs, but now...well most caches are pretty generic and it's hard to get enthusiastic about yet another cache at the base of a tree. So these days I generally try to get a sentence or two out....unless it's a rare, interesting cache that a lot of work has gone into,then it's easier to write more . I'm pretty sure I've never posted just a TFTC, I wouldn't like that on one of my caches so I wouldn't put it on someone else's. Someone mentioned cut&paste logs. I do this sometimes when I do a trail or a day out. I write a paragraph or two about the day in general and then add a bit more on the bottom specific to the cache itself. Is this frowned upon? As for blaming smartphone users, I agree a lot may be lazy and do it that way from their smartphone, but I don't. I can't be doing with trying to type on that silly little keyboard, I keep a notepad and makes notes during the day and log and type them up when I get home that evening. This can take up to an hour or more logging in the evening, which I don't mind, but I can understand why a lot of people don't want to spend that long logging.

Just to echo what hukilaulau said....I've been playing just over a month and have 138 finds. I introduced my brother's family to the hobby over the weekend and then they went out yesterday and his 7 year-old easily found a cache that I've failed to find twice! LOL Different caches suit different people I guess and sometimes you just miss the obvious because you're looking too hard. It gets better with patience and experience and you'll soon get your caching 'mojo' and learn where to look and what to look for. The biggest single tip I found useful is to look for anything that looks out of place

For those having trouble with their phone's compass... I had trouble with mine for a while, it was almost always wrong....and then I realised that it was because my new case had a tab that closed the case with a magnet...that must have been interfering with my compass! Doh! Now when caching I remove the phone from the case and most of the time it works fine now. (occasionally it does go awol and is off by 90degrees or something, in that case I temporarily switch to motion-based compass) HTH

I would be very happy to meet other cachers out in the field, so I have a small geocaching pin-badge on our rucksack and my personal mileage TB hanging from it too. Discreet enough for muggles not to take much notice, but clear enough for another cacher to recognise

In time when funds are more readily available I might get a dedicated GPSr, but in the mean time my Android does fine, the only thing it can't handle is being dropped in a puddle, apart from an expensive case there's not much you can do about that other than keep it in your pocket when you don't need it or are climbing about I did struggle a bit with battery life, but for £3 I got a spare battery for my phone on a well known auction site , that's one problem solved, a full charge normally lasts me about 6 hours, so that's 12 hours in total and fully rechargable As for accuracy, my phone is fine, it has GPS and GLONASS, it's why I got this model (Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and very reasonably priced too) I can't see how it could get much better, it's pretty much spot on, even under tree cover And someone mentioned 2 word logs from smartphone users, I don't do that either, I can't stand trying to type on a silly little on screen keyboard. I keep a notebook of reminders/keywords and type it up and log it when I get home So for me, the only downside that I can't counter is the waterproof/ruggedness....I wonder if a putting my phone in a zip-lock bag like many logs are might help?

I don't have a tablet, but with point 7, I recently tried Locus which lets you store maps for offline use (I downloaded free Vector OpenMaps on my Droid Phone, I assume it's available for a Droid tablet too) and I really like it. So much that I ditched the official app and upgraded from the free to pro version of Locus. Give the free version a try and see how you get on, it takes a little while to get used to, but once you do there are sooo many more options.

c:geo is not an authorized app because of the way it accesses the geocaching.com website, I believe using it breaks the TOS. The official geocaching.com app is pretty good, but on Android it does not have offline mapping. I am currently trialing Locus Free, this does have offline mapping and appears to be an excellent app for Android, I am intending to upgrade to the pro version this week. I notice your phone is a little old, but that's okay, I started with an LG GT540, similar specs, and managed okay. Once you're sure you enjoy caching it would be good if you can get a GPS handset or a newer smartphone (I just got an Ace 2 which has GLONASS as well as GPS which increases accuracy in built up areas with a limited view of the sky) At first you may well get a lot of 'Didn't Find's, but stick with it, experience and practice count for a lot and you'll soon get your caching mojo

Yup, I know how to make links open in new windows, was just looking for opinions on making it work like most other websites (that I use anyway). Wasn't important and initial responses suggest not wanted, nevermind

I did a quick search for 'new window' and got no relevant results, but apologies if this has been posted before, I would think it has been but I couldn't find it... Anyway, I lose count of the amount of times I have clicked links in posts on the forums for it to open in the same window instead of a new tab/window like most sites. When I'm done reading the link I close the tab by habit and then have to open a new tab and navigate back to the forums again. I'd like to suggest that, like most other sites/forums (that I use anyway), links open in a new tab/window by default, so that we can visit those links without losing the forum page and can just close the tab of the link when done with it and be straight back at the forums. Thanks, Russ

You may not be a parent dartymoor, but I think you make very valid points. I am a parent, kids between 2 and 17 and I agree with you. Responsibility for kids does rest with the parents, too much is passed off elsewhere or blaming others when things go wrong. I think CRB checks are needed for youth groups and people/places where kids are in the care of others who are not family, but other than that it is going too far and getting ridiculous when threads like this appear, it is unnecessary. I don't think a CRB check is a guarantee that someone is safe anyway, isn't it just a check on whether someone has been caught? They could just have been careful/lucky in the past?

I started out with the official app, it's nice and simple for new users, but now I switch between it and Locus Free depending on the situation. I am planning to upgrade to Locus Pro and switch completely, once I get used to it better, It has sooo many more features, best among them is off-line mapping which the official app doesn't have on Android. My only problem with Locus at the moment is that when I add waypoints to caches it doesn't add them to the database (if I close the app they are lost). I tried importing gpx files but it doesn't do anything, I have to just load the gpx file to display the caches, I think that's why.

I recently placed my first cache using a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 and an old LG GT540 (just to have a 2nd opinion ), 10 finders so far, all positive about the co-ords being spot-on. I walked away and approached my cache from every possible angle and took the co-ords, then after that I looked at them and used an average (there was about 0.003 discrepancy between my approaches) and used that. I also double-checked the co-ords on google maps satellite view (though this is not totally accurate I'm told but it gave me a 3rd opinion). Some may say you can't do it without a proper GPS handset, but it worked okay for me and in some respects my Ace2 performs better than a GPSr as it uses GLONASS as well as GPS, that's why I bought the Ace2.

I'm still quite new to caching, and have happily walked to all caches that are local (within a few miles) to me, I don't drive, but the missus does. She's away next weekend and I'm planning to take the train to go do a few trails. So we don't rely solely on the car. However, in the main, we do mostly use the car. But we don't drive to caches, we drive to a country park, or the start of a trail of caches, park in a car park and walk the trail. For us the whole point of caching is to get us out walking as a family, a nice healthy activity. Cycling would be nice, but that's not practical for us. For a start we live in a small flat with no outside space and not enough room indoors to store 4 bikes. Secondly, our kids are 2 and 5, definitely not big enough to be cycling miles per day. And finally, we can't afford to buy 4 bikes. Another part of our caching is done when we're camping, a great way to find new areas, walks and caches, and I'm damned sure I can't take our trailer tent on train/bus/bike

Create your PQ and then with your android online, select pocket queries, then once your PQ is loaded click your options button and choose the save option and it will save the PQ contents to your Offline Lists. Others may explain better, but that should get you started. The official app doesn't support offline mapping on Android.

I don't know about your satnav, but there is an app for Blackberry, called CacheSense, it's available with 30 day free trial from www.cachesense.com, but it's not free, you have to pay for it after 30 days. There may be others for the BB, but I don't have one, others maybe able to recommend another app, but this one seems to be the most popular

I can't wait for the nano size category to be added, it will make it so much easier to ignore them then! I'm not a fan of micros, but I put up with them. Today I accidentally found my first nano, what a stupidly small thing, there was plenty of room for a micro there too instead of a nano. Are they even caches strictly speaking? A cache is "a collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place" according to the OED. How many things can you fit in a nano? Nothing. I suppose technically you could fit a few grains of salt or sand in one, but that's about it, hardly a collection of items though.

I was thinking I should 'upgrade' to a proper GPSr, but I have changed my mind, I just upgraded to a new android that has GPS and GLONASS and it rocks, I was quite amazed at the improvement over my last droid, especially under tree cover.(For a while I was worried about it's compass going screwy fairly often, but then I had a lightbulb moment and removed it from the case I bought that closes with a magnetic strap, Doh!) And I use PQ's on it, I have 1500 caches pre-loaded on my phone for my local area and when I head out of my area I just chuck another PQ in it. I prefer Groundspeak's app, but I also have Locus free version with offline vector maps (not found a good, reliable way of getting satellite maps on it yet). That way I don't need to worry about signal/data coverage, but I do have 500mb per month to use if I unexpectedly end up somewhere I was hadn't planned on being. My only issue really is the battery life, but I'm about to order 2 spare batteries and a charging dock for them for £6.99 on ebay which will see me through a dawn till dusk session

I don't know if it's the best way, but I copy all photo's to my PC and I do my logging from my PC at home too. After submitting my log it gives me the option to add pictures, and I upload mine from my hard-drive. If you're doing it in the field, I don't know, perhaps someone else can answer that

Phone A Friend

A little off-topic, my apologies for that but... Really? From posts on the forums I had thought that a proper gps handheld was more accurate than a smartphone, yet I get an average accuracy of 8m, sometimes down to 3 or 4m on my Droid. I was planning on 'upgrading' to a proper gpsr when I had the funds (which unfortunately may take a while lol), perhaps I'll just buy some spare batteries for my droid instead

I started out with the official Groundspeak app, but wanted offline maps, so I am currently trialling the free version of Locus and have downloaded a vector map of the whole of the UK for it and can go caching without any data charges. I have yet to take it out into the field, but from what I can see I reckon it's going to suit me pretty well. It took a few minutes to get used to the interface as I had gotten used to the Groundspeak app. So far it seems pretty good and although the free version works fine offline you need the pro version to use it to access geocaching.com in the field. I loaded it with 1500 caches from PQ's so not really an issue, but I am likely to purchase the full version because I like it and there are extra features for the paid version.

I recently started too and had a lightbulb moment after finding one very well disguised cache....don't rule anything out is the best advice I can give. Quite a few caches in my area are snails! (real snail shells, filled with a magnet, resin and a tube) I don't want to post any more spoilers, but do a search online for crafty/sneaky geocache containers if you want more ideas of what caches can look like, there really are some evil ones out there, but it's very satisfying when you find a well hidden/disguised one, I got bored very quickly of tubs under logs or piles of sticks.

I've only done it from the compass mode, but after you create it, just tap it to select it and off you go