brdad

Spotted this thread and decided to give an update on Maine's Geocaching site. We are up and running, as organized as we need to be and are approaching 1000 members. All are welcome to join. http://www.geocachingmaine.org

Here's a related blast from the past.

I'm interested in a coupler anniversary editions, and possible a few regular if the price is right. What are we talking - $5 -10?; $10 - $15?; $15-20?; If you have to ask, you can't afford it?

And Signal is 480460. Which is not unusual. What's unusual is that's an awful high number for a charter member.

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?id=85620

I don't see it asked yet, so I will. What about a cache that requires you to send an email to an email address (not through gc.com), perhaps to get an autoreply back?

I used a small board from a talking picture frame. Took it out of it's box, and placed it inside a small plastic box on the inside cover of an ammo box near the hinge. I rewired the puchbutton to a normally closed reed switch (magnetically activated, like a window alarm switch, which was also inside the box. I then glued a magnet to the inside of the ammo can near the voice box location with the cover closed. So, if the lid is closed, the switch is open, once it's opened, it plays the recorded message. Once the box is closed, it resets. I wish I had pics of it all in place, but can't locate them. Here is the circuit board, though:

I made a stencil from a sheet of of lexan, cut out with a dremel tool with a router bit. Usually when I use the stencil, I paint it once, offset it just a little and paint again with another color giving a 3-D effect. I also use the magentic letters kids play with on the fridge sometimes. This is the stencil and the reults of both methods:

My grandparents had that game. I was too young at the time to play by the rules but just made stuff up for the fun of it. Plus, I was married for a while so I was taught quickly how to do things by myself. Wow, that's one ugly cuss in the black shirt in the back center.

Reminds me of the time I was alone and needed to take a photo of myself for a virtual and all I had was a disposable camera. It took me about 8 tries. I taped the camera to the bed of my truck, then taped one end of a board to the truck, and set the middle lightly on the shutter button. On the other end of the stick, I tied a rope attached to yet another stick which balanced on the edge of the truck bed. My plan - throw things at that stick, which would make it fall, adding weight to the board and depressing the shutter button. As mentioned, it took a few failed attempts before I got the picture, knocking the camera off a few times and just not hitting the shutter button right other times. The picture still turned out blurry but got me the find.

I felt a little bad when after much planning of my 6-26 stage You Sank My Battleship! (GCB688) by brdad (4/2) cache got a less than favoarable DNF log: February 10, 2003 by Bos (227 found) 6-10 FEB 2003 Six hour quest without joy, visited all 25 sites - Some snow slogging required Good tour for the visitor to Bangor - Some sites very interesting - a few mundane Clue coordinates seem off a bit, but most close enough - Specified WGS-84 datum was used Unable to get definitive answers to some clues - Alpha 2 and alpha 3 appear undefined (maybe deep under snow) - Still, inferred probable coordinates of the final quest Probably would not have attempted actual cache in winter anyway - Lacks needed precision final approach guidance - - ILS localizer and glide slope never commissioned Downtown sites very hazardous during winter weekdays - pedestrian hostile - - sidewalks iced - many walking in streets amongst traffic - - much traffic - very limited parking - recommend nights or Sunday No one seemed to know what a Peavey is - Must be lack of interest in Bangor's rich history - Looked it up on Google - AKA cant dog - some folks call it a peavey - I call it a cant dog - a 'cant' being a squared timber or log - Really, it's a cant dog with a spike on the end - - (that ought ot clear it up) Ya'll be careful now, Hear? But now after many happy logs I laugh about it. You can't please everyone every time. I especially like the "pedestrian hostile" line.

Make it a hybrid locationless event like this one so that cachers don't have to attend to log it.

You can always get around the system by combining your locationless with a traditional cache such as this locationless/event version. Edit, messed up that link http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...3a-5994b0877e94

I agree with HartClimbs. It's best to have these ownerless caches adopted or removed and archived before it is an issue. I wouldn't even give it six months. Anyone who can't log into a computer every 6 months (Or have someone do it for him) should not place caches to begin with. Maintenence of caches includes checking in reguraly to make sure the status is ok. What if people email asking for help, or to alert of potential problems? Do we email the owner and give it a year, and then when we realize the owner is not present, send the local approver an email? IMO, disabled caches should have a time limit as well, being able to keep it disabled longer if he replies with good cause.

If you found a stick of dynamitye near a cache, would you move it with twigs so it would not be in the way of other cachers? I don't see this as an option. There must be someone that should be contacted in such cases, but I have no idea who it would be.

My You Sank My Battleship! (GCB688) by brdad (4/2) cache is 7-26 stages all within one city and seems to be well received. Larger multis can work if they can be made interesting enough. Variety is key - be different!

I'm still waiting for the movie. Anyone know when it's gonna be in theaters? Will the Crash Test Dummies be playing the starring roles?

I'm sorry, I have read this paragraph about 10 times and am still none the wiser. I just don't know what you are asking for here. Well, if the first part of my question isn't possible, this doesn't matter - But basically, I was just pointing out that when you convert a file to Ozi waypoint for someone else, you have to go in to options in order to change owner/hider (So their hides get shown correctly). Thanks anyway, I guess I'll have to find another way to make my maps, or do what you said, or run the maps through my printer 3 times.

I just want GSAk to be able to do what I used to do with the early geo2Ozi program - Which is convert a GPX file to Ozi waypoint format so I can make maps of my hidden, found, and unfound caches... I don't want it to distinguish archived or temproarily disabled caches. I just want it to show hidden or found or unfound. The only close option is "transparent, but that doesn't quite cut it. It seems more needy of an "ignore" option. And, there might be a time when I want to make a map of active, disabled, and archived caches without distinguishing if I have found them or not (Maybe for an event to show people where caches are). It seems these should be in different categories anyway, since you can have a found or unfound that is either Active or archived. It would also be nice if it were possible to match method for matching placed (hidden) caches by using the data within a found log in the GPX, if at all possible. If nothing else, it'd be nice to change the hider data att he conversion screen (If I make a map for someone else, I have to go in to options and change it over before converting to ozi wpt. Am I just not doing something right, is any of this possible now? Has the original intent of Geo2Ozi gone to the wayside to benefit all the new GSAK features?

Mine is http://www.bytethebullet.com/geocaching

I have two sig items, and like to see people take them. One is a CD slideshow/screensaver of pictures of Maine I have taken, which I leave once in a while in a tougher cache. They can be kept or copied and placed in another cache and are manually tracked, similar to a TB. The other is a flat marble with once of the pictures from the CD on it - those are designed to be kept, though I do know of one that made it to a cacher in NY, which was cool. Check my webpage for more details.

I use mini CD's for a slideshow/screensaver of Maine photos for one of my sig items. The ones I use are actually 210 MB and will hold many photos. I use a program called xatshow to make the CDs, it does not handle videos or animations, but does what I need it to do for the photos. I even track them similar to a Travel Bug (but manually) with mixed success. Check it out at http://www.bytethebullet.com/geocaching/maine_sights.htm

Search far and wide for old maps of your area. There are many online. With a little research and some luck, you will find locations of old mills and foundations of old farms and other buildings. Then convert coords from them (obviously in an older datum). I did this pre-caching just for the fun of it, and there was often old bottles in those areas. Obviously, make sure you have permission as previously mentioned. Warning: Objects in GPS may be closer than they appear!

it's a neat idea, but someone should start an entirely seperate web site to handle them. Warning: Objects in GPS may be closer than they appear!