two left feet

I just had an idea that might be a nice addition to Geocaching that is a big part of one of my other interests, Ham radio. Many Hams send out a “QSL Card” (confirmation of contact) that is postcard sized when they talk to a new station. These cards can be very plain with basic information or very customized with pictures and graphics, but they represent a tangible reminder of a conversation we have had with someone far away. To see what I am talking about look here: Examples of QSL cards These are not mine, but just a website that has someone’s collection. As you can see some of them are quite interesting. Hams have been known to cover entire walls of their radio room with these and display rare or unusual ones prominently. So, what does this have to do with Geocaching you ask? Well, why not create and send out an electronic “You Found It” card with your logo, a picture of the cache, a graphic to represent the area or something else along with some confirmation of the find? At least this is free for us. In Ham radio we pay postage to send cards and some of them go to foreign countries. Or maybe it does not even have to be sent. Just post a .jpg file on the cache page on the website in a postcard format. It could be generic; just one design for the cacher that placed it or unique; a design for each cache. Could become like a scrap book of the caches you have visited or even something that would cause you to visit a cache so you could get a “special” card, a commemorative card, or a limited time special event card. Just like in Ham radio this might not be of interest to everyone, but might appeal to enough to make it workable. What do you think? Or, has this been discussed before??

Yeah I know the expensive high output lights are better FLASHLIGHTS. But there is something very comforting about carrying a 4 D-Cell Maglite around with you in the dark...... even when it is OFF.

Awesome!!! Loaded it then registered without a problem. Database is running well on an SD card in my IPAQ with 500 waypoints initially. Makes it easy for me to load files without the sync software. I had been using my Handspring PDA, but really wanted to use the IPAQ with better speed, memory and backlight. Still playing with it and learning the differences in how things are done. But I like it a LOT. One feature I did not see was a way to search for a waypoint like I did using the Handspring. Not a hugh deal because the PPC scrolls pretty fast. I appreciate not having to do a search or sort to get the nearest caches and the shortcut to set a waypoint as the center. Very smooth. Cutomizing the columns is a nice touch also. Great job!! EDIT: It DOES have a search feature. Just had to play around a little more. Under "List" select "Edit Filters" and enter what you want to find into the "Text" field. It will find Waypoints or Names equally well.

It appears that .loc files do not have to use all possible fields. You can delete the field definition and it's end of field marker if you do not want to use them. I tried this and imported the following into GSAK without a problem: <waypoint> <name id="testxx"> <coord lat="35.478" lon="-97.52"/> </waypoint> It just imported the ID and the coordinates and ignored the rest of the fields. Give it a try!

Should not be too difficult without any reference document. Each entry in a .LOC file looks like this: <waypoint> <name id="GCH8C2"><![CDATA[OKC-ON II (Stinchcomb) by BillBeckOKC]]></name> <coord lat="35.5259" lon="-97.6724"/> <type>Geocache</type> <link text="Cache Details">http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCH8C2</link> </waypoint> Just use a text editor then cut, paste and edit a new waypoint. I have done this to build large .LOC files from multiple smaller ones. Just be aware that the End of File marker is: </loc> and that needs to be the last thing in your list and must not appear anywhere else. But, if someone has the reference document that would be handy also.

You can. A feature I really like combines Google Earth with GSAK. There is a macro for GSAK that allows you to build a customized KML file for Google Earth. I use GSAK to sort and eliminate my found caches, virtuals, and non-available caches then output the area I am interested in to a KML file that uses the last 4 letters of the waypoint name and a small red dot icon to pinpoint the caches I am after. Then I print that screen shot. I only have one piece of paper and it has the waypoints named so I can just set the GPS and go to the waypoint I want. This uses the power of two programs to get a superior result quickly. Of course you do need to be a premium member to get the GPX files. This provides stable accurate position information in Google Earth that is much more useful than the generic Geocaching link with the "cache" icons. However I do use the generic KML also to scout for clusters of caches and interesting areas. As far as Google Earth making it too easy to find caches; all you have to do is hide them in heavily wooded flat areas where the Google Earth image is low-res. Hmmm, come to think of it that makes finding them with a GPS harder too. :-)

Having been through this in several hobbies requiring equipment purchases I usually go low and work my way up. This allows a minimum initial investment, I get to see if it is something I really want to commit to, and I get to try something out and then have a basis for the features I think I would really use. I still have my basic Garmin Etrex and it works great. It is simple enough to set up quickly in the field and makes a great back up unit. Plus you can get used ones on Ebay cheap.

Thanks for the tip!!! I had a friend bring me six of them today.

I am getting a little different results with the blinking LED current measurements. I have the Radio Shack 276-036 Blinking red LED. I am using 2 AA 1.5 volt alkaline batteries in series for testing. I cannot get the LED to light with an resistor in series at 10k ohms. At 5k ohms it puts out a reasonable amount of light. At 5k I measured the current with a digital meter that has peak hold and it says that the ON state draws .278 ma and the OFF state draws .017 ma. I am guessing that the difference is the type of battery, but don't have any Lithium batteries in my collection of parts.

Tried this and it works in my office, but we took it out to the field and you need to be pretty darn close for the light to be displayed on the screen. I even have some high output IR flashers for use in control systems and as optical isolators and none of them are bright enough for my camera to see if there are more than about 8' away. However I have now had the self blinking LED from Radio Shack running in my lab for several weeks now on 2 AA batteries at 3V and that is looking pretty promising. No circuitry, low current drain and simple to hook up. It puts out quite a bit of light even with a dropping resistor in series with it. Now I am working on a housing for it. I have not decided whether to try and put the batteries in the same housing or run a very thin wire and hide the battery module to make the LED less conspicuous.

Working now.

I have bought it a Walmart, but found the link below and saved it because they have 4 patterns/colors available. Two of them are gaffer tape. If you have not used that you will love it. Much stronger cloth than duct tape and the adhesive is better and does not leave residue. I have used it for stage and electrical rigging for a long time in a flat black color. Of course it does cost more. Camo tape

Something must have broke. The cache icons are not showing up. Only my found and owned are showing on the map unless I check "Identify" and click on the map. Then they show up as numbers not the icon showing what type of cache.

I was scanning local caches on Google Earth and noticed one nearby that I had not seen. Turned out to have just been listed that day. Zoomed in closer and saw that it was just a couple of blocks from my house in a new housing development. So at 10pm my wife and I grab the GPS, walk a couple of blocks and got our first FTF. Could not have been any easier!

I agree with this. You can't get to a precise location to find a Geocache using a compass. You would need to have a location with some very prominent features to use as landmarks. But then again where does the GPS come into this? After all this game is about the use of a GPS not a compass. Although I done some caches that used several compass sightings to verify the location that were enjoyable. Maybe something like this would work: 1. GPS coodinates to a general area where you can see the landmarks 2. Use a compass to get to a more specific spot 3. Give a final destination like "The only big tree to your South" Back to your question about software. I use a progam written for the Palm OS called Triangulator that has been very useful in the field to calculate coodinates from multiple landmarks or for projecting a waypoint from a location (since my old GPS does not have that function) Sounds like you might have some ideas worth developing

I like the idea of the glow sticks. I recently found some smaller ones really cheap at a dollar store. They are glow braclets for kids that are about 7" long with a small tube to join the ends together to make a circle. They were one dollar for 15 of them and could be clipped around a branch as a marker. We have had them glow for as long as 6 hours. We like night only caches and are planning a couple of our own.

Yeah not much really secret about it, more like what was just posted that most just don't want to know or arn't interested. Part of it is the combination of things required: 1. Interest in gagets like GPS units and PDA's (or at least a tolerance of them) 2. Access to a computer and the Internet to get the information 3. Willingness to be outside and get some exercise 4. Desire to learn new skills and figure things out 5. Free time 6. Being a little bit "odd" :-) Don't have to keep it secret. A hugh part of the population will not have one or more of those requirements.

For you folks with units that recharge from the USB cable, here is a handy (cheap) way to charge in the car: USB Car Charging Adapter I bought a couple and charge my Pocket PC. My son uses his to charge his IPOD.

Also do that and search for "cane" they have this; http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/cgi-bin/...on&key=050-7088 This is really cool!! Thanks for the link!

However the local oscillator in older equipment radiated a lot more than low power solid state systems of today and the range would be very limited. Additionally when you have many devices on at the same time trying to pick one out would be like trying to pick out a single voice in a loud party from 100' away. Cell phones do transmit when not in a call and do it more when they are not in range of a tower. They try to "phone home" by sending out a beacon to find an available tower. If you want to run your battery down quickly just leave your phone turned on when it shows zero bars on the display. Also agree on the phone being able to be tracked. They do know where you are and who you are anytime your phone is on. The accuracy is not as good as GPS because the system has to triangulate from multiple points to get your location and the antennas are only directional to within about 30 degrees. So they could locate you to within about a city block but not 20 feet. This system is not fully implemented yet so most towers do not have the equipment installed. So right now they just know what tower you are on and could find out what direction you are from it but that is all.

Agree with the above; 1. No signal transmitted by a GPS, they are "receivers" 2. Truck units require a satellite or cell phone system to report locations 3. Yes you can do this with a HAM radio using APRS but it only works to other radios hooked to computers with the software to plot it. Big question is; IF the government was tracking a GPS how would they know who had it? And the second question is; IF they were tracking all the GPS units wouldn't they be overwhelmed with tons of useless data? However you might tell him that there IS a secret microphone in them and we have been listening to him bad mouth the government and have reported him, so he better watch out. :-)

Well I have had partial success. Have still not got Cetus to recognize the way point data base file yet. But in the process of messing with Babel (thanks for the tip) I did get Magellan Nav Companion software to accept a waypoint file. So, I may just stick with that software. It handles and displays multiple waypoints very nicely. This would probably drive a "normal" person nuts, but I work with Microsoft products all day so I am immune to frustration.

OK. But then I still don't see how to get the software to access the file. I don't see any options to load, import or read a file with waypoint information.

How do you get it to import .gpx? I have not found that function or the hint decode either.

I was testing the Cetus software and it works fine on my Handspring Visor, but I am either confused, can't figure this out or the website is wrong. On the Geocaching web site under Resources it lists software. One of those is Cetus GPS. In the description on the web page it says: Cetus GPS (LOC) - Free PalmOS application that interfaces with your GPS through a serial port (or connected GPS). It can read waypoint files in LOC format. Well that would be fine except I find no place for it to import or even open an LOC file. It can export .gpx. In trying to load files onto my PDA with Sync Manager it tells me that .loc is not a supported format. I can put the text of the file into a memo. But, then I find no way to access it from the software. Anyone else tried this?