The 2 Dogs

Fortunately, "Down Under" is doesn't matter which way you transport to a cache, there is challenge and adventure in most of the hunts outside the urban areas There are plenty of hikes that will take a whole day if you wish, or you can 4x4 drive to some that will still take you the whole day and you better know how to drive your fourby in ALL conditions.. I have some caches located in spots where it is illegal to take a 2 wheel drive vehicles. Many places require taking additional fuel cans and provisions. (see photo). Come down under...this is where the real adventures are. Other adventure caches involve. Abseiling, swimming, beach/sand driving, skiing, mountain climbing, canoeing, canyoning, and avoiding man-eating crocs just to name a few. Sorry to sound like a tourist ad but we do have plenty of adventurous geocaching opportunities down here. Come down and see for yourself.

It's when the Sats are off at a very acute angle that the view is most interesting. When you look at ithe Earth from their end you can see why you lose some sats very easily in some situations.

This site is very cool. It allows you to view the Earth as currently seen from any of the GPS satellites. (or any sat actually). In real time. A very different perspective to Geocaching indeed. Can you see your GPS down there? GPS Satellite Views. Use your GPS to find out what sats it is using at present, i.e ones that are above you right now, then select from the list. Usually they are called "GPS GIIR ?? (PRN ??)" Have Fun

OK...what about this one. CFBWBB

Seems like Australia and New Zealand are very popular indeed. Maybe we should billet out. Sort of like exchange students only with Geocaching. If anyone is coming down to Aus and needs some help, give aus a coeee!!. We would be glad to help.

Just for fun I would love to travel to the U.S. and try some Geocaching up there. I am sure there would be lots of interesting places to visit during the hunts, although I have been told that your caches are, for the most part, a lot easier to get to than ours. One things seems certain, there are plenty to choose from in the U.S. Which countries would other Geocachers like to travel to and why?

Gee, I had earmarked Christmas afternoon to get out and do some Geocaching but the weather is terrible. Right now I'm looking at the mercury and it says it's over 100 degrees. It's so hot we didn't even put the turkey in the oven to cook this morning, we just left it in the sun for a while. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will be cooler.

What does UTM stand for anyway. Hmmm Ultra Tight....nah not going there!!, I'll get warned.

Gheko 201 forgot plain old water! He said a water bottle. but what is critical is the amount of water you need to carry. On a 5/5 cache you would need a lot more than 1 nalgene bottle.

Actually, Crocodile meat is another thing that tastes like chicken well with the first couple of bites anyway, but then...........beware. Take my advice. If you a thinking of exacting revenge on a croc for all those American tourists they have eaten over the years.....think again. To quote another famous Crocodile Dundee movie line. "You can eat it........but it taste's like ******!

A recent poll conducted shows that after all these years most people still believe that the Dingo was innocent. The jokes still keep coming though. Q: What is gold in colour, and could have changed the face of history.?? A: A dingo in Bethlehem. I was going to do a cache at Ayers Rock, called Matinee Jacket, but thought it was in too poor taste.

Oh I forgot.... and don't you have Alligators in your sewers? BTW... Septic Tank. They only banned blokes in dresses after 5pm down there because, the men were having trouble telling their sisters from their brothers........ Sorry Tassies. Just Kidding.

Of course we down here know that you Americans have a few dangerous ferals of your own. Hey.....I saw "Deliverance" Those mountain men look pretty scary to me. "SQUEAL LIKE A PIG BOY!!!" What river was that? So I can avoid it if I come Geoccaching up there. 2 Dogs

As far as I know the stuff doesn't go off for a long long time. It has a natural preservative. Salt I think. I have eaten it a couple of years old and it was still ok. For those who don''t know where it comes from. It's a bi-product from beer brewing. Oh Oh I can see an "off topic" flame comin on.

Vegemite! How does the jingle go..... "We're happy little vegemites as bright as bright can be. We all enjoy our vegemite for breakfast lunch and tea......". Don't knock the stuff. It's good tucker. Take it along on a camping trip. Even when the food tastes so bad, it would kill a brown dog........a dash a vegemite can make just about anythng taste good. I put little jars of it in caches from time to time.

Oh thanks mate.....Crikey! a flamin' extra nought, how the bloody hell did that bugger get in there.

Are there any animals in Australia that won't eat, maim or poison you?

Following another recent spate of deaths and near misses in remote areas of Australia, I thought it might be an idea to remind intending tourists, and both local and touring geocachers coming down under, to take care in outback Australia especially during our summer months. Last week we had an English tourist died of thirst and heat exhaustion and just yesterday a group of local boys had to scramble for their lives up a tree and watch in horror as their friend was attacked and killed by a 4 metre (12ft) Crocodile. The Australian terrain is not to be treated lightly. Some of our roads are the hottest, driest and most remote in the world. with days even weeks between passing cars so you need to consider this when taking off into the wilderness. Always take plenty of water, food, communication equipment and suitable clothing. Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. Here is an example of a cache you need to be carefull when doing.... BERRY GOOD This time of year is particularly bad for Crocs. so don't tempt fate. Obey all the warning signs History has proven that for some reason, Crocs are particularly partial to Yanks. so if you really want to go swimming in a NT river, make sure you go with someone who knows the area. Of course Crocs are not the only thing to worry about, there's.... Funnel Web Spiders Death Adders Box Jelly fish.... the list goes on. But we still love living down under. The 2 dogs.

The figure for number of sats in orbit is 26 according to info I have read. This means 24 active and 2 spare. I can remember using my first GPS long ago and being rather disappointed with the 100m accuracy, still it was fun and I didn't quite mothball it. Then one morning I was having fun tracking to a local park when all of a sudden, to my suprise and delight, I noticed that the unit was following me far more closely and reporting the accuracy we are accustomed to today. I didn't realise at the time that the S.A. had just been turned off. It was a very short time after this that Geocaching was born and I did my first cache. I guess we may not even notice the reported accuracy improvement this time, but it's a nice thought to know that the system is going to get even better. I can't confirm this but a long time observation of mine, is that whenever SAT GPS11 was in orbit above my position I did seem to lose a bit of sharpness on the positioning. I wonder if it is 11 that got replaced. The 2 dogs.

Maybe you guys need to go back and read my previous post again. At no stage did I say that the number of Volts in the power lines are altered. I only made reference to variations of CURRENT on variation of demand, however I did state that the high voltage lines may be ON or OFF. For your information major electricity transfers in this country are usually done at 330KV or 132KV. Where our electricity system my vary from yours over there, is that we feed our grids from several potential (and completely independent) sources and 'share the load' so to speak. You say that in your country it would never occur for transmission lines to be idle. Perhaps your options are too limited to allow 'rest' for some generation resources, this might explain the ridiculous situation where it's possible for your largest cities to be entirely blacked out, and you authorities unable to rectify the situation in an instant. There are many transfer/backup lines criss crossing our country. Most will never be de-energised during their useful life but many others are only there as backup. In reference to RF interference, to suggest that you could operate ANY radio receiving device directly under lines carrying 33,000 Volts of AC electricity. (With the amount of inductance and RF energy being produced) and still not have any receiving problems, seems absurd. How far are you away from these lines when directly under them....maybe 15 metres? At that power, it would just about put you in the inductance field, but of course you guys will know better, so I'll throw it back over to you.

Tower to tower electrical power lines (conductors) in many cases carry very large amounts of current and therefore can throw out an enormous amount of RF interference. Of course most people know this, but what they may not realise is that varying weather conditions and other circumstances can greatly alter the amount of interference emitted. Have you ever been searching for a geocache under high tension lines and NOT had any problems. This will be because demand on the lines was low at the time and the current passing was very low. Just because they are high voltage lines doesn't mean they are carrying high voltage all the time. In fact, a lot of the time the lines may not be being used at all. Conversely, if the lines are in high demand at the time, you can kiss your sat' signals goodbye. After a long dry spell followed by rain the lines can often arc at the insulators and this can also cause massive interference even if you are nowhere near being underneath the lines. In Australia, we often have very long spells of dry so when it finally rains we get a very nice green and blue light show courtesy of the wet dirt/mud build up on the lines. So, if it's a very hot or very cold business day, chances are the demand for power is greatest so the interference will be greatest. Remember, electricity is a supply on demand only resource, it cannot be stored. A pleasant Sunday afternoon, not too hot and not too cold would probably be the best time to search under powerlines. Also, stay away from the tower during storms. The two thin wires at the top of a power transmission set are there for one purpose only, to attract lightning. They earth any strikes to the nearest tower. Just for your info.

My resolution will be to Geocache less and spend more time on the forums. Some of this stuff is cool. Dogs

I work in Motion Pictures......Behind the cameras, not in front.

Plenty of stories to tell here. Fire, rain, lightning, hail and even dust. I'll dig one out of the archives for you. Hounddog

Us Dogs will stop at nothing to get to the stash......