Egnix

Ooooh. I'd love a "charter member" geocoin. That would be cool! I recently met Jeremy and was surprised to hear him say that charter members are a "dying breed". I'd love to see some statistics on the number of charter members over the years. I did notice that at the last 2-3 Mega events I went to this year, that there only seemed to be around 6 charter members with "will attend" or "attended" logs. At the Earthcache mega, Jeremy and I made up 2 of the 6...

I'm a charter member in Colorado (though I didn't live in Colorado when I became a charter member). I have nice caches in the state, though one is disabled due to it being in the closed Waldo Canyon fire burn area. I think my hides are in good locations, though they are not clever hides...like a lot of caches from 'back in the day'.

Ah, thanks. I never think about GLONASS since I don't work with it or have a receiver that can utilize it.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?Do=constellationStatus is always up to date.

I doesn't work that way. The numbers you see on your GPSr are the PRNs (Psuedo-Random Noise) numbers. This is a fixed set of numbers for operational GPS satellites ranging from 1 to 32 (If you see a number greater than 32 on your GPSr, it is either a WAAS or EGNOS satellite). I'm not sure how the orbital 'planes' and 'slots' are laid out, but PRN 9 is currently in plane/slot A1 and PRN 24 is currently in plane/slot A5. IIRC, they recently increased the number of slots from 4 to 6, so it could be that slot 1 and slot 5 are close to each other. So, the PRN numbers are always recycled and apply to the current operational constellation. The satellites do have a unique number...well, actually a few unique numbers...but the common one is the "SVN" (Space Vehicle Number). This new satellite is SVN65, and it replaced SVN27 IIRC. SVN39 uses PRN 9 that you see on your GPSr....

Wooo! The new satellite was set 'usable' today! You'll see it on your receivers as # (PRN) 24. Enjoy!

Since I didn't get much response in the Texas Geocaching Association's forum, I thought I'd post this here... With 100,000+ people coming to F1 US Grand Prix in Austin, I'm guessing I won't be the only geocacher there. I'm thinking about organizing a get-together event. Though I don't know how many people would be interested in attending or where to hold an event. So I thought I'd post this here to gauge some interest. I know a lot of cachers don't visit the forums, especially the region-specific forums, but I don't know of a better place to post this. If any locals have any ideas on a location that would be flexible due to an unknown number of attendees, that would be appreciated. It could be a pavilion in a park, a restaurant, a meeting room, whatever.

One of the nice aspects of geocaching is that there are all sorts of cache types. People can do the types they like and not do types they don't like. I would never do the ET highway, but I have no problem with the people who do. I've done caches that require a multiple mile hike that others would never do. I could go on and on. What is 'valid' is really relative. One of the things that is really well done about the cache in question is that it clearly describes (without giving away specifics) that is involved: puzzle solving, needing special equipment, likely requires multiple trips, etc. It is properly rated (5/5) and has its attributes set appropriately (I've done the cache so I can vouch for it). I agree with niraD to give up when it stops being fun. I've done that several times. Of course I've also stuck it out several times also and when I was done with it I wished I could rate it as a terrible cache. I've done caches that I hated that have multiple favorite points. It just goes to show that everyone has different interests, ability, amount of tolerance, etc. There's no proven formula to making a cache that will maximize the fun because what is fun for one person might be miserable to another. So, I'd say create caches that *you* would enjoy finding and be rewarded by seeing that others liked it too. Sure, there could be people who wouldn't like it; but again, everyone is different.

It's expensive to have a failure. The only non-test launch failure I can recall unfortunately had a GPS satellite (IIR-1) on board. That was back in January of '97. There are videos of it on youtube.

The rocket launched as scheduled and is currently taking the satellite to its orbit! You can follow along here: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d361/status.html

I suspect this is the answer I'm seeking. Bit of Chicken and Egg here. No sense turning on L5 until you have a full constellation of L5 satellites and then we'll need to purchase L5 receivers. At this pace, 5 more years? No doubt the Block III satellites will also have the L5 signal. Thanks for the details. Sorry, I kind of avoided your last question, since I don't know much about L5. O:) The GPS control system doesn't yet have the capability to monitor the L5 signal, so I would doubt they would turn the signal on when they can't monitor it yet. The launch pace is kind of unpredictable. The next launch after tomorrow's launch is scheduled for March. There's always talk of launching several in a year, but it always seems to end up being 1-2 a year.

This is the third satellite of what is called "Block IIF", which is the latest generation of GPS satellite. There will be a total of 12 of these Block IIF satellites. The Block IIF satellites have more powerful transmitters than previous generations, so should help accuracy a little bit. This is the main immediate benefit to the geocacher. They also have a new civilian signal (called 'L5'), although you'll need a receiver that can receive this new signal. Though, I'm not sure if the new satellites are transmitting the new signal yet. The building of the next generation, Block III, is already underway. I'm not sure what new features it will provide.

Oops. Just read the satellite isn't expected to be handed over to the Air Force until mid-November. So, don't expect to be able to use it for a while.

Weather permitting, GPS 2F-3 (SVN65) will be launching tomorrow morning at 8:10am EDT. Spaceflight Now will have live updates, and I think they also broadcast the launch. The site also has pictures, diagrams etc. It looks like the satellite will be given PRN 24 (the number you would see on your GPS receiver). Expect about 2 weeks after launch for the satellite to be ready for use.

Thought this was an article worth sharing: My First-Hand Experience with the Waldo Canyon Wildfire and GPS

There are a bunch of virtuals on the strip you can walk to. Also recommend Red Rock Canyon for the sites and the caching. Valley of Fire State Park is beautiful, but if your main interest is geocaching I'd pass as it is a bit of a drive and only a few virtual & earthcaches. Traditional caches are not permitted in the state park part of the park. "Patron & Mrs." have hidden a lot of great caches near Vegas. GERONIM-OW!! is my favorite. Also, check out this bookmark list from the Nevada Geocachers Association for good Vegas area caches.

I love long hike caches and long multis! My second favorite find last year was an 11-stage multi over several miles and several thousand feet of elevation gain! Had it been 11 separate caches, it could have been tempting to quit after just a few. Also it would have been much less rewarding to find the final. One of my all-time favorite caches was a traditional that was 2 miles up the California coast. Sure, a power trail could yield 20 smilies in that distance, but I wouldn't trade the experience for 1,000 smilies! I cache for the experience, not the numbers.

Sprint ends deal with LightSquared

Sprint Said to Plan End to Deal With Falcone’s LightSquared

Good article detailing the financial and relationship ties between LightSquared and the government: Documents: LightSquared shaping up as the FCC’s Solyndra

I don't have my 62s with me at the time, but there is a way to do this... I believe when you're at the screen where you can select "GO", hit your menu button. That lets you go to a Details page where you can select something to see the map. Something like that. It's a few extra steps and not intuitive at all, but I'm almost positive there is a way to do this. I guess what I was thinking isn't the case. Though, when you select the city, it takes you to a screen with a map and the "Go" button. Once you use the arrow keys, the "Go" button disappears and you and scroll all around. You can also zoom in and out, select points, etc. What else do you need to do?

I just saw this in the release notes for the new 3.90 firmware: "Added symbol filtering to FIND > Waypoints and Waypoint Manager". Does this help you do what you're trying to do?

I don't have my 62s with me at the time, but there is a way to do this... I believe when you're at the screen where you can select "GO", hit your menu button. That lets you go to a Details page where you can select something to see the map. Something like that. It's a few extra steps and not intuitive at all, but I'm almost positive there is a way to do this.

I like how it searches. I list my caches by GC code, so when I search I start searching with the first character after the GC. Since it sorts by closest-first, I generally only have to enter 2 or 3 characters and the cache I'm looking for is displayed in the list. Even if I did have the caches listed by name, I think I would be frustrated having to enter the whole names. I've done a lot cache series where the first word or two in the cache name are all the same and just end with a different number. It could be a pain to have to type out the who cache name instead of just the last couple letters and number.

I think you want this thread.