Bill D (wwh)

Just a reminder that the poll on the name of our Association closes on Saturday at 12.59pm. If you're a GAGB Member and want a say in our choice of name get your vote in now if you haven't already done so.

Deceangi has now unarchived this cache, so go and find it, folks!

That seems to be happening to a lot of people. Anyone who thinks their PQs haven't arrived, and uses a separate email address for them, should check the address they've registered at gc.com.

What chizu said. I'm sure one of the current UK reviewers will be along soon.

We have never had a problem with PQ's arriving , they usually arrive within a couple of minutes HOWEVER we have had a days caching ruined today by the non arrival of a PQ. I checked that I hadnt made any mistakes and even ran another one to make sure and so far almost 7 hours later neither of them has arrived. Have also checked spam folder etc - sadly all to no avail. I know I could have just downloaded each single GPX file onto the Oregon streaight from the cache page but that would have taken forever with 250 caches and as we had aboslutely no idea of where we would be going it seemed pointless . When is this problem going to be resolved -as there obviously is a problem somewhere ? Reading other threads, it seems as if there's a mailing issue, and GS have turned PQ generation off whilst they're resolving it. There's no official comment from GS though, or at least there wasn't last time I looked an hour or two ago.

There is one near Wisbech, but that aside, Cambridgeshire seems to be distinctly smaller than I thought it was...

It appears that the ban on GPS devices in Egypt has now been lifted. See the Egyptian National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority's news page here.

There do seem to have been a lot of mailing problems over the last day or two. I wonder what it'll be like tomorrow when they don't feed the hamsters... Hopefully, though, this is just some temporary glitch that'll soon get sorted.

I have 500 caches within 18.1 miles, and I'm in south Wiltshire. So I don't think you're losing out by much! Cache density varies a lot in southern England though - in some areas you don't need a gps, you just go for a walk and fall over them...

There is now a Members' Only Poll in our Forums for GAGB Members to vote on a possible change to the name of our Association. If you're a GAGB Member please take a look. Thanks.

Wow, at a glance you've got about half of the British Isles covered already! I doubt if I'll be able to attend, though I certainly shall if I can, but I hope you manage to make that map a solid blob of vivid orange!

As OldNickCov says, it's difficult to help without more information. The commonest problems, though, are having the gps set to the wrong datum and/or the wrong co-ordinate settings. Your gps should be set up to use the datum WGS84, and the co-ordinates should be set to Degrees, Decimal minutes, e.g. N 50 27.500 W 001 24.250, not Degrees, Minutes, Seconds, e.g. N 50 27 30 W 001 24 15. Both of those point to the same spot, but geocaching uses the first format. Also, make sure that you're using N or + for the latitude, and E/+ or W/- for the longitude, depending on which side of the Greenwich Meridian the co-ords are.

If GROEP has genuiine concerns about the environment, which I very much doubt, then I hope he/she/they/it follow the practice which many cachers do, and carry several large bin liners around with them whenever they venture out into our litter-covered countryside. As for the muddled acronym, well, I suppose that tells us something about them...

I pay my sub monthly by PayPal. It's 3 USD a month, which at the moment is about 2 GBP. So for just two quid someone can get all the info they need then cancel their Premium Membership before the next payment is due.

Wendy, if you've used the link Rutson's given above, which it looks like you have, then made your changes, and logged out of the forums and gc.com, then logged in again on gc.com and followed the link to the forums, I've no idea what the problem is. If you've tried all that and it still won't work I think you might need to contact gc.com directly for help.

I've just looked through the nearest 50 caches to my home co-ords, and 33 are micros. That's 66% micros. Almost two out of every three! But wait... Four of those 50 are virtuals - if I only count the nearest 50 containers then 34 are micros - 68%, or just over two out of every three... I've placed 12 caches of my own, some sadly now archived. Of those 12, one is a virtual and one was a locationless. Of the other ten, the physical containers, only two are micros, and each of those is a micro because each location is a "must visit" spot, and anything larger than a micro would be impossible, and offsets are not realistic at those spots. So of my own hidden containers, 20% are micros - just one in five.

Comparatively little of our countryside is natural. Most of it is farmed or otherwise managed by humans, and has changed drastically over the centuries as a result. Considering all the fences, gates, farm buildings, signs, notices, trigpoints and all the other artefacts that "litter" our countyside, I'm afraid I find it difficult to take seriously the idea that a small hidden box is a problem. Little things, though, please little minds, and the theft of caches is an ongoing problem, though usually a local and short-term thing.

Indeed, some cachers may have to make multiple visits to find all three little beggars!

I'm planning a Hamstercache multi, which will be a little different to most multis. The multi will comprise a circular walk around 25 separate stages, including the final. Each stage will have a large container with airholes, straw bedding and a water supply. There will be 3 hamsters, which are undergoing training to teach them to frequently move from one stage to another, so they could be in any of those 25 containers when you visit. Unlike conventional multis, the object will not be to find the final container, but to find all three hamsters. If you're extremely lucky they could be in the first three containers you find. On the other hand you could be extremely unlucky and only find the third hamster in the final container. Completing the cache could take anything from 15 minutes to 4 hours, depending on where the hamsters happen to be. Each hamster will have a tag with a number on it. You'll be able to log your find in whichever cache you find the third hamster in, but you'll have to confirm that you did find them all by emailing me the tag numbers. Failing to email the correct numbers will lead to deletion of your find log.

The cache is on a giant Mobius strip that is constantly revolving. Seriously though, I was thinking I might have to archive that one before long as due to my health I'm no longer able to reach it to maintain it. But I now have an offer of maintenance from local cachers, which is very much appreciated. For various reasons it's one of my favourites of my own caches, and I'd hate to lose it.

Was that an E or did *mouse* forget to log out?

If you get permission for a single cache, then the answer's no. But if you get a blanket agreement allowing anyone to place a cache on that land then we'd love to hear about it and add it to our database. Either contact GAGB through our contact page (link to GAGB in my sig line) or PM me. Best of luck! --- Bill, Chairman GAGB

I expect the unmentionable one is this event in Brecon.

As keehotee said, just leave it! I do...! Someone once said that the dust doesn't get any thicker after the first three years, and believe me, it's true...!

With the GAGB agreements the conditions of each one are different. For example, you can place a cache in the Forestry Commission managed New Forest without asking permission from the FC, and the Uk reviewer who approves the cache will notify GAGB and we'll pass the cache details on to the FC NF, who reserve the right to disallow the cache retrospectively, though they've never done that. So you don't have to contact the FC yourself. Another example is Forestry Commission managed or owned land in Dorset. For those the procedure is that the cacher needs to provide me with the details of the cache and I then submit that to FC Dorset for their approval. If they approve the cache I then notify the UK gc.com reviewers. So, yes, you do need permission for every cache, but if it's on land covered by one of the blanket agreements then you may or may not need to seek advance permission yourself. You just need to read the agreement to check. --- Bill, Chairman GAGB