DE_Cryptoman

Everybody is reporting the problem. Is anyone listening?

In the app settings, there is a choice/switch to "Keep map north up" I have turned that switch OFF but my map still displays MAP NORTH UP. Is this a bug or am I missing something. I want my direction of travel to always show UP to match my GPSr in my cachemobile.

In May of this year, I was in Spokane, WA and while using my iPhone Geocaching.com APP, I saw a red FTF indicating that there was a new cache in the area. I bee-lined to it and missed the FTF by 9 minutes. Fast forward to last month. My email on my laptop showed that there was a few new FTFs to be found in my area. But, although the green cache indicator showed on my iPhone app, there was no red FTF symbol? Was the red FTF a fluke or should I be expecting it and if so, how do I set it up?

I too had a permanent yellow dot. It was on a message I sent to a fellow cacher. It would not go away. About a month and half later, I had the opportunity to send another message to same cacher. Once I sent that second message, the yellow dot disappeared.

Thank you for pointing me to the tool. That and a lesson in learning how to read has helped a lot. I have been looking at those numbers for 10 years now and always thought it was DD, MM.SS. I have just been taken to the woodshed and have received a royal whooping! .

Okay, I think I understand: h ddd.dddddd° IS Decimal Degrees h ddd° mm.mmmm' IS Degrees and Decimal Minutes h ddd° mm' ss.ss" IS Degrees, Minutes, and Decimal seconds. And if I understand GC.com, they are providing Degrees and Decimal Minutes to THREE Decimal places and the Garmin Dezl is looking for Degrees and Decimal minutes to FOUR Decimal places. Therefore, all I have to do is add a trailing zero when I enter my data into the Dezl. It appears that I have made a mountain out of a molehill. Thank you, everyone, for your inputs and guidance!

You are correct. Thank you for making me look again. My options on the Dezl are: h ddd.dddddd° h ddd° mm.mmmm' h ddd° mm' ss.ss" I will regroup! Thank You!

I think you may have me going in the correct direction. My options on the Dezl are: h ddd.dddddd° h ddd° mm.mmmm' h ddd° mm' ss.ss" I am going to look at the conversion tool. Thank You!

The setting isn't there but I do have the WGS-84 selected.

I have a Gamin Dezl 770 in my vehicle. It allows me to navigate to coordinates. However, it asks for the coordinate inputs in the format: N DD MM.SSSS W DDD MM.SSSS All of the coordinates I see here in GC.com are N DD MM.SSS W DD MM.SSS I have tried inputting the coordinates as the GC format and adding a zero ... Does not get me close. I have tried inputting the coordinates as the GC format with an extra zero before the three SSS GC numbers...Does not get me close. Is there a conversion for the GC .SSS to the Garmin .SSSS? I suppose if I get desperate enough, I can switch to UTM as that option seems to be valid for both but that would sure confuse the daylights out of me. Appreciate any assistance!

In my formative days, I was a confirmed night-cacher and was a terror on FTFs. I made it a practice to carry fresh $2 bills and left them in caches for STF. Eventually folks used to follow me around. After more FTFs than brains, I realized that I really could not afford to keep that up so it stopped. One cache that I went for offered a "C" note for the FTF. I went for it and found a 100 Ecuadorian Sucre note which at the time was worth $0.004 US. I still carry it in my wallet.

My girlfriend (now my spouse) and I were in Del Rio, TX (01/28/2008). We had been to a cache (Ranchito McQuire GCMHRQ - now archived) and when we left, we told TomTom to take us to a specific location. TomTom routed us through some back roads. Less than 1/4 mile from the cache, we passed a pickup that was parked. Then we saw a backpack in the road. Stopped and got out to move the backpack and it turned out that it was an individual that had been beat nearly to death with a baseball bat. We dialed 911 and stayed with him until the authorities and EMS arrived. He was air-evacted to San Antonio where he died nine days later without ever regaining consciousness. Within a week of our finding him, they had to two perpetrators (male and female) in jail. They went to trial and now one is serving 47 years and the other 60 years. Don't need to repeat the experience.

Not sure that this speaks to the current topic but consider this. I have found many caches that have been placed by well meaning scouts/scout troops in an effort to meet certain scouting requirements (merit badges?). The problem I have found is that the placers are not following up on the cache to maintain the cache long after the particular scouts that placed the cache have moved on to other endeavors. Scouts should be made fully aware of the requirement to maintain or archive caches as necessary; that includes the scout leaders as well.

I put out one night cache a few years ago and I put it out as a traditional (probably because I didn't know any better and the reviewer didn't question it). GC1NB63 Night Delight. I also provided for individuals to find the cache in daytime by providing additional information . . . encrypted . . . in the description. Another cache put out years ago and still active in our area is shown as a mystery (?) cache. GCKM82 Cache Night Moves - 2! It gives you a starting coordinate and you walk for quite a distance following fire tacks to get to the final. Without the fire tacks, you are not going to find the cache. So, go figure.

One of the first challenges that I ever attended as a new geocacher was GC1G269 7th Annual Texas Challenge (March, 2009). That specific challenge had at least thirty if not more caches created for the challenge that were NOT intended to be archived at the end of the challenge. There different series; Winery Tour, School House Tour, and I believe one other. Many of those caches are still going strong today. I was serious disappointed when I went to the challenge the next year and the years to follow to find out that there were challenges created solely for the events. I found that those caches were not to be found on GS and would not count for my cache count. It was then that I found out about the restrictions for caches created for events. I don't even bother chasing event caches anymore. Caches can be created for events that can last for years. It just takes people who want to put forth the effort.

It took me a while to understand that I had to cache my own cache. How "I" play is how "I" play, not how others play. I am not in an official "competition". If there is a competition, I am competing against myself. Unless you are at an event (such as one of the annual Texas Challenge events), you make your own rules and you live by your own rules and the rules are not binding on anyone else in the game. Geocaching.com has established guidelines (rules) for cache placement; they have not established rules for cache finding. Calling for coordinate verification is a personal call but consider that providing that verification is a personal call on the part of the cache owner. Cache owners have their own rules as well. As one who has placed caches, I would probably NOT give a FTF seeker out-and-out clear information. There might be exceptions but that would be a call I would make based on my own internal angst. As for the attitudes . . . again, I know that I have rubbed fellow cachers the wrong way and at least one that I know still carries a grudge, even after I attempted to personally apologize in public. So how do I handle it? It is a personal choice. I made my choice as to how to handle it. How the other cacher handles it is that cacher's choice. Don't let these things get under your skin. Accentuate the positives and enjoy the obsession. Don't be someone else's negative and don't let someone else determine your attitudes. No one else can make you angry; you choose to let yourself be angered by them. Oh, and how well do I live by my thoughts that I have offered above? Let us just say that I try my best. Harry "DE_Cryptoman" Eyre Hewitt, TX

Dr_Eamy, Appreciated your provision of the link. It worked exactly as advertised. Multiple discoveries with a single entry. It was great. For the others that doubted . . . well try it; you will like it! In summary, I made a simple TXT file of each trackable on a separate line and then cut and pasted the entire list into the appropriate field and made a general statement thanking the owner(s) for sharing. So, that was the extent of cutting and pasting. So again, thank you so very much. My wife and I were both able to log over 50 finds in less than 10 minutes.

Went to a recent event and captured dozens of trackable numbers from the vehicles and other items at the event. Is there a way to log an entire list of trackables found at an event?

Try Rite-in-the-Rain paper. It isn't cheap but it is pretty good stuff. Print on it with a laser printer and you probably will have what you are looking for. http://www.riteintherain.com/

Is this jamming unique to the UK or has it been experienced in other countries as well? Never heard of it happening although I have heard that there is a new mini cell phone tower system that is supposed to cause severe havoc with GPSrs being considered here in the US.

My first few months of geocaching found me penless on several occasions and I was close enough to The Duchess (my cachemobile) that I could hike out, get the pen, and hike back in. Now, I have a super-thin Fisher Space Pen (is there any other kind?) in my wallet, another on a breakaway lanyard around my neck and I have a Victorinox SwissCard Lite also in my wallet. That pretty well ensures that I have a pen!

So sorry to see this site go. You performed a marvelous service for all of us. I don't think I could have completed the Texas County Challenge if it had not been for your efforts. Thanks, so long, God Bless, and Keep on Caching. May all of your endeavors be successful and enjoyable. Harry "Doug" Eyre DE_Cryptoman Hewitt, TX TXCC 254/11

Appreciate your prompt reply. Looks like I have two options now so I will experiment and see which one works out the best/easiest. Thank you!

Thanks for the input. I had not thought of a separate cache. I have one or two that I have disabled and this appears to be the best way for me to maintain my collection without having it on the main page. The post following indicated that the alternate name was also viable. We shall experiment. Thank you!

I started activating all the coins that I bought and then found that there were several that I wanted to keep in a private collection. I want them registered but I don't want them shown on my geocaching profile page. How can I remove the coins that are on my page now? I thought about creating a non-premium member name and adopting the coins out to the other name but that seems like it would be a misuse of the GC.COM website. Any assistance would be appreciated. Harry "Doug" Eyre DE_Cryptoman Copperas Cove, TX TXCC 254/11