knoffer

I can get the whole state of WI and Northern IL in 12 PQ's. I stagger these PQ's across the week so that I never have data that is more then 3 days old in GSAK. I use the Date placed method for my PQ's. The easiet way I found was to do a PQ going back to like 1999 without a day set for running it and view it. Find the oldest active cache and that is your starting date. From there it is a little trial error using the view and not run method as above. I just keep increasing the time frame between dates until I get close to 500. Then I actually run that PQ twice a week. For the most recent placed caches I just have an end date out to 2008 and when I see the PQ is getting close to 500 I choose an end date and pick the next day as the new most recent cache PQ start date. I created a macro in GSAK that uses the "get mail" function. I use gmail as my email for all my PQ's. The macro implements the get mail function and loads all the recent PQ's into a PQ folder then the macro loads the whole PQ folder (12 PQ's) into the current (or default) DB then it moves all my found caches from "My found" DB into the current (or default) DB. The macro then filters by found and deletes them all since I already have the latest updated finds in "My found" DB. Next the macro does an inactive cache sort and moves all these to my "Inactive" DB. The next macro steps involve sorting by distance and location. The first step it does is filter all the IL caches and moves them to the "IL" DB. At this point the macro then starts doing purely distance sorts. The first sort is for 250+ miles from my home coordinates, then 200-250, 150-200, 100-150, 70-100, 50-70, and 0-50. After the sorting and move function each DB is interrogated for Archived caches by doing a 10 day and older check on the last GPX date. This is the last date that GC ran a PQ on a cache. If there is no PQ ran within the last 10 days I figure the cache is listed as archived and it gets deleted from the DB. By doing this method. I only have to open GSAK and click my macro button the rest is done automatically. I picked the distance that I sort by within GSAK to keep each DB to under a 1000 caches. I then have another macro that writes these 10 DB's to both the SD card for my GPSr and to the Quick install folder for my Palm Tungsten E. On the Palm I use Cachemate and only load the 0-50 mile radius caches to the handheld itself. The other 9 DB's are written to the SD card in the Palm. When out caching I simply load the file of the caches for the distance I'm in into the GPSr and pick that same DB on the Palm and voila I got it all. All together I think it is somewhere around 5700 active caches that I always have available at a moments notice and takes me about 10 minutes to do all this. Which thanks to the macro I can be doing two things at once.

This is a cool Idea. It could be something along the lines of the Geocaching Zone coins. Except have more zones. Like maybe eight zones just take the existing zones divide them in half and make the coins 50-100% larger with a dot or number for the oldest cache in each state then on the back name the cache per state or by number. The hardest would be the Northeast since there is a bunch of states and it might be hard to get all the cache names on the back. Today the assembled coins are approximately 3" long by 2" high. Assuming it was doubled it would be a whopping 6"X4" with each sector approximately .75"X2". Would be really cool when all connected.

2 Geocoin - Easter Egg 2007 2 Geocoin - Cache Movers (Nickel) 2 Geocoin - Cache Movers (Copper) 1 Geocoin - 2007 Generic 5 Coin Set 1 Geocoin - Geocache Coffee (Gold) 1 Geocoin - Geocache Coffee (Black Nickel) 1 Geocoin - Forums Gold 1 Geocoin - Forums 2 Geocoin - 2007 Evil Micro 2 Geocoin - Dawn until Dusk 1 Pin - Geocaching 10 Pack 1 Patch - 9 Pack I have four more orders of various coins I would expect to see in the next week or so. Can hardly wait.

I have already sent an e-mail. Just for the record. Eagle Scout, 1981, Troop 51, Deerfield, IL, Trail Tree District, Northeast IL Council. Now serving as ASM for Troop 507, Kenosha, WI, Gateway District, Southeast WI Council.

I really like this coin design. Clean, simple, straight to the point and with a naturalistic touch. As an ASM and OA member I can relate to this coin. I don't have a great collection of geocoins however I would still like to see what possibilities there are of trading for two. 1 for my personal collection and 1 for our Troop. I have donated two Scout related geocoins to the Troop thus far and this would be another great one to add. Troop 507 Geoscouting Coin , Troop 507's Venturing Crew 44° 85° Geocoin Our Troop is heavily involved in Geocaching and recently we held a geocaching event. Camp Ohdakota GeoScouting Event The event was a great success. Many local and not so local cachers attended as well as many Scouts, Cubscouts and Venturers. The Scoutmaster (aka - Rogheff) for our Troop also held a seminar for other Adult Scout Leaders during the event and they were amazed at the possibilities that geocaching has to offer Scouts. All in all it was a great event. Please keep me in mind when you start trading. Thanks.

E-mail sent for 2! Cool looking coin.

E-mail sent for 2 of each. Hope I wasn't too late. Great looking coin. Excellent job.

Great looking coin. What a great idea for a contest. Crossing fingers, arms, legs and eyes.

Congrats VG on the cool coin find and a very fitting location. In my youth I used to go to the cache hide location at least once a week. Lots of fun. It is even more fun to watch the people that don't know the password. Thanks GSA for another great coin drop.

Congrats to all the recent finders and thanks GCF for keeping the sport exciting.

Congrats rwesterman on your spectacular find. Nice to see that the GSA has visited the land of cheese once again. Congrats to all the other recent finders.

Congrats jAY miLLS. Quite a coin to add to your collection and a neat adventure to go along with it. Nice to see the GSA has visited our area. Enjoy your sweet find. Congrats to all the other finders as well. Thank you to the elusive GSA for keeping the sport exciting and increasing the enjoyment of an already enjoyable sport.

Pocket Queries and GSAK.

Anything near electrical devices can be dangerous. Uninsulated wire caused boy's death Johnnygeo's Geocaching Electrical Safety Blog The above links are very real and could easily happen to anyone. It will probably never happen to anyone we know however it is possible. Drug stashes? I have seen evidence of drug use on many cache hunts. I have only once found a joint in a cache. Other then that I have not found drugs stashed at a cache location. Is it possible? Of course it is. I do know of a cache that is placed on state land with permission that is behind an Auto salvage yard where two cachers were handcuffed at gunpoint and detained for 1 1/2 hrs because the Salvage yard property owner called the Cops. GENIUS LOCI & HUTT DEATAINED AT GUNPOINT BY THE LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S POLICE!!!! Like anything else in life Geocaching has risks.

I have noticed this before too. I only see the problem when the picture is taken as a landscape and rotated to portrait via GC dot com. If I rotate the picture before posting I don't notice the problem.

Make sure that you have %code in the Waypoint Name when you export to cachemate. GSAK allows you to generate unique names for your waypoints. The default is to use the www.geocaching.com code (%code), but you can use any of the special tags to build a unique name.

Newegg has some good deals. Newegg Kingston 1GB micro SD card with adapter You can find some good deals on Ebay too. Of course you have to watch the shipping charges.

Excellent point Knoffer! But I don't think TPTB are ready to become the cache police. You will notice that Jeremy wasn't suggesting (that I can see) that anyone acknowledge that their cache meets the guidelines. Just that you complete the test successfully before you are allowed to go to the listing page. That's what I get for reading between the lines.

I think this is a good idea. I do think that the people that are creating listings with questionable info (whether intentional or unintentional) will still do so. Perhaps some will realize that what they are suggesting is questionable and amend the hide/listing. If the ten questions are always the same then after the first time of answering them correct, I don't think they will hold much merit. If the idea is to have these before every listing then they should change periodically. At least this way you know for sure that they are reading them and not answering them to get on with the listing process. Today we click the checkboxes at the bottom of the listing signifying we acknowledge the guidelines. Maybe it would help to have check boxes incorporated into the listing page instead of a prelisting questionnaire. Like maybe after each section of the listing have a couple of checkboxes or questions that tests if the information entered for that section meets the guidelines and is complete?

Got mine yesterday. Great looking coin. Very cool. Thanks.

OK so this cache may involve a bit of a commercial tone. However since this is Non-trade cache. It is fairly close to being the same as any other cache based on the small fee to enter the Park and the items that are included in the cache requiring you leave nothing. The items listed are probably worth anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 maybe more. I have seen lots of trade items that were in this price range and when trading left something of similar value. I had to purchase or make the items that I left for trade out of my own pocket. That money is never returned to me. I chose to purchase these trade items as part of the Sport. True I don't have to take something or leave something and quite seldom I don't. They are trying to increase revenue for the Park. This is a good thing. Where the money goes is up to the State Government. The State most likely splits the revenue among areas where needed. If the park shows increased numbers then they should get more money for improvements and such. If the park has decreased interest then the Park is most likely in danger of no longer existing. If the Park no longer exists there goes another area that Geocachers can no longer enjoy or place caches. I know here is WI I buy an annual State Park sticker which I did before I Geocached. There is also some local counties that charge a fee to enter their Parks that are seperate from a State Park sticker. I have on more then one instance mentioned that I was grabbing a few caches and they say OK go ahead and don't charge me to enter. I think it is cool that the State Park system is acknowledging and promoting Geocaching in their Parks. I wish that more States did this instead of banning it and saying we (Geocachers) are causing damage to the environment. Would the fee deter from hunting this cache?? Certainly not. I see this as simply a free way for the State Parks to increase their revenue. Since it is free to post on GC.com and their is no advertisement expenditures. This again saves them money that is hopefully used for a cause. I suppose their is a Gray area here.

Just ordered one of each and a few other things. Everything seems to be working fine.

Idaho Micro Geocoin - Trackable. Idaho Micro Geocoin thread Pre-order thread

Got my 2 today. And after checking here I now know have the activation code. Hope you are feeling better and that things slow down a bit for you. Thanks for the coins, Nice job.

Cool Coin. I'm down for 1 set.