Dj Storm

I agree. I found a cache where the owner averaged 100+ samples, yet his coordinates were 500 feet off. When getting coordinates, I do this: - Check the positions of the satellites. If there are satellites that should be visible, wait until a connection is established with them. If a satellite is visible but should not be (signal bouncing), move a bit/rotate until the signal from it is lost. * I acknowledge this is difficult to do properly by most geocachers. At least check and wait for more than 4 satellites to be visible. - Put the GPS down and wait for it to settle. Don't start averaging right away. - Take a reading. If you want, you can average more readings, but most likely the results will be almost the same. - Walk about 20 meters (70 feet) in several directions. See how good is the reading/average I took. Repeat from the beginning if I notice large discrepancies. - Return another day and recheck the coordinates. (I always place a "beta cache" first to see how it withstands the weather and muggle factor, and return with the final container ~1 month later; when placing the final cache I recheck the coordinates).

Having just hosted a three-day event, here are some recommendations you can find useful: - Get help from other cachers in organizing the event. One cacher can organize a successful event by himself, but most likely he will be overwhelmed with the tasks. - If a geocoin will be minted, start early (~3 months). Get a graphic designer to create the design for the coin (and for the t-shirts, name tags, website logo, etc.). At this stage you should have an idea about the theme of the event (the bicentennial of the county is OK as the theme). - Around here we are few geocachers and far between, so most events are 3 days long. On average, geocachers traveled 200km (120 miles) to attend. Accommodation must be taken into account. - Apart from the big event, we have small "satellite" events with their own theme: beer event, contest, cito, etc. The satellite events tend to attract more participants than the get-together, workshops and other activities of the big event. - The geocoin is the most expensive part of your event ($1000+), make sure you have the money to pay for it (will recover the costs at the event, if you're lucky). I made a list of "things to be done" for such events: 1. New geocaches. Most people attending are interested in finding caches, so hiding new caches should be a priority. Ask your reviewer to publish them on the day of the event. More geocachers hiding caches means more hiding styles, more ideas, and more fun! 2. Activities and satellite events. 3. Accommodation for the guests. You may negotiate a discount for large groups (might have to pay in advance), or just choose the place for the headquarters and tell everyone to make their own reservation. 4. Publicizing the event. Write on the local forums, send mails to friends, contact avid geocachers from the nearby regions, etc. 5. Website for signing up for the activities as well as for geocoins/t-shirts/etc. Graphic designer to make the logo and other designs needed. 6. Name tags for the attendees, lanyards, sharpies for writing their name (bring more than one sharpie, they tend to disappear) 7. Booklets with the program of the event, listings of the new placements, phone numbers of the organizers. 8. T-shirts. Most attendees will want to buy one. When signing up for the event, ask the participants to mention the size(s) and quantity they want, and order ~25% extra. 9. Geocoin. It costs a small fortune and takes the longest to create. Plan in advance. 10. Bike renting. If there are caches placed along a bike track, talk with a bike renting company and have their coordinates, business hours and prices listed in the booklet. 11. Food and drinks. You may have potlucks and "bring your own beer" evenings, or you may select a restaurant or catering company. In any case, make this known to all participants, preferably in advance. 12. Sponsors. Not mandatory, but it's nice to have some. 13. Counselors. Ask the other geocachers in the area who have hosted events about information and recommendations. There's simple but valuable information they can give you, like from where to buy quality t-shirts for cheap, or where to print them, or what companies are likely to sponsor the event. Hope that I was helpful!

I would rate the terrain as a 3 or 3.5, assuming the cache is more than 10 feet up that pole. And my fellow cachers criticize me for rating the difficulty/terrain on my caches too low! If there's a fixture on site that allows me to climb the pole, than terrain goes down to 2*. I would think twice about knocking down the nanocache with a pole. I will have to search for the nano in the grass, and if I don't find it, that's a ruined cache. As for the difficulty, probably 1.5. If the cache is intended to be lowered using tools found on site, the terrain rating goes down and the difficulty goes up.

How I see it: The "finders" found something, but not the log. In cases like this, I'm for deleting their "Found it" log, as long as the deletion occurs shortly after them posting the find. Deleting 3 months old "Found it"s is cheesy in my book. On the other hand, the cache was disabled, and it was my fault for keeping it disabled so long. Since I'm at fault, their logs would have stayed.

According to the guidelines I follow when placing caches, a typical small is "the size of a sandwich box". If I cannot fit a geocoin in the container, it's a micro.

I was looking at a cache listing the other day. 3 DNFs and 10 finds. Of the ten finds, nine of them mention that the coordinates are off by 100'. The cache owners noted that he can't get back there for several weeks. If one person had posted their coordinates, it would be a non-issue. I fail to understand why people are afraid to use the tools Groundspeak has given us and why others are so offended when people do use those tools. I logged a cache about a week and a half ago that was nearly 75 feet off - on steep hillside off of what was more of a goat trail than a person trail. The group that had found it the week before had not posted corrected coordinates, though two of the three logs did mention the coordinates were 50 feet off and one of these gave an approximate direction without which I don't think I would have found the cache. I posted corrected coordinates. Still I fail to understand why the previous group did not use the tools Groundspeak has given them. I was FTF on a cache with coordinates about 80 feet off. Sent coordinates to the owner, who updated them. Situation solved. I was FTF on another cache that was over 200 feet off. Sent my coordinates to the owner, who updated them. Situation solved. I found a cache that was 0.11 miles from the posted coordinates. Notified the owner, who asked the reviewer to change them. Situation solved. I was FTF on a cache with coordinates about 90 feet off. Sent coordinates to the owner, who didn't update. Cache got archived later after DNFs and complaints from other geocachers. Situation solved! The owner checked a box saying he read and understood the guidelines (including the part about maintenance) when he submitted the cache. If he can't be bothered to update the coordinates, maybe the cache is better to be archived. If the owner doesn't trust the geocacher who sent corrected coordinates, then disabling the cache, going out, getting a new reading, updating coordinates and enabling the cache is part of the maintenance he agreed to do when submitting the cache. I hate when someone posts "corrected coordinates" that are less than 10 feet from the coordinates posted by the owner. Why do they think their coordinates are better when the difference is only .001 or .002? Between 10 and 30 feet, I don't consider it alright to post corrected coordinates. Usually GPS signal in the area is not the best, the owner is aware of this, he might have gone to the location several times to get coordinates (I did that for a cache that is 4 hours of hiking each way!), the "corrected coordinates" might be less accurate than the ones posted by the owner. I don't like it when geocachers post corrected coordinates that are more than 30 feet off either. This gives the option to the owner of not updating the coordinates. He can say "These are my coordinates, if you find nothing here, you may search at the coordinates posted by other players".

According to your description, I understand that you stumbled upon a multicache. The first (actually second to last) stage was at the bridge where you placed your traditional, and the final was further away. By moving the stage into the final the chain in the multicache was broken. Difficult to say what is the best way to deal with a situation like this. I would try to contact the owner (if I can find him) and negociate an agreement. If contacting the owner is not possible, I would move my cache, leaving his stage where he placed it. Another option would be to merge my cache with his stage (so geocachers won't find his stage by mistake and miss my cache), but this would confuse the geocachers ("why is there another container with coordinates in this cache?").

I never post corrected coordinates. Also, I don't say "the coordinates are off by xx meters", I say "my GPSr indicated Ground Zero being xx meters away from the actual cache". If the difference is significant, I send my coordinates to the owner and let him deal with his listing. By not criticizing the hide and by being non-confrontational I lower the chances to get my log deleted, while supplying relevant information to the next cachers.

I'm one of those. If the cache has swag, I swap it out with something I carry, then put it in a box at home. Started doing it from the first cache I found back in 2006. Since the swag is for collection purpose, it doesn't have to be functional or something I need/like. When trading I choose a small piece of somewhat unique swag - don't want to have two or more identical pieces in my collection.

Valami hír? Nagyszerű lenne, hogy az érmék készen legyenek a "10 év Geocaching Magyarországon" találkózon, június 24-én. Általában három hónap kell egy érme gyártására (néha több). A leggyorsabb volt, 10 hét a terv küldésétől az érmék érkezésig, és ez prototípus verése nélkűl. És még egy kérdés, valaki szervezi-e a "10 év Geocaching Magyarországon" találkózót?

Budapest és Brassó között három vonat közlekedik minden nap: Budapest-Keleti pu 09:10 - Brassó 22:38 19:10 - 08:14 (következő nap) 23:30 - 12:32 (következő nap) Visszafele: Brassó 01:55 - Budapest-Keleti pu 16:20 06:56 - 18:50 17:41 - 08:20 (következő nap) Az éjszaki vonatokat látom megfelelőnek. Aki jön szójjón, valaki várni fog az állomáson. Brassó és Törcsvár között reggeltől estig óránkénti buszok járnak.

Általános észrevételek: Kell lengyen egy személy, aki fizeti az érméket, ő gyűjti a pénzt, esetleg mielőtt az érméket megrendeli, de a legvalószínűbb eladáskor; neki meg kell legyen az osszeg. Választása az egyetlen, ami számít. A forma: kör hagyományos, tarsolylemez valami más és innovatív. A fő kérdés az, mi az árkülönbség? Méret: nagyobb drágább. Szokásos méretek 38mm (1,5"), 44mm (1,75") és 50mm (2"), a rendkívül kicsi (25mm) és rendkívül nagy (75 mm vagy 100 mm) változatban. A 44mm-es mintegy 25%-kal drágább mint a 38mm-es, míg a A 50mm általában 75%-kal drágább mint a 38 mm-es. Alap fém: több fémek közül lehet választani, a szokásos választások bronz és nikkel. Mivel ezt nem lehet látni, fontos csak a befolyásoló végső ár. Fémborítás: a legtöbb gyar az érméket különböző fémborításban gyartsa; szokásos választások ezüst, arany, réz (antik, ködös, polírozott változatban), és kevésbé használt króm, nikkel vagy bronz (az azonos változatban). Arra hogy az érme több fémborításban legyen gyartva, az árát nem növeli túl sokat. Színek: Vannak érmék, amelyek 100%-ban festett, és érmék, amelyek 100% fém. A költségek növekedését alapul színek számát, és általában elhanyagolható. 2D/3D: minden oldala az éremnek lehet 2D (két szint, emelt fém és süllyesztett fém) vagy 3D-s (az arány háromdimenziós). Az áremelés a 2D-től 3D-re jelentős lehet. A legtöbb gyar a 3D-s képet késziti a 2D-s kép után, amit az ügyfél küld. Szöveg: Ez lehet angol, magyar, rovásírás vagy teljesen hiányozhat, ez nem befolyásolja az árat. Követőkód: általában csak egy követőkódot tesznek, és csak az egyik oldalon. Láttam innovatív érméket a követőkóddal és a "trackable at geocaching.com" szöveggel a peremen. A kódnak elhelyezése a peremén növeli az árat, és nem nagyon látható. Két kód (egy a geocaching.com és egy másik "sorszám") összezavarhatja a nézőt. Az én véleményem: Nekem tetszik a tarsolylemez forma, 38 vagy 44mm átmérőjű; én inkább mindkét oldalára tennék néhány színet, de a festett területet 50% alatt tartanám. Az eleje 3D-s legyen, a fordítottja maradhat 2D. A szöveg, én inkább az angolt választom; egy pár szó lehet rovásírás, ha van értelme az összefüggésben. Rendelném az érmet 3-5 fémborításban: ezüst vagy antik/polírozott ezüst a fő változata, arany és réz (és akár egyéb 1-2) fémek a variációk. Különösen, a "Szarvas, nap és hold tarsolylemez"-t választom az érme 2D-s oldalára (a fehér legyen alap fém), és a "magyar vitéz" a 3D-s oldalára. A szöveg, néhány szót angolul ("First Hungarian Geocoin", és/vagy valami leírat, hogy mit képvisel az érme). Egy pár rovásírás szót fel lehet tüntetni a "vitéz" oldalra.

Szia, Azt akarom hírdetni, hogy április elején van a 10. évfordulója Geocachingnak Romániában! Ezzel az alkalommal egy találkozót szerveztünk, a leírasa http://coord.info/GC2G5DJ. Mindenkit szivesen várunk! Hogy megünnepeljük a jubileumot, sok geocache-t rejtettünk a környéken: autóval, kerékpárral, vagy csak túrázás közben megközelíthető, hagyomanyos, multi- és mystery geoládák. A rendezvény kezdődik pénteken kora reggel, de a társadalom érkezhet egy nappal hamarabb, március 31-én. Van az a lehetőség, hogy egy egész villát számunkra kifizessek. Az ár lesz körülbelül 200 lej/szoba/3 éjszakára (valamivel kevesebb, mint 50 euro/szoba/3 éjszakára). Ha érdekel hogy egy (vagy több) szobát lefoglalyon, kérem tudassa velem. Lesz megvásárolható érme (45 lej /db.), és hosszú ujjú pólók (35 lej). Ha meg szeretné vásárolni a pólót, kérem, mondja meg a méretet (S -> XXL); annyit fogunk hozni, mennyi a kérés. Boldog cache keresést, és találkozzunk Bran-ba március 31-én! Dj Storm

When I find missing TBs or GCs, first I investigate by reading the physical and online logs since the trackable was placed in the cache. If I cannot find any clue about who may have taken it, I contact the trackable owner and/or cache owner. Until now this happened: - the trackable owner thanks me for the information, but doesn't mark the trackable as missing, probably because he hopes that it will resurface in the future. - the cache owner doesn't want to mark it missing unless he checks personally, and checking is low on their priority list. - I don't think it's my business to further bug the cache and trackable owners to mark it missing. End result: the trackable continues to show as being in the cache.

I am always careful with nanos, sometimes too careful. I usually put film canisters in my pocket while signing, and sometimes I put nano containers in my pocket as well. Then I have to dig them out from between swag and other items, and usually end up emptying my pockets. I lost the magnet once. Was st dusk, I carefully placed the container in a safe place, signed and put the log back, tried to place the cache back and it wasn't magnetic anymore. Found the magnet after a minute or two - it was in the lid!

English only is OK. However, if you have some "Czech skills", you can google translate then correct the mistakes. If you know that a phrase has been wrongfully translated, but cannot correct it, reformulate the English phrase and translate again. Although if my logs are English only, I prefer the description for my caches to be both in English and in the local language.

If I understood correctly, it's a multi. I have a cache like this, it has four stages. First three stages are micros with no logbooks, the final is a small with swag and logbook. The difference from the standard multi is that the coordinates of the three intermediate waypoints are given, and they contain partial coordinates for the final, so a geocacher may find them in any order they want.

There's a difference between remote caches and vacation caches. What I would like to find are caches placed by responsible owners. A responsible owner would not place vacation caches, period. As for remote caches, the responsible owner always has a maintenance plan. I call 'vacation caches' those where the placer visited the area once and has no plans to return. 'Remote caches' are those where the owner visited the area at least a few times, and plans to return if problems are reported with the cache. For some geocachers, 50 miles from home puts the cache in the 'vacation area', for others 1000 miles is just a bit remote. I would like to see more remote caches published. I want to be sure the caches are remote and not vacation, and have responsible owners - I assume the reviewers want the same thing. If you prove to the reviewer that you're responsible and have a maintenance plan, it's easy to get remote caches published. However, proving responsibility is quite difficult. Placing caches and expecting others to do maintenance is a sign for lack of responsibility. Usually those caches consist of a makeshift container, with some scrap paper as a logbook, dropped in an unfamiliar area that the owner liked for some reason. The cache will be high maintenance. If the owner doesn't plan to return, he won't realize that maintenance is hard. I agree to dry out the containers, replace logbooks, even replace containers if the owner is temporarily unable to respond, but won't do that for vacation caches. Imagine two scenarios: 1. A remote area. The owner visits the area at least once a year, and has finds on nearby caches to confirm this. He does maintenance on his other caches in a timely fashion, proving he is responsible. He picked up a sturdy container (ammo can) for his cache, put a reasonably sized logbook in it, and got permission from the land managers. I assume this cache will be published without much questioning. 2. A remote area. The owner visited the area for the first time. Doing quick maintenance on his other caches doesn't help getting a cache published here, but not doing maintenance is another big point against publishing. Regarding the cache in Tasmania: I have caches placed 200+ km from home, the roundtrip takes 17 hours. I visit the area several times per year, and have finds nearby to prove it. I responded to possible problems (like two DNF's in a row) within a month, usually in less than two weeks. The owner should do the same, and I'm sure the reviewer will publish his cache.

Workaround I use: 1. On the 'disconnected' map, click on a cache, bring up the cache's listing. 2. Click on "Geocaching.com Google Map" in this listing.

I'm careful with my FTFs. I only consider them FTFs if I searched for them alone, with no hints from the owner. I phoned the owner once; I had wrong coordinates and only asked for the right ones. At another cache, I was called by the owner after attempting a FTF (already left the site), I told him where I searched, he asked "How well have you searched *there*?". The cache turned out to be missing. I made the FTF after he replaced it (I knew where it was from my previous conversation with him) - didn't felt right. I considered calling the owner at another cache, but since it was 1:30 AM reason prevailed. Made the FTF in the morning without help.

Just omit the "degree" sign when typing the coordinates in google maps, and it will work. Don't replace the degree sign with another one.

Az utóbbi időben, egy earthcache létrehozására, a leírás az ország nyelvén is szükséges, meg az angol leírás is. Ha a earthcache Romániában van, le tudom fordítani románra és angolra.

If it involves a person going out and retrieving/replacing the cache, then no. If the cache becomes available / unavailable due to an automatic and predictable "something", then go for it!

For caches placed at the end of a significant hike, I would prefer the hints to be at least helpful. When I spend a couple of hours getting to the cache, I hate leaving without a find because the hint doesn't help. Chances are most people who came to search for it don't live at the trailhead, they had to travel in addition to the hike. For micro and nano urban caches, hidden in muggle rich areas, I want the cache to have either a clear hint or a high difficulty. If I travel to another town/county/country and have little time to cache, I would hate to spend it looking for a cache I might not be able to find. Caches hidden in sensitive areas benefit from a good hint, this way cachers wouldn't trash the area during the search. There's nothing wrong in having clues that only provide half a nudge in the right direction, as long as there are easier caches available nearby. A difficult cache with a cryptic clue at the end of a 4 hours hike might ruin someone's day. Same cache on the same trail, with 4-5 other caches along the trail it's OK. Difficult urban hides that require days to find are also OK, as long as they're the exception and not the rule.

Agreed. A better approach in this situation would be to ask "Any puzzle enthusiasts want to join forces in order to solve this one?"