Kordite

> #1 was a 60 foot tower on Big Round Top. JV4157 > #2 was a 75 foot tower on Seminary Ridge, near the Wheatfield. No PID, Longstreet Tower > #3 was a 75 foot tower on Seminary Ridge, JV4161 on Oak Ridge, was cut down to 1/4 height in 1960 > #4 was a 60 foot tower at the summit of Culp's Hill. JV4155, still in place > #5 was built in Ziegler's Grove, near where the current visitor's center and Cyclorama stand. JV4159 according to coordinates The Longstreet Tower and the tower on Culp's hill have survived because they are hidden by trees. Just the tops showing above the treetops does not disturb the skyline. The one on Cemetary Hill dominated the skyline and was removed completely. I don't think the description was written incorrectly. What I think happened was that each of the 5 towers were described as benchmarks and coordinates were calculated for each of them. But when this information was placed in the database, the coordinates for one got mixked up with the description of the other. This is also why Longstreet Tower does not have a PID and the 4 other towers do. It was an administrative error. So, there still isn't a concensus on how to clear this up. For it to be useful, the coordinates need to be right but, since the coordinates are for a tower that is no longer there, even though the tower in the description is still there the coordinates are useles. I now think it should be reported as destroyed in 1960 and clearly stated in the log that the description was wrong in the first place. As for the tower at Oak Ridge, I'm still tendant to describbe it as "poor" because the coordinates are still reasonably correct even though the finial on the roof is gone. I think of it as like having the disk removed but the post hole still there. Still usable if not quite as precisely. I may need to wait for Deb to get back to rule on this.

I was visiting Gettysburg last week and attempted to log this benchmark: JV4159 N 39° 48.955 W 077° 14.082 (NAD 83) Designation: GETTYSBURG SEMINARY RIDGE LOT Marker Type: lookout tower 1/1/1942 by CGS (FIRST OBSERVED) DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1942 (PLB) THIS INTERSECTION STATION IS THE LOOKOUT TOWER ON THE E SIDE OF CONFEDERATE AVENUE IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF SEMINARY RIDGE ABOUT 3 MILES SW OF GETTYSBURG. IT IS LOCATED AT A CORNER IN THE ROCK FENCE. IT IS A STEEL TOWER ABOUT 100 FEET HIGH WITH A LONG FINIAL AT TOP. THE FINIAL WAS THE POINT OBSERVED UPON. The tower is as described and in good condition but the coordinates are off to the tune of two miles. There used to be a tower at the listed coordinates ("Cemetary Hill Observation Tower") but it was torn down around 1960. The described tower ("Longstreet Observation Tower) is at N 39° 47.992 W 077° 15.362 1/1/1990 by USPSQD (GOOD) RECOVERY NOTE BY US POWER SQUADRON 1990 (NH) RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION. I assume that because they recovered it, that they didn't pay attention to the coordinates and went for the description. I also assume that I should officially recover it as in good condition but note the different coordinates as per my handheld gps. I send Deb an email to that effect but given the comments about her not being around figured that someone would known the answer here. Also at Gettysburg is another tower: JV4161 N 39° 50.643 W 077° 14.514 (NAD 83) Designation: GETTYSBURG OAK RIDGE LOT Marker Type: lookout tower 1/1/1942 by CGS (FIRST OBSERVED) DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1942 (PLB) STATION IS A 4-LEGGED STEEL LOOKOUT TOWER ABOUT 90 FEET HIGH SURMOUNTED BY AN OPEN PLATFORM WITH A SHINGLED ROOF. STATION IS ABOUT 1 MILE N OF THE TOWN OF GETTYSBURG JUST W OF THE GETTYSBURG AND HARRISBURG RAILROAD. POINT OBSERVED ON WAS THE FINIAL. Originally, this was an identical tower but in 1960 the top 3/4 of the tower was removed and a new roofless platform was built. Since the benchmark was officially the finial atop the roof and no longer exists, technically the benchmark was destroyed. Since some of the tower remains, it still has some utility so I'm guessing that the condition should probably be listed as "poor" with all the appropriate changes to the description. What say you to that?

OK, I'll be serious. First off, if you look at the map it is the Smithville Reservoir. Nothing special about that. If you look at the southern end of the photo, it's normal. The northern end has a lot of brown ground and white lake, indicating that it was probably taken in the winter. The dark area in the middle is probably an area that isn't frozen. Now, to the strangeness seen in that dark area. The "alien city" looks like some false color electron microscope images of semiconductors. I did some manipulation of the image, changing colors and such, and I couldn't get it too look like streets and buildings but it's possible that is what it is. The unfrozen lake has been set with an image transparancy with this other image underneath it. Maybe someone at Google was playing around. Perhaps the software goofed. In either case, based on the way the image edges are, I am confident that what you see is not actually there.

Tradition holds that Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow (as he did this morning) prognosticates that we will suffer a more wintery 6 weeks. Well, we haven't exactly been suffering as the northeast has been having the warmest January on record. (Particularly welcome to my home heating bills.) But in the German farming tradition from which Groundhog Day comes, 6 more weeks of winter is actually more welcome than an early spring. Six more weeks of winter means 6 more weeks of snow and 6 more weeks of water in the soil for the planting of crops once spring comes. Groundhog's Day marks the midway point between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox and thus marks 6 weeks until spring so whether Phil sees his shadow or not is astononomically irrelevant. In ancient times, the Vernal Equinox, the date of equal day and night and the first day of Spring, was celebrated as the official beginning of the New Year. To the Indians, this was the eight day feast of Huli, the last day of which was celebrated by sending people on fruitless errands. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk". Around here, it's the Snipe hunt. All this is leading up to the declaration that April Fools Day is Tri-Go's "official" holiday. And to celebrate that holiday, we gather annually to to the express and singular purpose of consuming mass quantities of food. This particular iteration will again be at: Hoss's Steak and Sea House 11675 Frankstown Road, Penn Hills, PA 15235 N40 28.010 W79 49.619 Saturday April 1st, 6:00pm http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gct8nt

Difficulty five But I did not believe it Gravity is harsh Hikes four miles to cache Got within five hundred feet Batteries go dead Forgot to wear Deet Mosquitos suck all my blood Now a shrivled husk Heard my girlfriend say "Deet is my favorite fragrence" She truly loves me. Near a county club The box overflows with spheres Golf balls are cache trash Cannot become lost I now have a GPS Just made a wrong turn Interesting question But I've heard it all before You've just been Markwelled Yes, I'm an adult But I still buy Happy Meals Just for the McToys Hang my head in shame But I though micros were cool Questmaster taunts me I don't believe it Microcache at a gas pump Archive this piece of . . . Wildly waving arms I do the mosquito dance Hopping leg to leg. Burned out cars in the woods. Tire tracks outnumber deer tracks. Fayette Cong, indeed!

Each year, I attend a Klingon camping event, a sort of summer olympics, and one of the contests is called "Great Lies of Battle". Most of the stories are true. Or at least are purported to be true. We are not judged on the truthfulness of the story, only on style. Geocaching generates great stories as well and such a story telling feature of a geocaching event would be great around the campfire. Remember: too much preparation leads to boring cache logs.

POIConverter and G7ToWin did not do what I wanted. At least, I couldn't figure it out. ExpertGPS very quickly looked like it would do the trick. I loaded the file into ExpertGPS but couldn't get it to convert to what I wanted. So, I split it up into more managable segments and loaded it into my MeriPlat. I copied the files from my SD card to my hard drive but MapSend thought they were corrupted. I would have to download the tracks from the GPS into the software for it to work right. Not too bad. Not perfect but much easier than the route I was going to end up taking. Thanks for the help.

I have a .TXF file of the Rachel Carson Trail north of Pittsburgh. This Garmin format file has nearly 4,000 track points covering 34 miles of trail. I want to convert it to a Magellan track format. I haven't been able to find an application that will do this outright but with some creative work I'm pretty sure I can work it out. But I need a little help interpreting the file format. Two lines of the TXF file I have looks like this: 40.599439,-79.996476, "RCT", ff 40.599482,-79.996541, "RCT", ff Clearly Latitude and Longitude in decimal degrees format. "RCT" is just the track name. And ff, well, it appears to be irrelevant because it's the same through the whole file. Here is a pair of lines from a sample Magellan track file: $PMGNTRK,4024.737,N,07956.018,W,00334,M,161202.54,A,,031205*61 $PMGNTRK,4024.710,N,07956.045,W,00338,M,162406.84,A,,031205*6C Latitude and longitude are in decimal format and bunched together with the degrees. With a spreadsheet, I should be able to reformat that. 00334,M, appears to be elevation above sea level. For my purposes, I could leave those as zeros. The 031205 is a date and so could be the same. As to the rest, I'd like top know what they are before I start trying to shoehorn them into a new file. Anyone know?

If you visit http://www.localhikes.com/ you will find a number of trails that have been tracked by volunteers using National Geographic's TOPO software. I myself have posted 71 "hikes" (some of which are smaller sections of a longer trail). The National Geographic mapXchange website at http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/topo/search.cfm also has a number of maps available for download (but most of those are merely copied from Local Hikes).

Oh, I remember that it's Beta. But we need to voice opinions so that the features we think it really needs are addressed when things go fully live. Being able to search geographically is, I think, one of the most important and useful features.

I have a listing at GEOsnapper called "Ordinance About" on which I have placed coordinates and photographs of weapons of war on public display. Tanks and artillery are often found in front of VFW and other veteran's fraternities and in town squares. Civil War cannons are common in cemetaries. Not to mention military and armorment museums. http://www.geosnapper.com/list.php?op=4;id=108 I already have 135 entries there (although should this be approved I would group some of the installations together under one set of coordinates such as the USS Intrepid Museum in NYC and the Allegheny Arms & Armor Museum in Smethport, PA. There could be sub-categories for aircraft, tanks, ships & subs, artillery, muzzle loading artillery (Civil War, Revolutionary War, etc) and museums that would have a collection of different things, small arms and other miscelaneous things. (Such as a torpedo launcher and piece of hull plate salvaged from the Battleship Maine located in Pittsburgh.

Absolutely. Waymarking is about finding interesting places you might not have knowd about. You could be standing right next to one and not even know it's there without doing a search on a zip code and then going down through page after page of categories and hope you see something. For example. Here I am in downtown Pittsburgh. First off, from the Homepage i click on "use the location filter" in the center of the screen and it brings up a pop-up window that has a place to enter "filter by postal code" but doesn't actually allow me to enter a number. So, I try the box on the right side of the screen. It returns: Things (Art, Historic Things, Structures) and People (Scouting, Tour Guide). So, I click on Historic Things and it brings up a sub-category Pennsylvania Historic Markers. When I click on that it gives me 5 pages of 200 historic market waypoints throughout the state of Pennsylvania. They are not filtered to the zip code I entered. They give me things in Gettysburg and Chambersburg and so on. So, I browse through the 5 pages of waypoints and find 11 out of 200 that are in Pittsburgh. I recognize those only because as a Pittsburgh resident I already know they are there and happen to all been posted by the same cacher. A few show Pittsburgh in the description. but without that, there would be no way for me to know that they were here in Pittsburgh. At the regular Geocaching site, a single click gets me to maps that show me all the caches in a given area. Waymarking has no such thing and is, to my mind, fairly useless.

I don't think the sub counts because the sub itself is not the cache container. There is a ammo-can -type box inside the sub but unless you could place or take swag from anywhere within the sub, I wouldn't count it. I wouldf say it's the same for the above mentioned cabin. If it's locked and you can't access it or leave your swag on a table, then it's not the cache container. The box out front with the log and the wine. . . that's the cache itself.

This issue really has nothing to do with being short or tall but with being lazy. I have an urban micro cache with is an altoids tin magnetically attached under a railing. It is set on it's side so that if yo get down close to the ground you can see just the edge of it. If you don't put it back exactly as you found it, it cannot be seen and is hidden up in the "U" of the railing. Nearly everytime someone has posted a DNF on it, I have go back to find that it was not put back the way I set it up. The website has intructions to put it back EXACTLY as it was found in BIG FREAKING TYPE!" It's not like I'm asking them to climb a tree or burrow into a hole. It's going back to the same place, why do they insist on changing the alignment by 90 degrees so that the next person can't find it?

Locationless Caches I have a GPX file of all the caches I have found. Since the last upgrade, it has been forgetting that I have found the locationless caches on the list. In the main screen, the "Found by me" column that has the date still has the proper date but the cache names display white for "not found" instead of being highlighted yellow for "found". When I go into the "edit" screen, the found is not checked and the date found field is empty. The "do not overwite" field is checked. My GC name is in the proper field and all my other caches resolve as "found" with the yellow highlight. If I edit those entries to be found and enter the date, export it to a GPX file, close GSAK and then open the GPX file again, it has again forgotten that I have found those locationless caches while at the same time displaying the date that I found them.

Yes, I do have my login in the field as evidenced by all my other caches showing up as found. Only the Locationless ones are not showing that way and, even after telling it that I did find them, it forgets. As to posting in the GSAK topic, I thought I had. Must have clicked the wrong button. I'll try again over there.

I also have an Earthcache for legal fossil hunting. Wymps Gap Fossil Quarry Earthcache (GCNX5V)

I have a GPX file of all the caches I have found. Since the last upgrade, it has been forgetting that I have found the locationless caches on the list. In the main screen, the "Found by me" line that has the date still has the proper date but the cache names display white for "not found" instead of being highlighted yellow for "found". When I go into the "edit" screen, the found is not checked and the date found field is empty. The "do not overwite" field is checked. If I edit those entries to be found and enter the date, export it to a GPX file, close GSAK and then open the GPX file again, it has again forgotten that I have found those caches while at the same time displaying the date that I found them.

The Hilton is at approximately N40 26.50 W80 0.40, very close to the Point itself. GCH69Z (A Slight Inclination. . . ) and GC9C88 (Elves on the Riverfront) are quite close to the hotel. The 4 just across the river, GCJV8C (Signal 13), GCH7YX (Mini Tribute), GCFF95 (Fred & Barney's Place) and GCG35X (Northern Exposure) are accessed by the pedestrian bridge from the point (right next to GCH69Z). If you're willing to walk a little bit (within 2 miles of the hotel): GCNE79 (Elves Cross that Bridge) and GC986 (Ben Herr) are up the North Shore Trail. GCG7YZ (Elves Go Directly to Jail) is up the Eliza Furnace Trail GCGBJ7 (Foreign Finance Fund) and GCN989 (Cindy Esser Park) are on the South Side. If you want something a little more dense and a little less urban, take a bus (61A, 61B, 61C, 71A, 71C, 71D) to Oakland. Get off at the Carnegie Museum next to the Diplodicus (http://www.geosnapper.com/893/Dippy.html) and go into Schenley Park. There are 5 caches there. I think the 67H gets you there, too. The 67H, 501, 61A and 61B also go out to Frick Park. There are half a dozen caches there. Don't take my bus suggestions as gospel. I'm a bicycle commuter and only rarely ride any bus in Pittsburgh. Go with the previous suggestion and contact the Port Authority for routes.

In a previous posting in the GSP units and software area (link) I asked about whether magnetic declination information was broadcast in the GPS signal and was told that those tables are located in the firmware. Now, I wouldn't hink an 85km wobble would make much of a difference but is it taken into account when I ask my GPS to give me a magnetic bearing?

You're GPSr only compensates for the movement of the pole as accurately as your last firmware update. To obtain the most accurate estimate of your current magnetic declination, check http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geomag/jsp/Declination.jsp

In almost 30 years ove being out in the woods for one reason or another, I had never seen a bear. That is, until this weekend. I was hiking with some members of the Sierra Club along the Whitetail Trail (Chestnut Ridge near Unuiontown, PA) and it was decided to take a bit of a bypass to White Rocks. On the way down an abandoned logging road we cam,e across a black bear. He wandered off the trail to a hillside and proceeded to sit down and watch us as we watched him. He did not seem alarmed, sitting there occasionally scratching himself. After a while he seemed to become bored and wandered off. Later on, we had run out of water and a group of us had pressed on ahead. One of our numbers was in a bad way and the plan was that he would not takle the trail but continue down the road tro meet us at the a gate. When he and those with nhim weren't at the gate I hiked up the hill with a couple of bottles to effect a "rescue" if necessary. At the top of that hill the dirt road split, one way going to an overlook. I didn't want the paerty to pass me as I checked to make sure they didn't go to the overlook so I left one of the water bottles as a marker in the middle of the intersection. When I came back from not finding them at the overlook (this was just at nightfall) I found another bear investigating the water bottle. He heard me coming and ambled off into the woods. It would have been interesting to tell the water bottle owner that it had been stollen by a bear. She would not have believed me. After 30 years on never seeing a bear in the wild, I saw two in one day. You can read the full logs here: Log by Kordite for Polly Takes the Plunge Log by Kordite for Pine Knob CITO

Go to any 1 Hour Film developing location and ask if they have any empty film canisters. They usually have at least a few. American Science and Surplus (www.sciplus.com) has some cheap containers available as well.

Difficuty five But I did not believe it Gravity is harsh. Hike four miles to cache Got within five hundred feet Batteries go dead Forgot to wear Deet Mosquitos suck all my blood Now a shrivled husk Near a country club The box overflows with spheres Golf balls are cache trash Cannot become lost I now have a GPS Just made a wrong turn Interesting question But I've heard it all before You've just been Markwelled Yes, I'm an adult But I still buy Happy Meals Just for the McToys Hang my head in shame But I thought micros were cool Questmaster taunts me I don't believe it Microcache at a gas pump Archive this piece of. . . Wildly waving arms I do the mosquito dance Hopping leg to leg Burned out cars in the woods Tire tracks outnumber deer tracks Fayette Cong, indeed! Heard my girlfriend say "Deet is my favorite fragrence" She truly loves me

In these circumstances, I would inform the cache owner of the special circumstances and provide enough information as proof that you actually found it. You will find that most cache owners would accept this and grant you the find. What they don't like are people that claim that they found the cache without even leaving the comfort of their homes.