Confucius' Cat

If only it had a definition.

So you're saying, if one puts out a cache and dislikes it for whatever reason and therefore archives it in less than 3 months, GC will FORCE them to re-establish the cache? I'd pay good money to see that "brick." *mafia voice* "you-a no-a put-a that-a cache-a back-a my-a cousin-a Vinny-a break-a you face-a!"

I certainly wouldn't hesitate to take the pic to the local New York State Police Post and make an inquiry about it. If it WAS officially done, they could certainly have done their job in a more tactful and professional manner IMO. Not to mention, if it is real they could have done the job more effectively by having the cache archived rather than leaving it there to be found again and again. Doesn't make much sense to say "play your game elsewhere" and leave the game-piece in place does it?

If it came in blue, it might pass for a handicapped sticker and you could park a little closer (just kidding.... JEEZ!)

Interference with licensed radio or TV transmissions which could conceivably result in hefty fines in the very unlikely event the FCC got involved. The cheaper the transmitter the more likely it is to produce unwanted spurs and harmonics. Using the 'toy" transmitters as intended, meaning intermittent, short term operations without modification, makes such interference potential negligible or at least manageable. Modifying the transmitter to use a different battery and turning it on 24/7 vastly increases the potential for harmful interference. Modifying a part 15 device in any way voids its part 15 certification. A low power transmitter can cause interference for many miles to a base station receiver. I find them very frequently in the course of my job... most that I find are less than 1 watt power and cause problems to multiple State Police sites within 30 mile radius. Some interference sources are not even intended to radiate useful RF at all, such as sat TV converter boxes and cable TV cables and connectors, and I have found these types interfering over a mile from sites. Your "toy" transmitter would fall somewhere in between. 24/7 transmitters are particularly troublesome even if operating properly. Among other things, they provide a constant source of one of the two or three or more signals needed to produce intermod products. With a constant source, IM problems occur with much more frequency. So anyway, go for it... Iowa might be a nice place to visit on the company dole.

So if you ask a "new" question and it has been discussed b4, ya get yelled at for not searching... obviously a no-win, no-win situation

A whole SHIpLOAD of salt IMO Total BS Way too smooth to be true. I wonder why the actual tracklogs weren't posted? Hmmm?

Personalized items are always good collectibles. And some rocks are quite cool.

Excellent post! Nothing to argue here. (bolded) So I see you gots lawyers up there, too. Isn't it a shame we have to base so much of our lives on "liability issues?"

I have thought about this thread a lot today whilst driving 500 miles and i would like to raises an issue. Let me first say, I recognise the right of the appointed or elected management PTB to regulate their assigned park as they see fit persuant to the laws and regulations they are given. That being said, here is my issue: Basically, I think the use of a park- any park- comes down to the basis and purpose for which the park was established. I will consider two basic categories: 1. a park whose purpose is to preserve a certain natural environment to prevent the expiration of some endangered species or some such concern. 2. a park whose basis and purpose is for the enjoyment of the citizens who perhaps actually own and pay for the park. In case #1, VERY strict regulation of visitors is warranted, if indeed visitors are allowed at all. In these cases natural and man-made barriers should be used, along with appropriate signage to limit human intrusion onto the protected environment. It helps a LOT in these cases if the visitors know WHY they are so severely restricted such as, "Endangered plant life- please stay on trail." In case #2, If a social trail has developed which "looks like the parks department maintains it," I would ask, "why DOESN'T the parks department maintain it?" Is the unofficial trail more damaging than the official trail? In any given case this may be true, but if it is not... My position on this is that, unless it is truly a rare species, a basic wild plant which exists in great numbers without cultivation or other human intervention is just a basic wild plant- in the common vernacular, a "weed." I fail to see why the weeds that were killed BY the parks department to build an official trail are of any more or less value than the weeds that were killed "for" the parks department by the deer and the park visitors. The fact that trails, official or otherwise, exist actually preserves the weeds in general because most people walk on the trails rather than trampling the weeds randomly. Thus the ONLY weeds that are killed are those on the trails. if the park visitors ENJOY walking where the "unofficial" trails are, does not that fit the basis and purpose assumed in my premise? If so, wouldn't it be the simplest thing just to make the "unofficial" trails "official?" A common sense approach often used in architecture is to place walkways where people prefer to walk... this prevents people from taking "shortcuts". I.E. a wise builder will figure out where the NATURAL paths are and use these paths for the walkways. It seems to me this would be a good approach for park managers also. Basically what i am saying is why make a big deal out of an extra trail or two if there are no endangered plants there and if the people using the park are enjoying the use of THEIR park (which is the reason the park exists) in a way that does no more harm than the official trails do? </ serious post> And since the deer are making unofficial trails, we'd best get busy SHOOTING them- for the good of the chiiiildren!. Venison for everyone! (Or maybe just put up signs, "Deer Keep Out!")

Packaging is irrelevant to geocaching value except in maintaining weatherproofing. I am puzzled by this statement in your post: You do realise that anything you place in a cache is going to be traded out, right? That means the cars in your collection that you "show" this way are no longer going to be cars in your collection. Also, themed caches rarely work as intended and trading in general is not always "fair." This means that some of your cars will be taken without trade and some will be traded for golf balls, buckeyes, pine cones and acorns. And even those who trade car for car will probably on many occasions trade lesser valued or ordinary cars. I don't mean to disparage geocachers or malign your idea (which is a FINE idea for a cache), but only wish to inject a healthy dose of reality into the picture rather than your having to learn the hard way by losing some of your valued collection with little or no return.

I am sorry you are having problems with park visitors going off trail. But you indicated the social trails existed independently of geocaching. So do you really expect to accomplish a lot by getting rid of the caches? Placing caches on trail pretty much guarantees their short lifespan. If you want caching to continue in your park, it might be good to consider a short distance off trail that would be acceptable- like 25 feet or so? Anyway: Once you have made contact and have gotten the offending caches removed or relocated to an acceptable location, i would recommend making a "permit" system and requiring new caches to be cleared by park management prior to placement. Once your management has decided on their rules, make these rules known to the local reviewers. The local reviewers refer to all known park manager restrictions when approving caches. When your specific requirements are made known to the reviewers, they will be enforced going forward. That is a REALLY broad brush! Many parks and public lands do not limit use by the public to "on trails only." And "park managers and ecosystems worldwide" differ widely in their sensitivity and rules. Park geocaching as we know it would soon go by the wayside if ALL parks required all caches to be on trail.

Trade it in on an HCx and you might get a little closer. (but not necessarily) 25-30 feet is spot on in my book.

Anyone know of any caches where the actual cache can be seen of Google Earth® ? I realise this would require a fairly large cache and would have had to have been in place for quite a while, but it seems like it should be possible. How about at least a clear view of the hiding spot such as a unique tree that would be recognisable by someone looking for the cache?

I concur with this. Most of my FTFs are done this way. The competition is very sparse on caches that require a little "work" and as a BIG PLUS, they are a lot more fun even if you come in second. I used to use the pager notifications but found them to be annoying because they would page me at all hours and times that I could not go anyway. I have found it works better for me to simply have a prepared PQ of the virgin caches (click "not found" check-box and whatever other features interest you such as size and difficulty) within 150 miles and when I have time to go after one, i click the preview icon and see what's out there. That way, i get to go on MY time-table and am not a "slave" to the race.

None

Not to mention the trouble from the local RCoA union- Rattlesnakes and Copperheads of America

I would take the railroad to the top... Norfolk & Way.

Now perhaps we can lay this to rest.

Caches being accessable to the general public need to have contents limited to what everone is allowed to have. Kids are prohibited from tobacco, alcohol and other items. Drugs, and a few other items are illegal. But then again you were turning off your common sense for that post and turning up the smart assidness. Safety is more than guardrails and childproof caps. It's what you bring with you. If you bring your stupidity then nothing I can do can prevent you from hurting yourself. Now if you really think the ultimate way to teach safety is to harm people... Furthermore, i fail to see how one could blow their finger or head off with an unloaded revolver no matter how stupid they might be. The only unsafe thing you could do with an unloaded revolver is perhaps drop it on your toe or maybe pinch your finger between the hammer and the backstrap. Now a LOADED revolver that you ASSuME is unloaded... that's a different story and it happens every day. So, Computercachebug, i suppose you have a way to eliminate stupid acts? Please tell us. We'll elect you Earth Czar after Mike McConnell resigns.

I have often considered that parking tickets are a fair gamble compared to parking lots that charge $10 or more for a couple of hours. Most times you can park for a while without a ticket... do that a few times and get tagged once and you about break even. In the 70's i worked in downtown Cincinnati and paid $50/month for parking. a coworker parked at the meters every day and would get a ticket every day and ignore them. When they finally got around to towing his car (a junker), they could only find like 20 tickets... i think he paid about $150 to get his car back after having parked about a year. If they had charged him for all the tickets, he would have just let them keep the car.

I use Microsoft office picture manager. I assume it came as part of MS office package. You state you have image editing software on your main computer. Check the license agreement... most software allow you to have a second copy on your laptop without further payment.

Count me as another that passes on them. Once in a while i'll try one, but in general, as I drive up and see that the area is in the public eye, I drive on. Mostly I like to walk in the woods, but urbans are cool from time to time for a quick "fix." I have come to prefer cemeteries for my quick fixes in general since there is rarely much serious mugglage.

Personally, I consider college campi very uninviting places due to their penchant for issuing parking tickets. I once got a $100 (YES ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR) ticket for parking in front of a stand pipe that was over 100 yards across the lawn on a campus building at IUPUI. AND I WAS THERE TO SERVICE THE CAMPUS POLICE RADIOS! College campi are totally out of line when it comes to parking regulations. As far as ignoring their tickets? I don't know about pother states, but here in Indiana the BMV has a nasty habit of suspending licenses without notifying the license holder. Be careful when ignoring tickets, you might get your drivers license suspended and end up in jail for driving on a suspended license Or you might get your car towed or booted the next time you park it on campus. Campus authority may or may not be backed up by civil authority, but sometimes they do not play nice.

1- Different people learn at different rates. I am sorry it took this kind of accident for you to learn the lesson you just passed on to us, but it is incorrect to assume that any one person's experience is typical of the human race in general. Some are actually able to learn vicariously (by observing the lessons of others) without the need to actually break their OWN heads. As i read your story for example, I, and perhaps many other readers have learned that riding a bicycle up jumping ramps could result in a broken head. You paid a lot of "tuition" for this life lesson that we get for free. 2- To talk like "letting your guard down" is something that happens in spite of your efforts to the contrary is just nonsense. You will only open a live electrical box if you CHOOSE to do so. If you open ANY box that you do not KNOW is NOT a live electrical box, then you have WILLFULLY put yourself at risk. It is not "letting your guard down." The box will not grab your unsuspecting, unguarded hand and cause itself to be opened. COMMON SENSE RULE: Cachers should NEVER open anything that even resembles an electrical box unless is CLEARLY labeled and posted as being the cache sought after. Common sense practices: Caches SHOULD NEVER be placed inside live electrical equipment or enclosures. Caches in fake electrical boxes SHOULD be clearly marked as caches. The fact that SOME caches HAVE BEEN placed inside unmarked fake and actual real live electrical boxes does not change the common sense rule.