Search the Community

Well, I have downloaded the programs, but can't get them to talk to my 315. I know everything is working because delorne works quite well with my gps. I have to my knowledge set everything correctly (nema on/off etc..) so I don't know what is happening. I believe the delorne is good but I was just looking for versatility. Ronin

Well, we are off topic, but its funny to hear facts about MI lakes from someone in CA. I have a brother South of LA a ways. Everytime I go there and talk about being on the great lakes, invariably someone says," What's so 'great' about them?". It seems strange to me that people look at a map of the US and don't see that each of the great lakes are bigger than many states! Heck, CA's biggest lake is the Salton Sea at 350,000 acres, next is Eagle Lake at 22,000 acres. We have three lakes contained on the interior between 17,000-20,000 acres, but Lake Michigan is 14,270,000 acres! Huron is 14,720,000, and last but not least Erie at 20,290,000 acres! Not lakes that you normally take the ol' family boat out on to take a trip across, huh?

I use the Cobra Micro Talk two way FRS radios out on the trail and have been very pleased with them. I also have a no-code-tech ham license and can attest to the adictabilty (is that a word?) of that hobby as well. The two meter band is very popular with motorists and outdoorsy types in my area and if you really need help out in the woods there will always be someone monitoring the frequency who can send aid. Good luck, N3YKX

quote:Originally posted by trash:bunkerdave, Perhaps you had better review your past posts (all 357 of them) to see just what kind of image you are sending to others about the character of geocachers. Don't you have better things to do all day? You mention procedures and processes...well I am going through proper procedures as I contact the USFS. The person or persons who placed this cache certainly did not. Have a nice day! First off, let me defuse this exchange by saying that I am not interested in fighting with someone who I believe is on the same side (albeit further left) as me. Your initial post seemed to me to leave no room for disussion or compromise, so I responded accordingly. As for the previous humor, I do not apologize. As Jeremy said, it was an attempt to put a better face on what had turned ugly. Only those who are familiar with the issues of wildlife and conservation would see that humor, and as far as I am concerned, the context should have been a clue that you are dealing with informed individuals. Have YOU read all my 357+ posts? Talk about having nothing better to do. Actually, I consider myself fortunate that I have as much time as I have to do something I enjoy as much as this. I think I am in agreement with you on one thing, actually. Wilderness areas are not appropriate places for geocaches. I have found only one, (which I left) but it occurred to me that it probably would have been better placed elsewhere. As for USFS and BLM land, these are lands which are being managed to preserve their beauty, but not to the same extent as the wilderness. I think these areas are appropriate for geocaching. You may not agree, and if not, then I am wrong about you, and we have no common ground in this issue on which we can build. If we can agree on this, then there is room for discussion. So there it is: National Parks and wilderness areas are, IMO, out. USFS and BLM land is in. I have not placed any caches on NPS land or in a wilderness area. I have placed 2 on USFS land and 3 on BLM land. It might be of interest to some that I have become increasingly involved in an emerging hobby called GeoDashing. The locations are coordinates generated at random by a computer, and the object is simply getting there to take pictures and write about it on the Internet. Geocaching will always be my "first love," as it was the reason I bought my GPS. I have found that those who enjoy Geocaching for the same reasons I do, (the adventure, not the trinkets) tend to gravitate toward GeoDashing. I will be the first to admit that there are some pigs in Geocaching, with 30-40,000 people participating, how could there not be? The containers provide, for some people, enough incentive to go out and find them and take what they want and leave nothing, or leave junk. These are not the kind of people I want to bo associated with, but as a public hobby, you have to take the good with the bad. I have enjoyed every one of my "dashes" (a grand total of 4, so far, compared to 123 caches) as much as almost all of my cache hunts, it is exciting to go out to a place you are almost certain, or at least it is easy to convince yourself, that no on else has ever been, even if it is only a few square feet of earth. I do not say that people need to see every place, or even have vehicular access to it, but if a person has the desire, however strange, and the stamina to reach a chosen destination, they should be at least allowed to do it. I guess I am an explorer at heart. I love climbing summits and highpoints around my state, and while I do not sign summit registers myself(My group does this on the Internet) I respect the right of others to use them. I believe this is all anyone here is requesting of you, to respect the right of others to participate. There are 280 million people in the U.S., and a precious few of them care enough about wild places to do anything about preserving them. There is no sense dividing what is already a relatively sparse population into ineffective factions. [This message has been edited by bunkerdave (edited 16 August 2001).]

quote:Originally posted by trash:bunkerdave, Perhaps you had better review your past posts (all 357 of them) to see just what kind of image you are sending to others about the character of geocachers. Don't you have better things to do all day? You mention procedures and processes...well I am going through proper procedures as I contact the USFS. The person or persons who placed this cache certainly did not. Have a nice day! First off, let me defuse this exchange by saying that I am not interested in fighting with someone who I believe is on the same side (albeit further left) as me. Your initial post seemed to me to leave no room for disussion or compromise, so I responded accordingly. As for the previous humor, I do not apologize. As Jeremy said, it was an attempt to put a better face on what had turned ugly. Only those who are familiar with the issues of wildlife and conservation would see that humor, and as far as I am concerned, the context should have been a clue that you are dealing with informed individuals. Have YOU read all my 357+ posts? Talk about having nothing better to do. Actually, I consider myself fortunate that I have as much time as I have to do something I enjoy as much as this. I think I am in agreement with you on one thing, actually. Wilderness areas are not appropriate places for geocaches. I have found only one, (which I left) but it occurred to me that it probably would have been better placed elsewhere. As for USFS and BLM land, these are lands which are being managed to preserve their beauty, but not to the same extent as the wilderness. I think these areas are appropriate for geocaching. You may not agree, and if not, then I am wrong about you, and we have no common ground in this issue on which we can build. If we can agree on this, then there is room for discussion. So there it is: National Parks and wilderness areas are, IMO, out. USFS and BLM land is in. I have not placed any caches on NPS land or in a wilderness area. I have placed 2 on USFS land and 3 on BLM land. It might be of interest to some that I have become increasingly involved in an emerging hobby called GeoDashing. The locations are coordinates generated at random by a computer, and the object is simply getting there to take pictures and write about it on the Internet. Geocaching will always be my "first love," as it was the reason I bought my GPS. I have found that those who enjoy Geocaching for the same reasons I do, (the adventure, not the trinkets) tend to gravitate toward GeoDashing. I will be the first to admit that there are some pigs in Geocaching, with 30-40,000 people participating, how could there not be? The containers provide, for some people, enough incentive to go out and find them and take what they want and leave nothing, or leave junk. These are not the kind of people I want to bo associated with, but as a public hobby, you have to take the good with the bad. I have enjoyed every one of my "dashes" (a grand total of 4, so far, compared to 123 caches) as much as almost all of my cache hunts, it is exciting to go out to a place you are almost certain, or at least it is easy to convince yourself, that no on else has ever been, even if it is only a few square feet of earth. I do not say that people need to see every place, or even have vehicular access to it, but if a person has the desire, however strange, and the stamina to reach a chosen destination, they should be at least allowed to do it. I guess I am an explorer at heart. I love climbing summits and highpoints around my state, and while I do not sign summit registers myself(My group does this on the Internet) I respect the right of others to use them. I believe this is all anyone here is requesting of you, to respect the right of others to participate. There are 280 million people in the U.S., and a precious few of them care enough about wild places to do anything about preserving them. There is no sense dividing what is already a relatively sparse population into ineffective factions. [This message has been edited by bunkerdave (edited 16 August 2001).]

Hi. I have a Megellan 310 also, and am very pleased with it. While I have only searched and located 1 cache and 1 multi-cache, I have not had any problems with accuracy thus far. I was within 3 feet of the last one with my GPS. However, I've seen quite a bit of talk on here about the 310 vs. the 315, and am still thinking seriously about taking mine back to Wal-Mart and getting the 315 - if only for the cool maps that supposedly come loaded on it. quote:Originally posted by celts:I don't see a Magellan 310 listed here. My friend ( a newbie) bought a Magellan 310 yesterday. Is she correct in stating that the coordinates only carry out to second decimal, and if so, what difference will that make in her accuracy?

If i leave a non-commercial card with my email address and a note telling people to contact me if they want to talk..and my purpose is to be there for them just like other people were there for me..r u people gonna throw it away cause it might have "religious" overtones? this is my first post since i have just registered on the site today .. and i have not yet gone on my first hunt .. but i would like to think that i could leave something like that along with other tokens from my town or state or region or whatever and not have others be "offended" at my gestures and throw my things away simply cause they did not like them. if i leave something from texas will it be tossed too by ya'll who don't like texans or are offended by the lone star state? to me .. i have the perfect example .. i work at a company that caters lunch every day .. i used to work on weekends as part of my schedule .. on sat they brought in a most excellent french silk pie and there was enough to last all weekend for all people who had to work .. when i came to work on sun .. looking forward to another piece of most excellent pie .. i found it in the trash .. not just one piece .. but the whole pie .. turns out ONE person did not like his slice so he threw away the WHOLE pie .. am i the only one who would see a problem with that? isn't that a bit selfish? just because you would have no use for it or because you do not like it does not mean that some one else would not find meaning in it and enjoy it so why throw them all away? you don't like it don't take it-read it-touch it. DISCLAIMER: as i mentioned before i am not talking bout ads for any commercial service or group or business card .. merely things that have personal significance for me. also i agree about leaving garbage and used paperproducts..that's just gross

I'm updating the the converter to handle OS Grid Refs as well - I'll let you all know when it's done. I'm also trying to talk to streetmap about how they generate their grid references so I can link to them from the converter page (and maybe talk to Jeremy about adding a streetmap link to UK caches). We do need a lot more caches in the UK generally, but these things take time... ------------------ Schwuk geocaching@schwuk.com http://www.schwuk.com/geocaching

There was an interview with Prof Charles Merry of UCT on Radio 702 and Cape Talk during the Computer and Technology Show, Saturday 11 August 13:00-14:00. I'll upload the MP3 as soon as I get a copy. A transcript will be available on iafrica.com soon. ------------------ Peter Scholtz www.biometrics.co.za [This message has been edited by Peter Scholtz (edited 14 August 2001).]

quote:Originally posted by Gliderguy:... I used a 300mw (not even full power of 500 mw) pager sized FRS radio to talk to a kid more than 8 miles away. ... That is about the best case of line of sight you can get... The current record for distance using FRS is a little over 120 miles. This was done between 2 mountain tops in North Carolina. This was an extreme case - normal distances are 1-2 miles. Bob

Hi! My name is Christine Haas and I work at WTSP (CBS 10) in Tampa Florida. I'm trying to do a story on geo cacheing. I'd love to talk to anyone about the search and we'd like to feature the "hunters". Please contact me if you can offer any information. Again, Christine Haas WTSP email- chaas@wtsptv.com phone- (727) 577-8497 Thanks!!

We had heard other cachers talk about after dark excursions, so we finally decided to give it a try. The only scary part was being blitzed by a screech owl. If you think it is hard caching at night, read on. My daughter (16 in a few days) is completely night blind. She wanted to try the night cache too, so she carried her white-tipped cane on the trail. The going was slower than most would have been at night, but we had a great time. She's always been the adventurous type!

Not sure if you can talk about this or not, but my morbid curiosity has gotten the best of me here. Was he dumped there or did he die out hiking and noone knew where he was? I feel almost ashamed for asking, ,but your story is so fascinating I cannot help myself.

Yes the authorities were notified and the remains have been taken away. That would be weird finding a skull next to the cache. The identity of the man was found. His family( mother) called me once to talk. It was a bit weird but it helped her out a lot. I have gotten X-mas card from them. Strange but I just got back checking on that cache just today. Someone was interested in more details. Not many except that I almost picked the skull up with my hands, but moved it with a stick first, that is when I noticed the jaw and that it was not an animal. Now I almost look for out of place things. It was a horrible discovery but in the long run it helped the family put things to rest.

Some of the forums I have read regarding FRS vs CB were inconclusive which could range further. Of course, a CB back at your vehicle with a well tuned whip antenna is going to beat the socks off of FRS. But for general handheld use the difference isnt supposed to be too much. The smallest handheld CB radios I am aware of use at least EIGHT AA batteries, versus either 3 or 4 AA or AAA batteries for FRS. I used a 300mw (not even full power of 500 mw) pager sized FRS radio to talk to a kid more than 8 miles away. I was in the middle of Albuquerque and he was on nearby Sandia Peak. That is about the best case of line of sight you can get. I think I could have been twice that distance from him and still been able to communicate, he sounded like he was in the street in front of my house. It all depends on the density of the terrain. But even in heavy woods I havent heard much less than 3/4 mile reported from people with high quality FRS units. GMRS is much more powerful and has better than double the advertized range of FRS, and those units are getting smaller all the time. The prices are in line with high end FRS radios. But the smallest GMRS is still more than twice as big as the FRS radios I am using now, so I doubt I personally will bother to switch any time soon. here is a link to lots of user reviews on FRS radios: http://members.tripod.com/~jwilkers/review.html Here is a general overview on the same site: http://members.tripod.com/~jwilkers/choose.html [This message has been edited by Gliderguy (edited 13 August 2001).]

at because I found another, larger trail leading in the right direction. It brought me out to a scenic view of the river and the stone foundation of some old house. I had used the last picture on the camera at the stream, so I didn't get any other pictures that day. The picture below is one taken from someone else who found the cache the next day. It is looking up the Chattahoochee River with some people kayaking. The foundation still had steps that were a great place for me to catch my breath again. When I got to moving again, I was about 500' from the cache. The trail was a narrow trail going uphill at a modest grade. I followed the trail up towards the crest of the hill, stopping 3 times to catch my breath. At the crest was another trail, which I took to within 80 feet of my destination. From there it was all downhill. The cache was down somewhere in the ravine, so I worked my way down through thick underbrush. At one point the GPS showed my distance at only 4' but I never found the cache. I worked my way up and down that hillside for probably an hour. There were so many tree stumps and little granite bluffs that it could have been hidden in. Plus I was so exhausted that I couldn't see straight. The forest canopy was so thick that I got erratic readings, at best, out of the GPS. I finally decided to call it quits and head back. I knew I just wasn't going to find it that day. So, I clipped the GPS on my belt and headed downhill. I knew there was a stream below, so I could just go downhill until I found the stream and then follow it to the river and the main trail. Well, the going got tougher the further down I went. The underbrush was like a jungle and when I finally reached the stream, it was a 4 foot drop-off to a swollen, muddy creek. The water was too muddy and was flowing fast, so I knew I couldn't chance jumping down into it. Plus, the area of the creek was overgrown with shrubs and there were 3-6' blind dropoffs along the way because of the granite bluffs I mentioned earlier. So, unfortunately it was back up hill for me. I stumbled several times and slid downhill, and generally fought tooth and nail to get halfway up the hill. I had to stop and catch my breath again and when I did, I realized that my GPS was gone. It must have been knocked off of my belt one of the times I stumbled! Well, you know what that means..... back downhill again. I retraced my steps and looked everywhere, but never did find the GPS. By this time my t-shirt, bluejeans, and boots were completely drenched with sweat and covered with ground-in Georgia clay. I was exhausted. I knew that I had to get started back to the truck or I was going to have to lay down and sleep on the trail. I had used up the last of my water already, so I knew I couldn't stay in the heat much longer. I had to give up my search for the $109 GPS and get back to the truck for fresh water and air conditioning. You know I had to have been tired and hot for a cheapscate like me to leave that much money laying on a hillside. Well, I made it up to the crest of the hill again and took the trail downhill to the old stone foundation. I stopped, rested, and looked at a map. Luckily I had a compass to help guide me, because I wasn't about to try to climb up the difficult trail by the creek. This time, I realized that the map was marked with lines to show the difficulty rating of the trails. ..... Was an average trail . _ . _ . _ Was a moderate trail _ _ _ _ Was a difficult trail Of course, the ones I chose to take me to the destination were the straightest path, but also were the difficult trails. There were no "average" trails, so I picked out a moderate trail to follow back. There were two choices, one going uphill and one going along the river. I went along the river, because it was the flattest. Well, that lasted for about 100 yards. The path went by the base of a 100' granite cliff. The river was swollen and muddy from heavy rain and had covered the path. I might have been able to wade through for a ways to the other side, but I wasn't going to take a chance on that muddy ole river. Since I don't climb granite cliffs, I had to turn back and take a different trail. This trail ended up being moderate, but it was all uphill in that direction. I stopped halfway up and took an extended break. My cell phone rang (I carry it for emergencies) and it was Julie. It was already 5:00 so I had been trudging through the forest for 3 hours! It was nice to talk to her and whine of my poor luck and misfortune. I told her I wanted to get another GPS, and she agreed (what else was she gonna say when I was so down!). With that short rest and new determination, I headed back uphill. The trail reached the same junction where I had chosen the really steep trail (the path less travelled). You know, if I would have only chosen this path back then... There were 4 trails, so I had to look at the map and use the compass to find the right one, which I did and trodded along. The trails from this point back to the truck were much more forgiving and I made it back in good time. I got home that evening before Julie did and logged my visit at geocaching.com. I told of how I had fallen and lost my GPS and gave my email address and offered a small reward. There were two other visitors that evening and three the next day. Luckily, someone found it and were nice enough to say so! They emailed me and left a phone number to call. I'll call them this evening and find a way to retrieve it. Oh, and just my luck the UPS guy just dropped off my new one from Amazon.com! Gee, so now I have a "backup" to get me out of the woods when I lose my GPS - haha!

Not much caching due to FMD, but I'm happy to talk. Contact me on schwuk@schwuk.com ------------------ How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

I have a pair of Motorola FRS Talkabout 250 and like them alot. Good range. They claim that they have a 2 mile range with line of sight. I have found that I get about 1.5 range reliably with line of site and about a mile in heavy tree cover. My father has a pair of the Motorola FRS 60 radios. They have similar perfomance but a few different features. Both units run for at least 24 hours of standby time on three AA batteries. The Talkabout 250 can use voice activate hand free system were the 60 you must still press the button to talk. The 60 has a call feature were each person can pick a unique call tone. There are a few newer version out there that might have other features. I have not used the other brands but a friend had a pair audiovox unit and they seemed to work well with my Motorola units on a day of skiing. Just remember that Motorola developed the FRS radio system for what that's worth. But for the price, range and unit size you get with the FRS radio I would suggest the FRS radios over a handheld CB.

personally the more magellon units i see the more impressed with them i become, garmin units are nice, dont get me wrong i love my vista, but i think for a beginner that the superior antena on the mag. units plus ease of use might make them superior, but my opinion gets swayed every time i see the shiny marbles that keep falling out of my ears....lol just make sur you go to a reputable sporting goods store and talk to as many geocachers that use the units ...even ask to go caching with them, we love showing off our skills at tracking down wild caches, to neophytes, and then make an informed choice on what suits your needs best. hope i didnt confuse you too much, Elwood

Enjoy the hunt, and if you find any *really* good caches around there, talk about it. I'm close enough that I might make a run through that area if there are any really good ones.

Enjoy the hunt, and if you find any *really* good caches around there, talk about it. I'm close enough that I might make a run through that area if there are any really good ones.

You are supposed to ask permission. But me, being very jaded to bloated gov't. feel it's an excersize in how to waste a morning (or likely even longer). You'll call the rec department and spend a 1/2 hour explaining what you want to do. they will either forward the call to someone else in the department and you explain it all over again (if they are in - more than likely 'that person is out of the office right now' and you play phone tag for a week, only to find out 'oh, you should be talking to that department' or 'hmmm, I don't think I can decide that, not sure who you should talk to' or they pass you to public works, or somewhere else. And after you explain yourself 5 more times, you'll likely get shrugs, or maybe even a yes or no. But no matter, because there is some other department that you didn't talk to, that has their hands involved in that park in some other, obscure way and THEY have some rule or statute that will reverse whatever answer you got above. There is talk of a database on this site where you can note who you got the OK from. So the next person that wants to place a cache in that park or another park in the same town or county, might not have to reinvent the wheel completely. It comes down to me seeing soo much trash in my searches that my view is that 1 more item - a tupperware container, can't be that bad. And I am not getting paid to wind my way through the bureaocracy. They may be there to collect paychecks and drag out any situation presented to them so they have something to do in their social welfare job, but I am not going to be part of that morass if I can avoid it.

With all the talk about GPS and trees and accuracy in general I got to thinking about GPS use before geocaching while SA was still on. I was wondering how many of the Geocachers out there were using a GPS back when the goverment was still scrambling the timing signals from the satellites? I remember a trip from OH into PA where my good old II+ manage to get 12 satellites with really good geometery and I had an EPE of 38 feet I was floored. I had never seen accuracy like that. Most of the time I was in the 60-70 foot range. Now with SA off I routinly have and EPE of 20-25 feet. With WAAS I get EPE of 5-9 feet on many occasions. So where you a PRE or POST SA GPS user? mcb

Not much choice in South Africa as it hasn't taken off yet. I'm actively seeking media coverage and will finally get an interview on Radio 702, our largest talk radio station. (Not me, I don't do public speaking!) Unfortunately when the media bites, they don't let go. So once you get the media you want, you can't control it from then on ... So yes, the fast growth because of the publicity could be a bad thing, but I don't see any other way of doing it. At least the Early Cachers have debated many issues and come to excellent conclusions that should help ... 1/2c ------------------ Peter Scholtz www.biometrics.co.za

Hello, picked up a few caches my self and also planted a few. Scotty quote:Originally posted by hsabbers:Hello all, I'm a journalist working on geocaching-related piece for a well-known UK magazine. I'm hoping to make contact with UK-based geocaching enthusiasts prepared to talk me about their experiences and endeavours as regards this new sport. Thanks in advance. Harry Sabbers.