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Our reviewer does not talk to people. You ask any questions and you get some type of computer generated response.

Wow! Talk about learning something new! All these years I never knew that those Cache Names were clickable and would give a list of all caches included. (Except GPS Adventures Exhibit)

Assuming it was logged into the cache, then obviously retrieve is the right log. You did remember to drop it in the cache, right? But maybe something else happened, or maybe he just used grab by mistake. The only one that knows is the person that has it. That gave you a good reason to contact the geocacher right away to ask, so you can certainly contact him now to ask about that and about his plans for it now. But I think what you really want to know is how quickly you can ask about a TB someone's holding. The basic answer is "it depends", but the more general answer is, you can talk to someone holding your TB whenever you want as long as you're polite. Demanding he place it in another cache is not polite. Asking what his plans are for it starts a conversation and has the happy side effect of reminding him he took it in case he forgot. To improve the side effect, mention the cache and where it was to help jog his memory, if he needs it. After talking it over you might, depending on what you learn, decide to request he move it along now. Or you might decide it's in good hands and you just need to be more patient. As I say, it depends. So that's my advice, and it applies to all cachers, newbies or not. But having said that, newbies are, by definition, not the best cachers. It's OK to imagine that because of a newbie fail, things are not good for your TB and you may not even be able to learn its fate. But try to avoid injecting those thoughts into the conversation. After all, if he made a mistake, you want him to learn from it. We *all* want him to learn from it. That's less likely to happen if he feels like he's being berated for his mistake instead of being given advice about how to geocache better.

There was a ~110 stage multi in my area which I co-ftf'd with a few friends. Non-stop for two nights, and lots of talk with the CO as numerous stages had issues. The cache didn't last long. Being sequential (each stage had coordinates to the next), any problem with one stage and the cache is not findable. Nightmare to maintain. So maybe there needs to be a distinction - longest linear waypoint multi vs non-linear waypoint multi?

You were given a clue more than a year ago. How much progress did you make? I get that it can be daunting when starting from zero, but did you even try? If not, someone offered to create a service for doing it in the last thread: did you talk with them, tell them it's something that would really help you out?

Good day fellow Geocachers, ill get right to the point, i always had a iPhone but these have become very expensive devices. I subsequently bought a Huawei P40 5G lite, but was not told that it does not work with any google apps. so all the maps on the Geo apps don't work thus i cant geocache anymore! it has an Android version 10, EMUI Version 10.1.1 operating system. has anyone been able to fix this or have a work around? i have a "fake" google maps that works on the phone but obviously the Geo Apps don't talk to it?

The approach I've used for locations that haven't already had official geocaching policies has been to ask who I should talk to about getting permission. I don't ask "random employees" for permission. But I do my best to find someone who might know, and then ask that person who I should talk to.

Come watch Geocache Talk on Sunday night - this podcast show's topic is desirable attributes, which may include talk related to identifying gadget caches At this point though, the Field Puzzle attribute is most relevant to identifying potential gadget caches.

Yes, in civil engineering professionals are using RTK (Real-time kinematic positioning) and DGPS for land surveying. Technically speaking, this application is not a pure GPSr as it requires a reference station. Anyway, it is better to talk about consumer GPS as you suggested.

We don't talk about the wastelands - by which I mean the east coast...

Here is a misunderstanding. A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with magnetic north. Other methods may be used, including gyroscopes, magnetometers, and GPS receivers. I think that the correct term should be relative bearing when we talk about the arrow pointing to the waypoint.

It can also cause frustration when the different devices on different days are off in different directions. So your gps could be 15 feet off to the left, the cache owner's gps could have been 15 feet off to the right when they placed the cache. So even if you are 100% certain you are at exactly the right coords, you could actually be 30 feet away from where the cache physically is. It's why some people talk about "geo-senses", which really just means past experience. Which can also be why it can be very frustrating when you come across a new way of hiding a cache that you haven't experienced before but others have. Lots of "so easy" and "obvious" logs, but you've spent the last two hours checking every nook and cranny in a larger and larger area...

I started Geocaching about 5 years ago. I only found a few easy caches, then didn't pick it up again until recently. It seems like my GPS unit is only accurate to within 10-15 feet. Is this normal? I guess that''s why people talk about "Ground Zero", right?

Greetings from the WISA Woodsat HQ! After the announcement of WISA Woodsat satellite trackable (TB9GB8G) mid August, we have over 6200 people on the watch list! That also means that I have received a fair amount of messages regarding the satellite itself, the procedure of logging it, launch schedule and many others. Unfortunately I am not able to answer them one by one, so, let's talk satellites in this discussion thread. The most common question is, how you can log the satellite trackable. I have added the instructions to the trackable page https://coord.info/TB9GB8G. The thing to note is that you can only do that AFTER the satellite has been launched. The trackable code is only visibile in the photos taken by the satellite itself with its selfie-camera. You can follow WISA Woodsat project progress on https://wisawoodsat.space. We have blogs and videos showing how the satellite materials are made, how they are machined, and tested. You can also find WISA Woodsat on Instagram and Twitter with the handles @wisawoodsat and #wisawoodsat. Anything else you would like to know about the satellite?

Yep. The pace is your own, and the last thing I want when relaxing outside is idle chat, talk politics, or hear rumors.

I'm guessing that's because the caches in your area aren't that interesting, so the COs aren't expecting anyone to say anything interesting about them. I'd be really puzzled by a CO that placed a cache to encourage people to take a nice hike up a mountain to a beautiful view and then didn't read the reactions. That's the kind of cache we're talking about here. But to react to your comment, if a CO placed mundane caches and didn't even scan the DNFs for longer than usual logs that might indicate a problem, I'd say they weren't planning on maintaining their caches. I'd talk to them about that; I wouldn't accept it as a given that COs don't even glance at logs. But beyond that -- to go back to the original point about DNFs that don't reflect the cache's health -- I'd be kinda tickled if they got a CHS alarm and then ran out to fix a cache that wasn't broken because they didn't even bother to read the DNF logs that caused the CHS. Serves them right.

Last year we did Cape York from CQ, 6491.4 km without leaving the state. But all this talk of remote travelling, and looking at photos and caches found, has my brain ticking over, so I have just posted this to our 4wd clubs Facebook page. I reckon it would be well over 10000km over the 4-5 week trip. Must be time to put forward a proposal for another big trip. Hopefully all this Covid rubbish is gone by then. Autumn/Winter 2023. Central Australia. Approx 4-5 weeks. Simpson Desert crossing west to east. It can easily include Plenty Highway, or better still Sandover Highway, Birdsville Track, Oodnadatta Track, Strezlekie Track. So, a potential itinerary, up to Mt Isa, Sandover Highway, Alice Springs, Mt Dare, Simpson Desert, Birdsville, Birdsville Track, Oodnadatta Track to William Ck, Lake Eyre, Coober Pedy, Port Augusta, Strezlekie Track, home via Cameron Corner and/or Haddon Corner, Windorah, Blackall, Tambo, Springsure, Biloela. No idea of what distance that involves. Just looking back at some of the photos from our last Simpson Desert crossing about 7 years ago, and thinking, we should do that again. Thoughts?

I've never seen anything that bad, but I have no trouble imagining it. I suggest you talk to the new CO and mention how his inaccurate ratings have ruined your statistics. Point out to him that, like most geocachers, you aren't interested in meeting challenges using fake data.

If we are allowed to talk about our own "children", I would vote for Victoria Amazonica and Jaguar.

Okay, yeah, I misread your comment to infer that YOU updated something, which really, really threw me for a loop. There have been some changes in years past in the Datasheet program on how it interprets log entries for stations, which likely helped these stations get an accurate monumented date. (I only know this because one such update that was made back about a year ago) caused a whole bunch of logs that had no status, no agency, and no date appear tacked onto the history list on the datasheet. Had to talk to them and point out some stations that were causing this.

I don't think so, not for me. I usually talk to the people I know and not to all 100 who have signed-up. Just recently have attended an Event with more than 800 People https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8GVCH_event-am-see-2021-event-at-the-lake-2021?guid=1768bcdd-034c-4155-950a-718a51a3accc and I have been in contact with about 10. The other 790 were not even close to me.

Thanks Keystone, this is the same advice I offered the cache owner when the caches were first submitted. Dan, In regards to the distance, the distance is variable but what we take into account is the audience and if the cache is part of a series. Let me talk in a local example for you. If for example caches were placed around the Canberra region but to the cardinal points then these caches may be further than 100km from each other but are set to appeal for the same audience. This is even more the case where the cache have the same names as a Platinum step within a series. In regards to appealing a reviewers decision this is always an option. Reviewers don't take offence and it helps us to ensure we are following the intent of the guidelines. Often for borderline case we will take a cache to appeals for you. Hope that helps.

Here we have a classic example of WHY we have peer review for new categories. Talk about a category that is completely subjective - one person's "urban legend" may not be another's... Then, you have the creator of the category bugging out of Waymarking the same year he created this "interesting" piece of Waymarking. My question is - if you expand to just "Legends", and these are people, how would this be different than "Epic Beings" if Epic Beings allow a statue of Lewis and Clark to be included in their category????

I've helped with Intro to Geocaching classes sponsored by a county parks department. The instructor presented a quick "chalk talk" at the parking lot, ending it with a challenge to spot a camouflaged geocache right there where the "chalk talk" had been given. (It was a "hidden in plain sight" camouflage cache.) Then we broke up into small groups with an experienced geocacher assigned to each group. Each group was also given a preprogrammed GPS receiver with 8-10 caches on a nearby trail. The caches were rather varied, but close to each other. The new geocachers could find several different types of hide and be back at the trailhead by lunchtime. But yeah, with beginners, each group needs an experienced geocacher just to catch the things they forgot from the "chalk talk".

Just figured I would post an update here, since we're partway (most of the way) through the summer. This has been a fun project for me, and some of our scouts really took interest too, while others didn't really. We had the whole gamut. What worked well -- having the scouts "vote" or submit ideas on where they wanted the TB to travel talking with the older (3rd/4th graders moving onto next grade) about geocaching, rules, and how to do things right. This age group wanted to follow the rules. posting updates about where the TB travelled on the pack FB group and public FB page. Those who were interested asked about it more. Asking my local geocaching group for help to get the TB moving. I met up with a couple cachers, who took the TB to events and meetups, allowing them to get out of state. hosting an "unofficial" cache event for the cub scouts (grades K-5th) -- they got to learn about geocaching, have fun finding caches, signing names, etc ....but when some kids didn't get the rules, it didn't mess with any official caches. (we had a couple kids empting swag and not replacing, even though we had a "swag bin" you could grab from. Other scouts kept them honest, but still....). What didn't / or what could have been done better -- I wasn't able to monitor/lead all the kids through the idea of geocaching. I think it would have been awesome, retrospectively, to get help from a couple local geocachers willing to talk about / lead interested scouts on a hike and talk about geocaching. This wouldn't work at the pack level, but at a den level, and only for the older kids, I think. Obviously I transitioned away from my idea for the pack planting actual caches. That wouldn't have worked. We did hide a couple caches, with interested scouts, but it's something that will be maintained by me. I think at this age, the parent needs to be willing to help maintain the cache for it to be a go. Some of the parents didn't really understand (or care) about geocaching. It would be good to have a couple adults (i.e. more than just one) who know how to do it, and how to teach kids the basics. Other takeaways I got a ton of help from my local (state) geocaching group. I wish I had known about that earlier. Sometimes kids who love geocaching are just not in the mood to geocache. It's okay, and don't take it personally. There are a bunch of people who are willing to offer tips/advice for you if you message them. My kids regularly ask me to ask for additional tips. And people are very kind. scouts will be much more interested in geocaching at the older ages (middle/high school)....BSA troop level. At cub scout level, Trackables are cool enough to keep them interested ("ooh, look, our trackable made it to Wyoming!"). Thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.