Need idea for a telephone pole hide

June 18, 2011

Anyone have some pics of a telephone pole hid that doesn't stand out? Thanks!

2.4k · June 18, 2011

I don't have a picture, but the first that comes to mind is this one:

The pole had bolts in it and one of the bolts was pressed into the pole a bit so there was a hole above it. There was a magnetic nano in that hole stuck to the existing bolt.

It was tricky!

June 18, 2011

One of the best I've seen. If you look closely at telephone poles you will notice that they often have little 1" diameter metal discs naile dto them. These are some sort of registration mark I think. Someone took one of those discs off and nalied it to the cap of a falcon tube, hen drilled a hole in the telephone pole so that the tube fit in the hole with the cap with thte disc hiding the hole and the tube. Probably a guidline violation but it was still a very good hide...

8.3k · June 18, 2011

At the risk of being labeled a spoil sport, you do realize the telephones are very much private property. It would seem that the use of the telephone pole would require explicit permission which not likely. As for drilling a hole in the telephone pole ... your kidding, right?

9.3k · June 18, 2011

A friend suggested the following hide:

When a pole is being replaced, as the new one is laying on the ground, tap a bison tube into the top, betwixt the tree rings.

Wait till the pole is erected, then snap some coords. Getting to the top of the pole, past the high voltage lines, would definitely require special equipment, but once you're at the top, the cache would be in plain sight. A 5/1? :blink:

11.5k · June 18, 2011

I wouldn't recommend drilling a hole into a telephone pole either! One of my favorite telephone hides was a Lost Dog sign. It was great! The log was attached to the back of the laminated sign, and was inside a baggy to keep it dry. I ignored that sign so many times while trying to find the cache.

3.7k · June 18, 2011

I wouldn't recommend drilling a hole into a telephone pole either! One of my favorite telephone hides was a Lost Dog sign. It was great! The log was attached to the back of the laminated sign, and was inside a baggy to keep it dry. I ignored that sign so many times while trying to find the cache.

Just wondering, how was the sign attached?

1.9k · June 18, 2011

Anyone have some pics of a telephone pole hid that doesn't stand out? Thanks!

they have lots of cracks/splits where you could easily slide a duct taped geopouch in.

10.1k · June 18, 2011

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but, in New Jersey, it is illegal to put a sign on a utility pole, NJS 27:5-9 (f) A sign may not be painted, drawn, erected or maintained upon trees, rocks, other natural features or public utility poles.

1.5k · June 18, 2011

STEP ONE: get permission from the owner of the pole.

Please consider, any time it seems that the property owner would want the cache removed if they knew about it, go someplace else with your cache.

Thanks.

June 18, 2011

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but, in New Jersey, it is illegal to put a sign on a utility pole, NJS 27:5-9 (f) A sign may not be painted, drawn, erected or maintained upon trees, rocks, other natural features or public utility poles.

It's illegal in New York, too, which is why you never see them on poles here.

Really.

They're not there.

Seriously, though, I wouldn't do anything that requires a physical alteration to a pole. It's bad mojo. I also wouldn't stick anything in any holes, straps, etc.

In fact, just ignore the idea. As jholly notes, they are in fact private property, and since there's no way in hell you're gonna get permission just drop the idea.

38.2k · June 18, 2011

One of the best I've seen. If you look closely at telephone poles you will notice that they often have little 1" diameter metal discs naile dto them. These are some sort of registration mark I think. Someone took one of those discs off and nalied it to the cap of a falcon tube, hen drilled a hole in the telephone pole so that the tube fit in the hole with the cap with thte disc hiding the hole and the tube. Probably a guidline violation but it was still a very good hide...

Vandalizing private property to hide a cache is not something we should promote.

3k · June 18, 2011

In most places, it is illegal to attach anything, including a tag sale sign to a phone pole. Imagine yourself to be the lineman, who has to climb the pole with spikes, and your spike catches on an object someone illegally attached to the pole and you start to slide down the rough wooden pole, gathering 6" long splinters in your thighs as you desperately try to stop your slide before you hit bottom.

Think first. Leave the phone poles alone, before you give geocaching a black eye, and cause geocaches to be no longer allowed, or hurt someone. Bucket trucks can't be used in all areas. Some poles have to br climbed and handholds aren't allowed anymore because of public safety.

2.1k · June 18, 2011

Permission is key.

There is a stage here in town that is placed with permission on a telephone pole but it is the only one I know of.

19k · June 18, 2011

Permission is key.

There is a stage here in town that is placed with permission on a telephone pole but it is the only one I know of.

Who did the obtain permission from?

2.1k · June 18, 2011

Permission is key.

There is a stage here in town that is placed with permission on a telephone pole but it is the only one I know of.

Who did the obtain permission from?

It was placed by a lineman who asked his supervisor if he could put an extra (regular LPEA) tag on the pole. Other then thinking the guy was a bit too into his hobby there wasn't a problem.

7k · June 18, 2011

Find an abandoned, unused one. Put the container way up there. Use a funny container.

19k · June 18, 2011

Find an abandoned, unused one. Put the container way up there. Use a funny container.

I know of two such abandoned poles. One does have a cache... a bison tube attached via carabiner way up at the top (I haven't logged it yet, but I have seen it).

June 18, 2011

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but, in New Jersey, it is illegal to put a sign on a utility pole, NJS 27:5-9 (f) A sign may not be painted, drawn, erected or maintained upon trees, rocks, other natural features or public utility poles.

I guess you gotta protect your natural features when you don't have any. BOOM. Just kidding. The abandoned pole idea is good, but the only ones I can think of are in railroad ROWs, which is an even bigger issue. OP- Do you have a particular pole in mind or something? Why not pick one with a utility box, and do a magnet cache- like a fake switch or something? Not the safest cache in the world, but shouldn't be a violation.

8.3k · June 18, 2011

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but, in New Jersey, it is illegal to put a sign on a utility pole, NJS 27:5-9 (f) A sign may not be painted, drawn, erected or maintained upon trees, rocks, other natural features or public utility poles.

I guess you gotta protect your natural features when you don't have any. BOOM. Just kidding. The abandoned pole idea is good, but the only ones I can think of are in railroad ROWs, which is an even bigger issue. OP- Do you have a particular pole in mind or something? Why not pick one with a utility box, and do a magnet cache- like a fake switch or something? Not the safest cache in the world, but shouldn't be a violation.

again, who owns the utility box? At least with the magnet your not defacing property.

10.2k · June 18, 2011

Just drill a hole in the friggin' pole, and put a micro in there. You probably don't want to do that in Coyote Red's town though. Actually, I just posted that to see if he's lurking.

1.5k · June 18, 2011

Utility poles are private property and drilling into them without permission is vandalism. Drilled holes provide an inroad for insects and decay, shortening the life of a very expensive utility pole What do you think the likelihood is of the utility company giving permission for that?

2.4k · June 18, 2011

Phone your local cellular providers and offer your property for a new cell tower site with one small condition... make it a nano placement while negotiating... those towers qualify as radio 'telephone' poles... sort of... DON'T Call LightSquared though!

Else no one will be able to find it... ever... maybe. Maybe not!

Doug 7rxc

1.1k · June 18, 2011

One of the best I've seen. If you look closely at telephone poles you will notice that they often have little 1" diameter metal discs naile dto them. These are some sort of registration mark I think. Someone took one of those discs off and nalied it to the cap of a falcon tube, hen drilled a hole in the telephone pole so that the tube fit in the hole with the cap with thte disc hiding the hole and the tube. Probably a guidline violation but it was still a very good hide...

I found a couple of these in KY. I suspect by drilling into private property you are violating the guide lines.

Edited June 18, 2011 by hoosier guy

June 18, 2011

I have to be honest; if I found one of those (the ones drilled into the poles) I'd rat them out immediately to the local reviewer without a second thought. Damaging the structural integrity of a utility pole is unacceptable behavior. Period.

There is no justification for it unless the pole is completely disconnected from everything, laying on the ground, and out of service. As long as you violate the structural integrity of the pole, you're creating a dangerous situation.

We wouldn't tolerate drilling into a tree (granted, a tree is alive) and we shouldn't tolerate drilling into a phone / electric pole either.

6.1k · June 18, 2011

Many telephone poles have existing holes about 5/8 inch wide. I suspect that they are being misidentified as being drilled by the cacher.

10.2k · June 18, 2011

Many telephone poles have existing holes about 5/8 inch wide. I suspect that they are being misidentified as being drilled by the cacher.

My bad, bad joke that not very many people "got". Ignore, sorry. No, never drill into a telephone pole. And I checked out the three closest to my house, and two more near the grocery store today. I don't see no stinking 5/8" diameter holes anywhere. Can you elaborate?

June 18, 2011

One around here has a fake nail in an (hopefully existing) hole.

3k · June 18, 2011

Ok, so, if you really want to use a phone pole idea, I'll tell you how I did it. I used the pole as the first stage of a multi. The cacher had to go to the pole (which brought them to a view of an aerator by a very pretty reservoir) and use the numbers on the pole to get the coordinates to the second stage, which was a drive to a nice decent hike in the woods.

1.4k · June 18, 2011

Anyone have some pics of a telephone pole hid that doesn't stand out? Thanks!

they have lots of cracks/splits where you could easily slide a duct taped geopouch in.

This is what I see very often in our area, done well they are hard to see

SS

6.1k · June 18, 2011

Many telephone poles have existing holes about 5/8 inch wide. I suspect that they are being misidentified as being drilled by the cacher.

My bad, bad joke that not very many people "got". Ignore, sorry. No, never drill into a telephone pole. And I checked out the three closest to my house, and two more near the grocery store today. I don't see no stinking 5/8" diameter holes anywhere. Can you elaborate?

They all don't have holes, but I've noticed several that do, and some which go completly through. I suspect that they were intended for a guy wire anchor, or for foot anchors that were never installed. I used to have a pair of lineman foot pegs. They are standardized to slip over top of those small rectangular metal anchor plates on the side that have a metal nipple in the center and which are usually staggered. Not all poles have those either.

June 18, 2011

I'm a lineman. Please don't mess with the poles. It endangers my life and the lives of my coworkers and the general public. If I were to find a cache on a pole during my daily work, you can be sure that I would remove it immediately. Nothing personal. It just isn't a proper place for a cache. I won't place a geocache under your desk at work. Please don't leave one where I have to work.

1.1k · June 19, 2011

Permission is key.

There is a stage here in town that is placed with permission on a telephone pole but it is the only one I know of.

Who did the obtain permission from?

Well I own two poles they are on my property and I bought and paid for them. They aren't cheap but I could drill a hole in one, I won't as it may weeken it. However using an existing hole or crack would be OK. Still wouldn't do it as I'm not a micro or nano fan and there are much better places to hide a cache IMHO.

June 19, 2011

I'm just asking a question here even though I suspect I know the answer.

Suppose I built my house about a 1/2 mile from the road and I had to have the utility companies put in poles and string wires to my house along my driveway on my land. I suspect they would charge me a pretty penny to do so. Would the polls belong to me ?

edit: dadgum, my question was answered even before I posted it

edit#2: I didn't type dadgum in my post. I'm not that much of a prude. LOL

Edited June 19, 2011 by the3gmen

4.3k · June 19, 2011

I'm a lineman ... If I were to find a cache on a pole during my daily work ... I would remove it immediately.

Be sure to log the find, and follow-up with a Needs Archived log. I'm in favor of you arbitrarily removing caches you don't approve of -- as long as you'll say what you did and why.

You won't win any popularity contests, but you'd be okay in my book!

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=267750

Edited June 19, 2011 by Portland Cyclist

6k · June 19, 2011

They are awfully hard to hide but maybe a large chipper to reduce it to a pile of sawdust and put a nano in side there.

1.9k · June 19, 2011

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but, in New Jersey, it is illegal to put a sign on a utility pole, NJS 27:5-9 (f) A sign may not be painted, drawn, erected or maintained upon trees, rocks, other natural features or public utility poles.

Same here in Arizona. lots of the poles have "Don't get fined, don't affix signs to this pole"

Listed is the ARS for the city code.

15.4k · June 19, 2011

[oops]

Edited June 19, 2011 by niraD

December 31, 2011

Ok, so, if you really want to use a phone pole idea, I'll tell you how I did it. I used the pole as the first stage of a multi. The cacher had to go to the pole (which brought them to a view of an aerator by a very pretty reservoir) and use the numbers on the pole to get the coordinates to the second stage, which was a drive to a nice decent hike in the woods.

Great idea. I will probably do that.

5.3k · December 31, 2011

One of the best I've seen. If you look closely at telephone poles you will notice that they often have little 1" diameter metal discs naile dto them. These are some sort of registration mark I think. Someone took one of those discs off and nalied it to the cap of a falcon tube, hen drilled a hole in the telephone pole so that the tube fit in the hole with the cap with thte disc hiding the hole and the tube. Probably a guidline violation but it was still a very good hide...

Drilling a hole into a telephone, pretty sure violates the guidlines, but then a a lot of cachers do not read them anyway

3.6k · December 31, 2011

Find an abandoned, unused one. Put the container way up there. Use a funny container.

There is one here in the North Bay called High Voltage. On an unused pole. No wires. Cache is way up high. The FTF put the pegs in but up high. We just used an extended ladder to reach the cache.

We also had some cachers drilled holes in the poles. Not a good idea because it weakens the pole and rots it faster.

But the ones I've seen that are not that bad as someone mentioned is flat packs in the cracks. Baggies with camo tape or duct tape.

Also noticed some had the wooden plugs that are in the poles, they been drilled out and put back. That I am unsure if that is a good idea, kinda a grey area there.

19k · December 31, 2011

Also noticed some had the wooden plugs that are in the poles, they been drilled out and put back. That I am unsure if that is a good idea, kinda a grey area there.

Aside from any permission and/or vandalism issues, swelling and shrinkage of the wooden plug would be major issues, I'd think.

3.1k · December 31, 2011

Speaking from experience, the biggest thing you will need to work on for a utility pole hide is getting permissions. The next big thing is overcoming the shame some in the forums will shovel on you for making a suggestion about a utility pole hide.

But, once you get permissions, be sure to get permission for the type and style of hide you want to make. If you say nano in a crack, and instead drill a hole and place something else, you're not doing yourself (or cachers in general) any favors. Be ready to provide clear permissions to your reviewer--this may include email chains, phone numbers, etc.

3.1k · December 31, 2011

I'm a lineman. Please don't mess with the poles. It endangers my life and the lives of my coworkers and the general public. If I were to find a cache on a pole during my daily work, you can be sure that I would remove it immediately. Nothing personal. It just isn't a proper place for a cache. I won't place a geocache under your desk at work. Please don't leave one where I have to work.

I would hope you wouldn't just remove it. You may not know what permissions were obtained for the hide. Just know that if you did remove the cache, the hider will likely replace it once the DNFs and NM logs start rolling in.

1k · December 31, 2011

Phone your local cellular providers and offer your property for a new cell tower site with one small condition... make it a nano placement while negotiating... those towers qualify as radio 'telephone' poles... sort of...

I doubt this would be effective. First of all, they would need to be looking for a new cell tower site in your area in the first place. Secondly, even if you offered them the location for free in exchange for placing the nano, you would probably be turned down since the thousands of dollars they'd save a month (how much they usually pay to lease space to erect a cell tower) wouldn't be worth the costs to repair the tower if someone looking for the cache damaged it.

Bucket trucks can't be used in all areas. Some poles have to br climbed and handholds aren't allowed anymore because of public safety.

Then they should use a helicopter!

I'm kidding.

December 31, 2011

Some one asked if power poles are placed along a private drive or road who owns the poles?

Answere is that the power company does in all cases. The ownership of power distibution changes at the house.

In all states it is unlawfull to attach anything to a power or telephone pole. If you think that permission wil be given, forget it, no it will not.

That lineman that planted one on a pole conned his way into it, the boss don't know what that guy did.

As far as putting one way up the pole, maybe you should look at Texas. Some court ruled that Cache owners can be sued for injury incured by finders.

Due to dangeros placement. things will be worse if unlawfull placement as well. I saw the Texas case in earlier disscusions here.

I own a pole in my yard with a light at the top and had to climb it 40 feet to replace the photo cell. I used my deer stand and that was one scary climb.

As geocache owners we all must think before placing a hide, and not be on the wrong side of the law. Just because it looks like a neat thing to do

does not mean you should do it.

2.6k · December 31, 2011

I have found several of this type of hide in my area, most recently yesterday. While I agree with some of the points made, particularly about permission and the safety of the linemen, I have a problem with the argument about hastening the rot and decay of the pole. Linemen have been climbing these poles for years, and in some places still do. With spikes. I have a pole in the corner of my yard that has hundreds of spike holes in it, and they've been using bucket trucks around here for as long as I can remember, which means this particular pole was a) climbed and damaged with spikes many, many times, and b)has been in place for at least 20 years with said damage. Not to mention the attachment of various hardware, markers, tags, etc., none of which is doing any less harm to the pole than a cache would.

The other arguments I can appreciate, but I don't buy that we're compromising the integrity of the pole by installing a small fraction of the amount of hardware that it already has drilled or hammered into it.

Seems to me that a pole that has a big enough crack in it to slip in a ziploc bag is in way worse shape than a solid one with a small hole drilled in it.

Again, I'm not advocating them and I won't hide one that way, but parts of the argument are problematic.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Chief301

December 31, 2011

Some one asked if power poles are placed along a private drive or road who owns the poles?

Answere is that the power company does in all cases. The ownership of power distibution changes at the house.

In all states it is unlawfull to attach anything to a power or telephone pole. If you think that permission wil be given, forget it, no it will not.

...snip...

Maybe in the USA.

In NZ, "In this Act, point of supply, in relation to a property, means the point or points on the boundary of the property at which exclusive fittings enter that property,"

So if you live far enough from the road that your overheads require an extra pole it is your pole.

1.1k · December 31, 2011

Some one asked if power poles are placed along a private drive or road who owns the poles?

Answere is that the power company does in all cases. The ownership of power distibution changes at the house.

In all states it is unlawfull to attach anything to a power or telephone pole. If you think that permission wil be given, forget it, no it will not.

...snip...

Maybe in the USA.

In NZ, "In this Act, point of supply, in relation to a property, means the point or points on the boundary of the property at which exclusive fittings enter that property,"

So if you live far enough from the road that your overheads require an extra pole it is your pole.

I have two poles on my property, the first one was bought and owned by the [power company. The 2nd was bought, paid for and owned by me. However, that being said I do believe it is still unlawful to attach anything to either pole regardless of who owns it.

3.1k · January 1, 2012

If you think that permission wil be given, forget it, no it will not.

Except when permission is given. Like it was to me from our local provider. <_<

Need idea for a telephone pole hide

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