Jump to content

Telephone Cache


TwistedCube

Recommended Posts

I am planning on creating a 2 stage multi-cache revolving around telephones.

 

Stage 1 - An old phone will be hidden inside of an abandoned phone booth/stand. I am going to try to put a mini audio playback/recorder in the place of one of the buttons on the phone so that the cacher has to push the button to hear the final coordinates. 

 

Stage 2 - ???

 

I still haven't figured out all of the details yet, including what the second stage will be. 

 

Any thoughts on how I can make the first stage possible, or what the second stage can be in order to be clever and fit into the whole telephone theme? 

Edited by TwistedCube
clarification
Link to comment
13 minutes ago, TwistedCube said:

I am planning on creating a 2 stage multi-cache revolving around telephones.

 

Stage 1 - An old phone will be hidden inside of an abandoned phone booth. I am going to try to put a mini audio playback/recorder in the place of one of the buttons on the phone so that the cacher has to push the button to hear the final coordinates. 

 

Stage 2 - ???

 

I still haven't figured out all of the details yet, including what the second stage will be. 

 

Any thoughts on how I can make the first stage possible, or what the second stage can be in order to be clever and fit into the whole telephone theme? 

Oh man, as CONTROL's top agents and frequent users of telephone booths, I love your cache idea.  

Just something to consider: a number for them to call or text that gives an automated response? Hidden in the phone booth. 

Link to comment
31 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Oh man, as CONTROL's top agents and frequent users of telephone booths, I love your cache idea.  

Just something to consider: a number for them to call or text that gives an automated response? Hidden in the phone booth. 

 

Just for fun, for the first stage, after the message plays the coordinates it should say, "this phone booth will self-destruction in 5 seconds". 

 

 It would be pretty easy to wire one of the buttons on the phone to play the recorded message.  Using a complete phone number would require some additional electronics.  

 

Stage two wouldn't necessarily be in another phone booth, but could still be phone related by placing it near a cell tower, or phone company building.  While CONTROL's agents used a telephone booth to enter HQ,  Max used a shoe phone.   If you could find the right place to hide it, a shoe phone that rang when a motion detector was triggered would be a cool second stage.

 

 

Edited by NYPaddleCacher
  • Helpful 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

One local cache was based on a real phone booth: Calling a number from that specific phone booth resulted in a recorded message with the final coordinates. The lesson learned from that one, by the way, was that the original recorded message was "cute" and in-theme, but it resulted in the coordinates being very hard to understand, so the CO changed it to a more straightforward message almost right away.

 

What you're talking about will be cute, but note that it doesn't really depend on a phone booth. I'd be just as amused and maybe even more impressed to find a phone in a stump out in the woods. Power is probably your main problem, and I assume you plan to supply your own no matter where the phone is.

 

Keep in mind that phone booths are being abandoned for a reason, so there's every reason to expect the phone booth itself to disappear. I hope that doesn't discourage you, but prepare yourself for losing all your work in a blink of an eye.

 

Don't worry too much about the final. Sure, being clever and in theme are both pluses, but the 1st stage is already clever enough to carry the cache if you don't come up with any cool ideas for the final. Personally, I'd make the final nearby so people can find it right away without having to drive somewhere else. Otherwise, I'd worry they forgot the important stage by the time they signed the log. But that's just me.

 

If you're really planning on making this a multi, that -- at least to me -- implies that what to do at stage 1 is spelled out with a reasonable amount of clarity in the cache's description. I'd be inclined to be a little more oblique, like having a puzzle to solve in order for the seeker to discover there's a physical phone booth involved. If you do anything like that, it should be an unknown cache type. And I'd be inclined to make it unknown even if the phone booth is the posted coordinates for stage 1.

Link to comment
4 minutes ago, TwistedCube said:

Just to clarify, I want Stage 1 to be in a phone stand. more like a public telephone you'd see in American cities. Except this one would be abandoned.

 

 

Yes, that's what I imagined. There's only a couple left in my city, but I can't find one that works. I suspect they are all abandoned and soon will be taken away. 

Link to comment
19 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

Just for fun, for the first stage, after the message plays the coordinates it should say, "this phone booth will self-destruction in 5 seconds". 

 

 

 

Ha!  Here's an idea.  The first half of the coordinates are given...then the person has to quickly exit the phone booth within that five seconds to find the other half on a display on the exterior.

 

 

Link to comment
On 12/12/2018 at 10:01 AM, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

Those are becoming almost as rare as phone booths.  

 

If one could find an old dial phone, the mouth and ear piece on the handset screws off, and would hold a micro container.  

I'm sorry I neglected to read this before typing my own comment. I was about to mention the same thing. To build on this, if you could obtain permission to place the cache container undercover, you could circumvent this size restriction by hiding a key in a matchstick case in the phone which is required to unlock the nearby cache. If you could get permission to create a rather large cache and then hang the phone on the outside, this would tie together nicely. Not to overstep, but if you could use a more traditional English style booth, you could work all of this into the same covered area. 

Link to comment
On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 6:56 PM, TheLimeCat said:

I'm sorry I neglected to read this before typing my own comment. I was about to mention the same thing. To build on this, if you could obtain permission to place the cache container undercover, you could circumvent this size restriction by hiding a key in a matchstick case in the phone which is required to unlock the nearby cache. If you could get permission to create a rather large cache and then hang the phone on the outside, this would tie together nicely. Not to overstep, but if you could use a more traditional English style booth, you could work all of this into the same covered area. 

That would be cool!

 

My uncle (who is also a cacher) was walking around in the woods last week and found a large solid steel safe. Everything works, except you can't close it. Maybe if we are able to fix it up then we can use that for Stage 2. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, TwistedCube said:

My uncle (who is also a cacher) was walking around in the woods last week and found a large solid steel safe. Everything works, except you can't close it. Maybe if we are able to fix it up then we can use that for Stage 2. 

 

That's funny !   Don't know why I thought that only happened here...

I've found a couple in game land's  inner parking lots.  An atm once too. 

All were stolen, opened on the road, and dumped there.    :)

Link to comment

I love Phone Booth Caches! I still get the urge to check for the common spots to see if something is there. By far the best phone booth cache is Dr Who GCW6EM you enter a code and a secret compartment opens up with 1200+ favorite points. In the Portland area we had a series of Phone Booth Multis (PBMs) which had a small cult following. Some kept you going all over the metro area criss crossing the place others took you up to Seattle or on a trip of several hours to the beach, Those were classified as T5 and I got a far amount of them. They all were similar take the number or call to get it and do some math to find the next WP. The container was usually a magnetic strip with log glued to it stuck under the phone or a dna tube in the tray. The biggest challenge I saw was that the phones started disappearing over time. If I ever get to Milwaukee Wi there is a final ready and waiting for me. 

Link to comment

UPDATE: 

 

A new idea for Stage 2 is a pipe gadget cache strapped to a telephone pole where, in order to find the code to a combo lock, the cacher must find a phone book hidden in a tupperware container nearby and find the phone number of a certain person to look for in the book. The last 4 digits of the phone number is the code. 

 

 

Edited by TwistedCube
clarity
Link to comment
6 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Thought it unusual that some still find phone booths, don't remember when I've last seen a phone book.  :)

Here in Silicon Valley, they still deliver a phone book every year. It's a lot smaller than it used to be (less than half an inch thick, vs the 2- to 3-inch thick ones we used to get), and covers a smaller geographical area. But it's a phone book. I don't recall the last time I actually looked up a phone number in one though.

Link to comment
4 minutes ago, niraD said:

Here in Silicon Valley, they still deliver a phone book every year. It's a lot smaller than it used to be (less than half an inch thick, vs the 2- to 3-inch thick ones we used to get), and covers a smaller geographical area. But it's a phone book. I don't recall the last time I actually looked up a phone number in one though.

 

Here in the UK too, but I’m sure I heard that they’re to be discontinued.  My current one is <1 cm thick.  They used to be about 6 cm!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...