+manuelcasi Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 I kind of feel silly running Threw the woods by my self with a radio hoping that if there are other geo-cachers in the area, they are 1) more than one of them 2) they will be using radios? Last weekend, I would press the talk button and say "Geo-cache" Hoping that if some had a radio they would respond. I was in middle of the city and I did get some responses. Mostly "what? over" I respond "Geocache over" response "what? Geo-cat over". My question is should there be a STANDARD, for lack of a better word, call on the radio? I think there is as many if not more cachers out there caching alone. What should we say into the radio? Hopefully it will be something that doesn't make us look any funner then we do running Threw the woods with a GPSr, Cell phone, Frs Radio, and a bag full of happy meal toys. www.ManuelCasillas.com [This message was edited by manuelcasi on October 10, 2002 at 06:20 PM.] [This message was edited by manuelcasi on October 11, 2002 at 11:55 AM.] Quote Link to comment
+Dekaner Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Breaker breaker this is Dekaner running down the trail. How 'bout ya Geocachers, anybody out there with their ears on? Watch out for the snake in the grass at milemarker 2. Look out, got a grizzly on my tail. Dekaner - over and out. - Dekaner of Team KKF2A Quote Link to comment
Cache Canucks Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 ...a simple "Are there any GeoCachers out there this afternoon (or morning/or evening)?" If you get a positive response, then exchange your GeoCaching usernames and enjoy a bit of a chat. If not, leave your radio 'On' and monitor channel 2 until you finish your cache hunt ...just in case another 'FRS enabled' GeoCacher pulls into the parking lot behind you and makes a similar 'anyone there?' call. Quote Link to comment
+Criminal Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 The AF uses "mainsail mainsail" as a hailing call to "any station" on the HF freqs. Somebody could come up with something catchy or use: "YO! geocacher in the area!" "Attention on the net, geocacher (your call sign here) is in the pattern!" "Help! I can't find this fu***ing thing!" If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around, If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around, Throw your jelly out the window; let the dog-gone shack burn down. **Huddie Ledbetter** Quote Link to comment
+Acc-Risk and Snarflax Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 "Any GeoCachers?" Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over. "Uhhhh... Wrong number... Thanks, Bye Bye." Contents Under Pressure... Quote Link to comment
+manuelcasi Posted October 10, 2002 Author Share Posted October 10, 2002 quote: "Any GeoCachers?" Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over. I like this one so far. www.ManuelCasillas.com Quote Link to comment
o2jmpr Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 If I heard a fellow cacher on FRS say "Any Geocachers -Whiskey/ Tango/ Foxtrot" I'd be too busy laughing my *** off to respond to them. So, maybe something else would be better like "Any Geocachers? - I have a Sierra/ Mike/ Uniform/ Romeo/ Foxtrot"!!!!!! That would get me there in a hurry! Quote Link to comment
+cachew nut Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 quote:Originally posted by manuelcasi: My question is should there be a STANDARD, for lack of a better word, call on the radio? I think there is as many if not more cachers out there caching alone. What should we say into the radio? First cacher: Hey Andy Next cacher: Hey Gomer then make hoot owl sounds Quote Link to comment
Cholo Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 a lack of communication...gadgets! Geocaching should issue call signs to all members, of course charter members would have their own special ones, but only if they can pass a secret code test. Yes, I'm being facetious, I'd really like to be the next one to invent a hot selling new geo toy. Ooh, ooh, how about 'infrared' GPSr? I wonder if the golf guys have thought of this? Quote Link to comment
azog Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 What's the frequenency, Kenneth? ---------- Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be also be like him. Quote Link to comment
+trippy1976 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 I just say "Any cachers in the area?" So far... no success. Funny thing was last time I was out, I bumped into a guy who usually DOES have his radio with him. But we had both taken the day off and he figured noone else would be out caching in the afternoon Doh! It worked out in the end, but I thought that was amusing. It would be interesting if there was some feature that allowed you to mark that you intended to visit a cache that day, and then it would tell you when you select that if anyone else also intends to visit it. *shrug* At the same time, that seems horribly unlikely And not really worth the effort. I'm still interested in hearing more about the channel scanning stuff on some of hte newer FRS radios. Anyone have some with that feature? What does it scan exactly? Just channels or codes too? -------- trippy1976 Quote Link to comment
Cache Canucks Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 quote:Originally posted by trippy1976:"...I'm still interested in hearing more about the channel scanning stuff on some of hte newer FRS radios. Anyone have some with that feature? What does it scan exactly? Just channels or codes too?..." I own a few Motorola T6220's and, in addition to being able to scan the FRS band for active channels, they will also identify which CTCSS tone is being used by another radio and then automatically 'switch' to that tone if you decide to key up and respond to that particular transmission (in order to do this, you need to first set each channel on the T6220 to a CTCSS code of '0' ...which is 'off'). Very handy. Quote Link to comment
Rubbertoe Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Dekaner:Breaker breaker this is Dekaner running down the trail. How 'bout ya Geocachers, anybody out there with their ears on? Watch out for the snake in the grass at milemarker 2. Look out, got a grizzly on my tail. Dekaner - over and out. *laugh* Yeah - I used to "play CB" when I was a teenager, into my early 20s... fox hunting, all that crap. Anyway - I still haven't been able to shake the CB talk whenever I'm on a radio. Hell, even when I use one of those Nextel phones with direct connect I get all CB-ish. The Toe Pages Quote Link to comment
+manuelcasi Posted October 11, 2002 Author Share Posted October 11, 2002 I started to think last night that if we do come up with an official "call" on the radio, we may be giving the enemy our position. What I mean is that park Ranger (not all) who are looking to Ban geo-caching may start to monitor the radio as well and move in for a surprise ambush. So I thought we should make a "call" that only geocahers would recognize. We would have to change it every so often. I came up with something. It goes like this. 1st geocacher on the radio "The purple cow sings moon-river at midnight" 2nd geocaher would respond with "The chicken eats mercury in Main" What do you guys think? www.ManuelCasillas.com Quote Link to comment
Cache Canucks Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 ...the folks at Groundspeak are currently exploring the possibility of adding a 'GeoCaching/FRS Ch 2' car window decal to their 'GeoCaching Gear' offerings; it would indicate that a GeoCacher using FRS Ch 2 is 'in the neighbourhood', the idea being that by spotting such a decal in the window of a car parked at a trailhead (or wherever), GeoCachers would have a leg-up on touching base with each other over the radio ...if they were so inclined. Quote Link to comment
+Moore9KSUcats Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 As far as having a special code or call-lingo, just remember that the Park Rangers that are concerned about geocaching are probably already monitoring the forum boards, and will also see our special lingo! (And be on the watch for the new special logos for the car....) Thus, we may end up shooting ourselves in the foot with all this! Quote Link to comment
+carivercpl Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 ok for starters that FRS radio has a big .5 watt of power...and the cb only had 4 watts...unless you do Magic to them...so trying to hear somebody in the woods area going to be really tuff at best...you may want to make a post in the forum for area and see if there are going to be anyone out in your area...we use 5 watt GMRS with ch 6-14 tone 1 programmed...i can get 3 to 7 miles at best Quote Link to comment
Cache Canucks Posted October 14, 2002 Share Posted October 14, 2002 quote:Originally posted by carivercpl:ok for starters that FRS radio has a big .5 watt of power...and the cb only had 4 watts...unless you do Magic to them...so trying to hear somebody in the woods area going to be really tuff at best...you may want to make a post in the forum for area and see if there are going to be anyone out in your area...we use 5 watt GMRS with ch 6-14 tone 1 programmed...i can get 3 to 7 miles at best Physics dictate that the relationship between RF power and working range is based on an inverse square ratio ...in other words, to double your range under identical operating conditions (given the same terrain, equipment, frequency and antenna), you need to quadruple your RF power output. Put another way, although a 2 watt radio has 4 times the RF output of a 0.5 watt radio, it would only have double the range under identical operating conditions. Far more of an influence on performance (especially in the UHF spectrum) is antenna height and location. 'Over water' use or when transmitting from a high feature - be it natural or man made - can dramatically increase the working range of even a modestly powered 0.5 watt FRS radio (although hardly typical, 30 mile FRS contacts have been recorded between mountain tops where there was a clear 'line of sight'). As for a comparison between FRS (UHF) and handheld CB (HF) equipment, the difference in frequency and wavelength between those two bands 'clouds the water' beyond a simple comparison of RF wattage. Because of a much shorter wavelength due to its higher frequency, the antenna on a typical FRS radio is much more efficient at radiating its signal than its CB counterpart (where, due to a much longer wavelength, portable antennas are not nearly as efficient); as a result, despite a sometimes higher RF wattage, a CB handheld has a much more difficult time radiating a strong signal when using a typical 'portable' antenna. All of that aside, the real hinge-pin in this is that what is being discussed is two-way radio contact between GeoCachers engaged in hunting the same cache. In the vast majority of cases, this would likely put the users within a 1 mile radius of each other ...well within the practical range of an FRS unit (even with moderate tree cover). Under these circumstances, a more costly and higher powered radio (not to mention the FCC license needed to use it), would be superfluous. Quote Link to comment
+T-storm Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 Interesting. We have FRS radios, but I never even considered trying to scare up an unknown cacher who might just happen to be in the area. We got them because we cache as a family-- mom, dad, and 3-yr-old. Both of us adults really enjoy the find, so we generally get close and then take turns searching. Sometimes to give the necessary space for searching due to lack of screening cover or because the Geoferret spotted P-L-A-Y-G-R-O-U-N-D or other terribly interesting feature we are out of earshot as well as out of view. It can be important to be able to stay in contact without calling huge amounts of attention to ourselves (as say, with bellowing for one another). If the kiddo gets tired and is just done or if she gets hurt and we need to leave immediately. If others folks are heading into the search area. If the searcher gets hurt or realizes they need an item or piece of info ... you get the idea. We're just using them for the family to stay in contact, and as long as we remember to turn the volume up loud enough they've worked fine for this purpose. Hmmm... now I may have to visit channel 2 once in a while! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching Quote Link to comment
+ClayJar Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 The standard call-and-response should *obviously* be... GCFRS1: Marco! GCFRS2: Polo! Quote Link to comment
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