[Cheesehead Dave]

Just an administrative note: This “event” was nominated for Cache of the Month. Since it’s not a permanent cache, I’m removing it, but feel free to re-nominate any permanent cache that was part of the series.

[Cheesehead Dave]

I liked the smaller Legend I used to use, but I’ve gotten to like the bigger screen on the 60CSx and when I use it for driving, the front mounted buttons are more convenient.

A question I’m starting to have is whether newer GPS receivers are going to start having chipsets in them to be able to receive Galileo transmissions. Can current units simply be upgraded with a firmware update or would you need a new “high-sensitivity antenna”?

[Cheesehead Dave]

@tyedyeskyguy wrote:

Now, if they’d only take my suggestion and put a big red check mark at the top of the page to show that you have done that particualr cache…

If you use Firefox, there’s a Greasemonkey script available that can do this for you.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Thanks to the magic of POI files, I have the decoded hints at the ready in my 60CSx in case I need them. Generally, I’ll search the area for 5-10 minutes, and if I’m still coming up empty I’ll go to the hint and pray that it’s actually useful.

[Cheesehead Dave]

There’s a great thread about this over in the Dark Side forums.

Some of those are classics.

[Cheesehead Dave]

With that out of the way, how about three classes of memberships?

I’ll use myself as an example…

I am a member of the WGA, GONIL, and MiGO.

As a Wisconsin resident, I expect to have full membership rights in the WGA.

As an active cacher, but a non-resident of Illinois, I consider myself an “interested party” in what goes on in that state. While I would not expect to be allowed to vote in GONIL elections, it would be nice to have that “frequent cacher” status so that others know that I’m not really an outsider, even though I live north of the border. And every now and then, maybe an issue would come up where it would be reasonable to have not just residents, but also frequent cachers be able to vote.

As for MiGO, there were a couple threads in their forums that I was interested in viewing and posting to. I don’t cache much in Michigan, so I really have no interest in the MiGO organization. So I’m just a “MiGO friend”.

The sticky question would be, where do you draw the line between “interested party” and “friend”? Obviously, you would need to have found caches in Wisconsin, but how many? 10%? 25%? Would you have to live in one of the surrounding states?

Maybe it’s like porn. “I can’t say what it is, but I know it when I see it!”

People from out-of-state would initially register as a WGA friend, but click a checkbox to indicate they want to be considered as an “interested party”. Someone would look at that and decide yea or nay.

And what would you call it? “WGA Interested Party” sounds kind of silly…

For the most part, the difference between “friend” and “interested party” would only be a different forum title. That way if you see a post from them about a Wisconsin-related topic from them, you might give their opinion a little more weight than Apu, the WGA Friend from Zimbabwe. Or maybe you wouldn’t. But by having a different status in the database, perhaps some areas of the site could be opened to them that wouldn’t be open to a “WGA Friend”.

[Cheesehead Dave]

A Wisconsin geocacher is someone who geocaches in Wisconsin. I am a Wisconsin geocacher and an Illinois geocacher.

I am also a geocacher who lives in Wisconsin.

When it comes to issues in Illinois, I will provide my input in their forums as a non-voting member, but I will leave it to them to make the final decisions for their own state.

I work and drive and spend about ten hours a day in Illinois, and while I do pay attention to what goes on in the state, I have never had a desire to vote for the Illinois governor, or senators, or the Lake County Executive or anything like that. I’m a resident of Wisconsin, so that’s where I vote.

If you’re from out-of-state, you’re free to voice your geocaching opinions here, and political opinions in other areas, but in both cases, it’s the state residents who hae the final say in what goes on in the state.

It’s not an exact correlation, but think of the thousands of people who tow in their boats/snowmobiles/etc. from other states. Would you want them voting in Wisconsin elections? Especially if their opinions tend to run the opposite direction as yours and their input sways the results the other way?

[Cheesehead Dave]

If I get out of the car, I’ll almost always log a DNF, although I’ve also logged DNFs where I haven’t left the car, because I wasn’t able to find the pocket park buried in the subdivision.

DNFs help the cache owner, because the feedback can alert them to problems with their cache, especially if they see several in a row.

DNFs help other cachers, because if they see that the last few logs were DNFs, it might be a sign that the cache is missing and that it’s not worth wasting too much time hunting that particular cache. I’ve looked for (and not found) caches where people have written in their logs that they didn’t find the cache, but they posted the log as a find because they were at GZ and “certainly would have found it if it were there.” Unfortunately, I didn’t read the past logs; I only saw the smiley, so I assumed the previous cacher found the cache.

DNFs help me, because GSAK can keep track of my DNFed caches for me to help me prioritize what caches to look for on a given day.

[Cheesehead Dave]

I’ve updated the front page news item to reflect the total votes cast for each cache last month. I apologize for not including those with the results originally.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@Team Deejay wrote:

@Cheesehead Dave wrote:

(and I’d rather have a GPSr that sinks to the bottom of the stream I’m crossing rather than floats away)

I suppose it depends, but I seem to spend a lot more time crossing marshes and still (lake and pond) water than deep, moving water. I don’t think you want your GPS to sink in a swamp. Do you spend a lot of time fording the Root and the Pike, Dave? They have these new inventions now called bridges…

The only water crossings I do is hopping over streams, or balance beaming it on fallen trees. A friend of mine had a Magellan that fell out of his pocket while crossing a shallow stream. He didn’t notice until five minutes later, but that’s all it took for his GPSr to float away. He never saw it again. If it would have sunk, he could have found it right where he had crossed.

Generally though, I keep mine attached to a lanyard around my neck, so I’m probably not going to lose it either way.

[Cheesehead Dave]

I have one set of POIs I call “Keepers” which I created in Mapsource. Those are points like my house, my work, friend’s houses that we travel to, etc. They are saved as Keepers.gpx and kept in the POI folder. When searching for custom POIs on my 60CSx, if I go to the “Select Database” screen, “Keepers” will be one of the options so I can easily find one of those destinations for routing purposes.

These are the instructions I follow for getting caches into my unit as POIs along with custom icons.

I’m currently working on a GSAK macro to split out the exported caches by type so I can refer to them as separate databases. “Caches I’ve Found,” “Caches I Own,” “Unfound Caches,” etc.

I also export caches to the unit as Waypoints. By doing that, I can find them via the Geocaching Mode. By also having them in there as POIs, I can take advantage of the fact that unlike waypoints, (which are limited to fourteen-character names) POIs can have 44-character names and 88-character descriptions. My GSAK export puts the container size, the last four logs (F for found, 0 for DNF so it would show up as “F0FF”) the terrain/difficulty ratings, and as much of the decrypted hint as will fit in the remaining space. So while I use the waypoints to actually do the searching, if I need access to the other information, a quick trip to the Find Nearby Custom POI screen will get me what I need.

I also have the map set to show the waypoint icons at any zoom level below 2 miles and to hide the POI icons at above 200′. This lets me see where the caches are, but hides all the restaurant/gas station icons that I don’t want to see.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@Lostby7 wrote:

@Auntienae wrote:

– I thought the base memory in the 76 was twice the size of the 60.
AuntieNae

Memory really shouldn’t be the sellig point though, as if there is an expandable card for the unit it costs next to nothing to get a 1gig microSD card.

There’s a functional difference between the built-in memory and the memory card. The built-in memory can hold only what most GPSrs hold: waypoints, routes, and tracks.

The memory card holds “Custom Points of Interest” (POIs) which are different from waypoints in that they can only be created on your PC and uploaded to the unit. They also cannot be edited on the unit. The memory card is also where the maps are stored and can also be used to store tracks.

The waypoints vs. POI thing was a little confusing at first, but now it makes a lot more sense and I’ve figured out how to take advantage of it.

Bottom line though… The built-in memory for both is the same and holds 1000 waypoints. The extra size for the included memory card for the 76 means you can just hold twice as many POIs or load up a few extra maps. Personally, I bought the 60CSx because I liked the form factor (and I’d rather have a GPSr that sinks to the bottom of the stream I’m crossing rather than floats away) and a 2GB SD card at the same time.

[Cheesehead Dave]

If you already have your GPX files, you don’t need an internet connection to run GSAK…

The GSAK forums have a whole section dedicated to macros that people have written and shared.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@knoffer wrote:

@logsam wrote:

My top is 15 for the day… with a couple DNF’s 👿 . Quick question (excuse my ignorance)… may people mentioned the BoB series. What is the BoB Series, Anyone have a link to these caches? Thanks in advance… Logsam

Here is the BoB Bookmarklist.

Unfortunately, the BoBs have just been archived.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Congrats! Now all you have to do is plug the codes from all 84 caches into the multi-factored polynomial equation, solve for N and W and you’ll be well on your way to finding the 5/5 nano that I’ve glued to a brick and tossed into the bottom of Lake Michigan. Bring your scuba gear!

You did remember to grab all the codes, right? 😈

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