[hogrod]

I should start off saying we did this cache just before you(the same day) and I kept getting that feeling like I was being watched. We had to circle the block twice to find a way in, to our surprise the park entrance sign and marker posts were between two houses 30ft apart(so you have to walk through someones yard to enter).
I’m sure normally this park is just used as a backyard extension, so having two people stop and use the park in one day wasn’t normal.

I see the owner has posted a note that they did get permission for placing the cache, maybe they should have also talked to the people living near the park entrance.

[hogrod]

I’ve been using the metroguide 6 maps for routing on my 60cx allot, and I do sometimes get some really strange routes.
Since I posted the info about using img2gps this I have started to learn to make my own topo maps with more detail than garmins topo. I use img2gps to upload those maps too, when I make the topo maps I make them transparent so I can have metroguideV6 up for routing and have topo showing at the same time.

I’m definitely no expert at making maps and have never been able to get the water info and topo working together. I found this site that explains some of the steps to making your own topo maps.

http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm

[hogrod]

I got an email about a month ago about this, I didn’t really look into it much after I saw there was a fee involved. definitely interesting though.

[hogrod]

@Commander Bob wrote:

@hogrod wrote:

@Big Yonsson wrote:

Try this.it worked real well on my dog.

http://www.tickedoff.com/

I always have one of these in my caching bag. I have never had to use it but you never know what will come up.

hogrod, you need to come to Bong Rec. Area and hunt some caches there. I’ll guarantee it’ll get some use then.
~CB

LOL, thanks for making me laugh. I should have been a little more specific, I do get ticks on me but never have had any attached since I’ve had “the spoon”. maybe it is time to hit bong & do some caches….. ok that didn’t come out right, I mean visit bog rec. area 😉

[hogrod]

look in the web links section of this site, I added a link to the geocaching software for a program called geocalc, it is very simple to use and one of the things it does is exactly what your asking for.

[hogrod]

@Big Yonsson wrote:

Try this.it worked real well on my dog.

http://www.tickedoff.com/

I always have one of these in my caching bag. I have never had to use it but you never know what will come up.

[hogrod]

I would suspect that if someone was digging up flowers it wasn’t a cacher….. It makes more sense that it was someone taking home some flowers for their own garden.

everyone knows caches are NOT buried.

[hogrod]

Here is a few comparisons I could find. the first is a comparing the 60csx to the 60cs.

http://patrick-roeder.de/reviews/garmin_gpsmap_60CSx.htm

The second comparison is of the 60cs, 60csx, & explorist 600. This test shows the constant movement of the X models, though I would now say with the newest updates it definitely don’t move around as much as before. It would be nice to see this test done with latest updates installed.

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/showdown/

[hogrod]

Seems this may be a simple issue, when you first get a lowrance unit it’s in easy mode, you don’t get as many options in the menus, and can’t mark waypoints. you need to put the unit into advanced mode and everything should work.
if you download the h2O emulator from lowrance(can play with H2O on pc) even the emulator works this way.

if anyone wants to play with a lowrance check out the emulator, its just to bad they don’t have one for the new expeditionC.

http://www.lowrance.com/Software/PCSoftware/Install/iFINDERH2O/default.asp

[hogrod]

You may already know this, but the only X models that get the sirf chip are the 60/76cx & 60/76csx models, the vista/legendCx do not get this chip. does it make a difference? you bet!

I’ve had many receivers and I will say that my 60cx seems to be one of the best. first off it has very fast acquisition times(cold start usually under a minute, warm start a couple seconds). The only other garmin I can compare it to is my legendC, and when In a very deep valley with heavy tree cover the legendC only had 160ft claimed accuracy and could only get me within 50ft of coords(was jumping around a bit). at the same time the 60cx had 35-40ft claimed accuracy and got me within 8ft.

I will say sometimes it is not sure of its location as other models I have had, you can stand on a known location and the distance to the coords will change +/- 20ft. a good example of this is if you zoom in on the map screen you can see the location icon moving around constantly. This is not as noticeable with the most current firmware/gps updates, probably closer to a +/- 10ft fluctuation.

There is one thing that is totally new with the sirf equipped models, there is not just one firmware download to get the unit up to date. It now has a unit software (firmware) and a gps software( for the sirf chip). so you either have to download two things from garmin to get the unit upto date or run garmins webupdater twice.
It is very important to update to the newest software because they have fixed quite a few bugs so far. I have never bought a new gpsr that had the most current updates installed so it’s best you check what software you have right away. You can check at main menu, setup, system, click menu key and select software version.(see photo)

[hogrod]

@Team Honeybunnies wrote:

It’s interesting that bookmark lists are being partially blamed. Looked back and found that only seven series have won COTM, and of those it looks like five won before public bookmarking was available: The Subs, The Universe, Cheesehead Trivia, High Brass and Scatterbrains 2. Which leaves us with The Yellowstone and Chippewa River Trails, both sterling series. That’s a humongous pile of talent for only seven months worth of winners stretching back to ’02.

You may want to go back and check, of the 7 series caches that have won COTM 4 were within the last year. Of those 4 all are listed using a bookmark list.
So 4 out of 12 caches within the last year to win COTM have been series caches….. I can definatly see a tread towards COTM trully becoming series cache of the month.

[hogrod]

@greyhounder wrote:

Just my thoughts on this:
At this point the number of people voting in the poll is not a significant enough sample sized based on the population of WGA members to really mean anything. If 300 people were voting, then I would see some significance.
Bec

I agree with more people voting we would have a more accurate poll, but in reality this reasoning just downplays any results we do get. will we ever get 300 votes on this poll? I highly doubt it, COTM never even gets as many votes as this poll.

The real issue is that COTM does need to be updated. you can disagree with me but the 4+ page topic mentioned above by Rcsnowball says otherwise.
http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1625

[hogrod]

@Trudy & the beast wrote:

Have we outgrown the need (purpose) of Cache of the Month?

As I see it, the original idea behind hind selecting a cache to highlight each month, was to aide geocachers in planning their activities. Where to visit and how to place a high quality cache were the issues I saw being addressed by the feature. Since the inception of COM there has been an explosion of caches throughout our state; the population of cachers has grown ten-fold as well. And yet, the numbers of nominees for COM still stands at a half-dozen, rarely more often less; and the number of voters for COM stands at about a score. One might expect the popularity of the feature to grow at about the same rate as that of the sport. I don’t see that.
~tb

I believe that the main reason that you don’t see more people participating with COTM is because caches not located in SE WI usually don’t win. Maybe it would be a good idea to section of the state into three areas, NE, NW, S. This way the areas/caches that don’t get as many visitors still have a chance of a COTM win. With the amount of caches our state now has this would make much more sense.(plus it would really help with planning trips up north!) When COTM was started there were only a few caches/cachers, geocaching in Wisconsin has moved on but COTM has not.

@Team Deejay wrote:

it makes little sense to nominate one member of the series, as one has to find all (or nearly all) the members to appreciate the series. While I suppose you could just nominate the terminal cache of the series, you would be, in reality, just using it as a proxy for the whole series. So for these, I think it does make sense to nominate the series instead.

per the poll results(as of right now) 1/2 the people don’t like the practice of series caches being listed. Should we continue using a system that 1/2 the people are unhappy with? would it hurt the other half if bookmark lists weren’t allowed but nomination of “proxy” terminal cache in the series were brought back in practice?(since this was the way things were done for years before the bookmark lists)

Most people hate any change but obviously with 1/2 the people unhappy with the way things are, things really do need to change.

[hogrod]

@Jeremy wrote:

Even with this restriction on voting for a cache series, if you really like a series you could always either select what you think is the best cache in the series or the final/mother cache of the series.

This is how things were done in the past, before the bookmark list came into play. I’m actually suprised that bookmark list were ever allowed as COTM.

@onesearching2find wrote:

The thing about a series is often the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. I could be pretty sure that the people who found the 49 caches needed to find #50 “The Ultra Mystery Cache” would agree.

I totally agree that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, thats why In the past the way a series would have been nominated for COTM people would have just submitted the final #50. (especially since you need to do the whole series to get that far) The whole series still gets recognition and there is still only one cache of the month.

looks like a win/win situation if bookmark lists aren’t allowed as COTM.

and @ onesearching2find good luck with COTM, looks like a great series!

[hogrod]

After further review of the past COTM winners it seems that the real issue isn’t series caches being voted as cache of the month, but voting for a bookmark list as cache of the month.

looks like this is a growing trend, and it seems half the people here don’t like the practice.

[Author]

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