[Jeremy]

I’ve thought about this too Ray.

Big question is whether we could get land managers to agree to use it. First of all, they would have to give up control of the data they collect and trust the WGA to maintain it for them. I don’t think folks like the state (DNR) would agree to do this. Second, although we’d rather not have this happen, I’m sure each land manager will want to collect slightly different bits of information from those who place caches on their land. This would mean the system would have to be tweaked each time a new land manager / parks dept signed up to use the system.

On the plus side, it would streamline the notification process for both land managers (i.e. no shuffling of paper forms) and geocachers (they would know right where to go to submit geocache information, and the process would be standardized). It would also help with the review process, as the reviewers could easily check to see whether notification was made and permission granted.

Really this is something that geocaching.com should consider doing to ensure the long-term survival of the sport. However, it seems they are struggling just to keep their site afloat, plus they may not be in tune with what is happening regarding cache placement notifications in our neck of the woods. (Or is it just our neck of the woods… I’ve got to think this is happening nationwide or worldwide?)

Bottom line, if the WGA would want to provide such a system, I’d be willing to work on it. But I would want to have at least one or two parks departments agree to use such a system first, rather than spend time working on something without a “customer” (“build it, they will come” mentality) and end up with a white elephant.

[Jeremy]

You’re going to have to find Garmin maps of some sort… only maps released by Garmin can be downloaded to your Legend (which I’m assuming is the old greyscale Legend, not the new Legend C). No third party maps are available.

To get something at a more reasonable cost, you can check eBay for one of the older versions of MetroGuide, Topo US, etc. You wouldn’t have the latest map data, but the roads, parks, businesses, etc. around here haven’t changed too much in the past 5 years.

MetroGuide USA v5, $35 on eBay

Or if you know someone who has these maps, you might ask them if they are willing to share because they do not require unlock codes like the City Navigator and City Select map data… so they can be downloaded to an unlimited number of GPS units (though this isn’t really legal :twisted:).

[Jeremy]

@marc_54140 wrote:

How about moving the announcements about committees and other things into a WGA business set?

Marc, by “set” do you mean creating a separate forum for WGA business?

I also find the current large number “sticky” and “announcement” type topics in the Announcements forum annoying, but this condition should only be temporary.

Also note the stickies would go away faster if more people signed up for the committees… so Marc, can I put you down for a couple? 😉

[Jeremy]

@Team Hemisphere Dancer wrote:

But if there are other cool things like this could the script be placed on a page of this site so we all could use them on our pages?

If someone sends me a significant number of these “cool addons for cache pages” (like 3 or 4) I can set up a Wiki page to collect them up… we’d probably link to it from the “Help Spread the Word” page. The good thing about a Wiki page is that others can add anything they find too.

Note that the number of “cool things” that can be done on a cache page is limited because only a subset of HTML tags are allowed by geocaching.com. Most importantly, JavaScript cannot be used.

http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Allowed_HTML_Tags

[Jeremy]

@kbraband wrote:

I think you’ll find that in tree cover the amount of moisture on the leaves will degrade the signal more than the leaves themselves. Scientists (like JeremyV) tell me this is because the H2O scatters/absorbs (I forget which) the GPS radio signals from the satellites.

It’s both Ken. As the article says, wet leaves block (attenuate) more signal than dry leaves. In fact, just a thin “sheet” of water (not individual droplets) can block the signal completely. Wet leaves can also scatter the signal, causing it to “bounce around” before getting to your receiver, leading to some nasty multipath errors. Rocks, especially wet rocks, and being next to a cliff or mountain that blocks a large portion of the sky, are also notorious for introducing multipath errors.

http://gpsinformation.net/multipath.htm

A fancy GPS unit would help by allowing you to receive weaker signals (those blocked by tree cover). They also have advanced error correction algorithms that can eliminate some of the multipath problems by filtering out those signals that have been bounced around.

I grabbed this from another topic, but it seemed to make sense to include it in our discussion here…

@djwini wrote:

i’m so tired of not being able to find things under heavy cloud cover.

Cloud cover, rain, and snow does not seriously degrade GPS signal…

http://gpsinformation.net/gpsclouds.htm

And as Bec said, the best advice is to just get out there and cache! Some of us have been hiding and finding caches for over 6 years… most of that time we were using units that today would be considered inferior, yet somehow we managed. 🙂 Sometimes just the way you hold your GPS can make all the difference in the world as far as keeping your signal. It should be pointed up and away from your body… hanging it upside-down from a lanyard around your neck is about the worst thing you can do.

[Jeremy]

Way to go Seth! Definitely a big accomplishment… and you made it more difficult by going after a bunch of the pages in the winter while many of the cachers in the state were in geo-hibernation.

It also looks like you knocked off all 72 counties while you were out grabbing pages. Double congrats.

Let me know how difficult the DeLorme final is so I can decide whether it is worth finishing. 🙂

[Jeremy]

@Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu wrote:

I guess it has to do with the position of the satellites in the sky and there are occasions when they orbit too low in the sky and we just can’t pick them up.

Where are the Mythbusters when you need them??

Anne, I didn’t know you were a scientist… you know about satellites, orbits, and other space stuff? 😀

Anyway, as she said, the weirdness was probably due to the randomness of the “constellation” of GPS satellites over your head. Given the windshield issue, you’d have more trouble with “low strength” satellites, those low on the horizon, than most folks. So if you happened to hit a time where there were few satellites visible and all these were low on the horizon, you might not be able to lock on the minimum number necessary for a position fix.

Here is a little online tool (with a really poor user interface) for predicting GPS satellite orbits and generating GPS signal quality charts.

CalSKY GPS Constellation Calculator

Here is an example quality chart for the next couple hours in Wisconsin:

Minimum Elevation of Satellites: 5 deg



Date     Time  Sats   PDOP   TDOP  SV0        1         2         3

h  m                      SV12345678901234567890123456789012

19 Mar  22:19   10   +2.59   1.31   >|    ||      X |   |  X |    XX

19 Mar  22:49   10   +2.25   0.93   >|    X|     XX X   |  | |     |

19 Mar  23:19   10   +2.09   0.91   >| X  X|     X  X   |  | |     |

19 Mar  23:49   10   *1.99   0.84   >| X   X     |  |   |  | X X   |

20 Mar  00:19   10   +2.17   0.90   >| |         |  |  |X  X | X   X

20 Mar  00:49    7    2.96   1.72   >  |         |  X  X   X | X

20 Mar  01:19    8    2.75   1.42   >  |    X    X  X  X   | | |

20 Mar  01:49    9    2.91   1.39   >  |    | X  |  X  |   X | X

20 Mar  02:19   10   +2.12   0.85   >  |    | X  |  X  |   X | X|

20 Mar  02:49    9    3.22   1.69   >  X    |  X |     |   | | XX

Note that 23:49 looks like an excellent time for caching with 10 sats in view and a PDOP under 2. Just an hour later, there will only be 7 sats in view and a high PDOP of 2.96.

So if you are really paranoid, you could check the GPS constellation forecast before heading out caching. And if you were flying a commercial airliner using GPS for navigation you’d HAVE to run a RAIM/FDE prediction similar to this ensure that you’d be able to track enough satellites during the entire flight to positively determine your position (a safety critical GPS usually requires 6 or more satellites in view).

[Jeremy]

This is a particular problem with the Aztek and other GM vehicles due to a coating/film placed on the windshield. Basically the film blocks or attenuates RF signals, including signals coming the GPS satellites making it tough or impossible to get a lock.

This is also big deal if you ever want to use an I-PASS device (RF transponder for dealing with the toll roads south of the border). From the I-PASS website:

@I-PASS website wrote:

According to experience thus far, standard Flatpack Transponders WILL NOT work on the following vehicles:

* Buick Roadmaster
* Oldsmobile Silhouette
* Pontiac Montana
* Pontiac Transport
* Cadillac Catera
* Mercedes S class
* New Mercedes E class
* New BMW 7 series
* New BMW 5 series

Flatpack Transponders DO work in a specific location on the following vehicles:

* Chevy Venture – halfway between the rear view mirror and passenger side window, mounted half in and half out of the film located on the windshield
* Buick Rendezvous / Pontiac Aztek – Drivers’ side next to the rear view mirror, half in and half out of the film located on the windshield

Maybe it is time to upgrade the Aztek (something more stylish perhaps :))? Or hold the GPS units next to the side windows (that probably aren’t coated) or use an external antenna mounted outside the vehicle.

[Jeremy]

@Team Deejay wrote:

I know I must be missing something obvious, but can anyone help with this?

I think this is pretty universal (applies to all Palm models I’ve used)… go to the Application Launcher (usually you tap or press the “home” button to get there), where you see all the icons for you applications, then go to the menu. Depending on your Palm model, to get the menu to appear you need to tap the virtual menu button, click a menu button, or tap in the upper left corner of the screen.

Go to Apps in the menu, then Delete. You’ll get a listing of everything installed, including how much memory apps are using,

Palm Knowledge Library – Deleting Applications (Professional Advice ;))

[Jeremy]

Attached is a PDF version of the Vilas County News-Review article mentioned above, provided by Mike of RSplash40. The text is the same, but you can see the pictures and the layout from the actual newspaper. Thanks Mike!

[Jeremy]

Problem has been fixed.

Looks like geocaching.com crashed or was shut down for an extended period Wednesday morning about 1am to 4am. This caused something to go wrong with the calculation performed to determine when the next “harvest” of the recent logs page on geocaching.com should occur.

[Jeremy]

@Team Deejay wrote:

Thanks, Jeremy, I was going to request this! Now I don’t have to waste time “marking as read” threads in the General Forum.

No problem… this was actually set up at the request of the Board.

The next “forum enhancement package” coming soon will allow you to permanently hide certain forums… like this one or the regional forums. We now have so many forums that we’ve got to give folks the ability to easily ignore some of them.

[Jeremy]

Amazing achievements Renee… keep ’em coming. (Wait a sec… actually slow down a bit so some of us have a chance to catch up. 8))

And like most guys, I don’t have a clue when my own anniversary is…

[Jeremy]

Great idea Dave… and thanks for volunteering to keep the list up to date for us (in addition to the COTM honorable mention bookmark list, which is another great source of caches our members felt were above average). I guess one big advantage of this list vs. the COTM honorable mention list is that caches that are not be eligible for COTM (i.e. out of state) can be recommended.

It’s too bad you can’t bookmark another bookmark list (i.e. have nested bookmark lists). This would have made it a lot easier to include the big series (Yellowstone, 52-pickup, Bjornson) in this new list. And what is the deal with the display problems with the big bookmark lists… these bugs have been there since the bookmark list feature was introduced.

I’ve added a link to the bookmark list to our “Bookmark Lists Favorites” wiki page, and also added a “sticky” post in the Recommended Caches forum to tip people off that this bookmark list exists.

[Jeremy]

@Auntienae wrote:

Jeremy can you help? I am trying to remember who had the Explorist 210 model at JanBoree so we can connect you to someone with the same model.

I believe it was Norskey (but the event was their first time downloading)… a couple other new folks also had 210s, but no one that frequents these forums that I remember. Though the procedure should be the same for anyone with a 300, 500, 600, or XL so maybe they can jump in here and help out.

During the export (GSAK File->Export->Magellan eXplorist and SD card), you need to find the Geocaches folder on virtual drive created when you plugged in the unit… it should have a drive letter above any of your hard drives like D: or E:. Enter a filename with a .gs extension like geocaches.gs and generate the file.

The waypoints for the geocaches you downloaded are in the file Internal MemoryGeocachesgeocaches.gs… to view or goto these waypoints, you need to “browse” to this file and open it just as if it were on a computer. The waypoints aren’t all in one flat list like on a Garmin unit. This is definitely a more flexible way to store waypoints, but it can be confusing to folks at first.

So to plot a course to a cache, hit the GOTO button, go to “Geocache Pts”, then find the geocaches.gs (or whatever you called it) file, hit enter, and you’ll get a list of the caches you downloaded. You can go to a particular cache in the list, hit enter, and then go to the compass screen to guide you to the cache.

[Author]

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