Number 243 - August 2003

Geocaching Finders Keepers
By Susan Ives; from the April, 2003 issue of the PC Alamode
Last month when I was at Alamo Quarry Market pretending to be a yuppie I noticed a bunch of people rooting around in the bushes on a steep slope at the edge of the parking lot - in the rain. They were smiling. Being a naturally nosey person, I sauntered over and asked them what they were doing.    "We're geocachers", they said.    Don't feel bad - I didn't understand either. They went on to explain that people hide stuff in waterproof containers all over the world and then post the geographic coordinates on a Web site. Other people log in, enter the coordinates onto a portable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and then go on a hunt for the hidden loot.    Geocaching became a viable sport on May 1, 2000. Few pastimes can pinpoint their origins with such accuracy, but that's the nature of geocaching. On that day President Clinton removed the controls that degraded GPS signals on civilian units (called Selective Availability, or SA) and overnight made them 10 times more accurate. Two days later the first geocache was hidden.    Geocachers recommend that a handheld GPS have these minimum requirements:     Store waypoints (Waypoints are named coordinates representing points on the surface of the Earth)     Long battery life (about 20 hours)     Waterproof     A wrist strap     12 channel parallel receiver system for good reception in most conditions.    The cost of GPS units has come way down - one unit that meets the above criteria is the Garmin eTrex GPS, which retails for $109 at Amazon.com . Gamin's Rino 101, selling for less than $200, has more features and also includes a 2-way radio with 12 FRS (Family Radio Service) frequencies. All of the portable GPS can be mounted in a car and used for road navigation as well as for hiking and geocaching.    Start by searching for a cache or two. As a minimum, a cache is a waterproof container that includes a log book that finders can use to record their find. Many people also place small gifts in their cache. If you take a gift, you are expected to leave one in its place. Look at This San Antonio Cache:                            Are we having fun yet?                            by Cybercat & Eddie                            N 290 29.793 W 0980 36.924 (WGS84)                            UTM: 14R E 537280 N 3263063                            or convert to NAD27 at Jeeep.com    This information tells you the name of the cache, who left it there and the GPS data that you need to locate it in several different formats.    There is also a lengthy description of the cache:    near intersection of Huebner & Bandera Rds, San Antonio This park has another nice walking trail beside a little creek on the other side of the baseball field. As it gets hotter and hotter here in SA, and I turn into a puddle of sweat before I walk 50 feet, and I continue to hide these caches, I just wanted someone to remind me- are we having fun yet? Small tupperware container at the base of an oak tree covered with a piece of plywood. Contents-8 ball car deodorizer, Altoids, toy car, Route 66 lighter, razor, sun and stars glow in the dark things, earrings, cigar, pacifier, snowman pin, and other stuff I forgot.	There is a lot of other information - including encrypted hints and a place where finders can make journal entries. Advice is also provided about the difficulty of the terrain and the expected ease of finding the cache.    You can search for caches by zip code there are currently 358 caches listed within a 100 mile radius of San Antonio. That's enough to keep you busy for a few weekends! There are geocaches in 162 countries, so it's a hobby that can travel with you.    There are several different kinds of caches:     A Traditional Cache is the type described above: a container with at least a logbook in it.     A multiple cache has 2 or more caches. There are many variations, but most multi-caches have a hint to find the second cache, and the second cache has hints to the third, and so on.     A virtual cache is a cache that exists in a form of a location. Depending on the cache "hider," a virtual cache could be to answer a question about a location, an interesting spot, a task, etc. The reward for these caches is the location itself and sharing information about your visit. An example of a San Antonio virtual multi-cache is one leading you to four works of famed concrete sculptor Dionicio Rodriguez. No containers are hidden and you record your find by responding with the locations of the works.     A Webcam cache is a web camera positioned somewhere on the planet. With a partner's help, you position yourself in front of the camera and call your friend to have them take a picture of you. You can then upload your photo to the Web site to log your find. There is one Webcam cache in San Antonio, near Sunset Station, but at this writing it is temporarily down.    This sounds too easy - too many clues! But the geocachers I ran into at the Quarry had been there a good half hour and were still searching when I left. Clever placement can make a cache a challenge to find. GPS units are accurate to about a 6-foot radius (the more expensive models) to a 20-foot radius (the bargain models.) There are a lot of hiding places in that expanse.    After you have spent an afternoon finding caches, its time to place one yourself. Just register on the Geocache site - it's free - and get moving.    There are some commonsense rules for geocaching. No firearms or drugs. No food - animals may get into it. Get permission before placing a cache if it is on private land. The National Park Service (the Missions here in San Antonio) does not permit caches. Hide it well enough so that non-geocashers won't stumble upon it and pillage it. Check you cache periodically to make sure it's still there. The Web site has a lot of advice and a discussion board where you can discuss tips and tricks with other geocachers.    My brother has a GPS mounted in his car. A couple of years ago we went to a computer show just outside of New York City. On the return trip we got caught in a terrible traffic jam, also known as the State of New Jersey. He tapped in the coordinates for his house, got off the highway and used his GPS to navigate the back roads. We got through the Garden State parking lot and back into Pennsylvania in half the time we would have taken on the congested turnpike. This almost convinced me to spring for a GPS, but the San Antonio traffic hasn't reached East Coast horrors - yet. Geocaching, and the low entry cost, has just about convinced me. It seems like a fun sport that would get John and me outside to stretch our muscles a bit.    Susan Ives is a past president of Alamo PC.
Number 243 - August 2003