A Bandwidth of Gold

Well, the wireless startup, LightSquared, is back in the news again, and back from the dead apparently. After filing for bankruptcy a year ago following a losing battle against the GPS industry, which successfully lobbied to keep LightSquared from using part of the satellite spectrum, they're now testing the feasibility of sharing the spectrum with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  According to Maggie Reardon of CNET, the FCC recently gave approval for LightSquared to begin testing the use of 5MHz of spectrum in the 1675-1680 MHz band.

While it appears that our precious GPS satellite spectrum is still safe for the time being, we'll have to see how the shared bandwidth testing, not to mention LightSquared's emergence from bankruptcy, plays out over time, and whether or not they try again at some point to utilize the satellite bandwidth they were originally granted permission to use.

Cache On!

Geocaching in Education

I'm not a teacher, but I come from a long line of them, and happen to be married to one as well. As such, I have the utmost respect for our educators and have always been troubled by how under-valued and under-appreciated they are, at least in American culture. But that's a rant for another day.

Switching gears slightly, I've been pleasantly surprised to see the growing use of geocaching as a teaching aid in the classroom. It doesn't take a brainiac to see the broad range of educational applications afforded by our little hobby - everything from math (geometry, algebra and trigonometry) to geography to history and more. Makes me wish I was back in school...

Following are some specific examples I found from educators describing how to integrate geocaching into the classroom:

• Use of Geocaching as a Fun Teaching Tool
• Integrating Geocaching into the Mathematics Classroom
• MathCaching
• Geocaching: How to Use it in Your Classroom
• Geocaching Across the Curriculum

I'm sure there are many more examples out there, which is pretty impressive considering no one had even heard of geocaching just a mere ten years ago.

Cache, and Educate, On!

More Resources

If you, or someone you know, is just getting started geocaching, make sure that you add this REI site to your list of great resources for beginning geocachers. While there is some very helpful information scattered throughout the geocaching.com website, the information provided by REI supplements gc.com's tutorials quite nicely. It covers just the right amount of detail on topics including geocaching basics, etiquette, what to bring, and even a brief history of the hobby.

REI could have easily turned this site into nothing more than an advertisement page for their GPS receiver products, but they've steered clear of that temptation and instead made this one of the best resources I've seen for new geocachers. Certainly bookmark-worthy.

Cache On!

Did Hell Freeze Over?

Not sure if I missed the pigs flying or the Earth opening up and swallowing me whole, but apparently I survived finding my first cache using only my smartphone, sans GPSr. I never thought I'd do it, but a situation came up where it made sense to just take along the smartphone: I was going on a walk/hike in a familiar area near my home, and there was only one cache left in the area that I hadn't found. I was pretty sure I knew where the cache was, but I saved the cache information to my Android phone's SD card before heading out, just in case there was no cell service at GZ.

I admit that it was really nice having music to listen to on the walk, a camera to snap a photo at GZ (see above), a phone in case of emergency, and a geocaching app. that pointed me to the cache; all on one device that I could carry in my pocket.

But I'm certainly not ready to throw my Garmin device up on eBay any time soon. I still prefer carrying a unit that only needs a clear view of the sky to accurately locate my position rather than having to rely on hit and miss cell service. And yes, I know that once you get within 10-20 feet of GZ you switch from using your device to using your geo-senses, but I sure do appreciate the Garmin's positioning accuracy compared to my phone's. I also like having the ability to load custom trail maps on my Garmin from sites like GPSFileDepot.

And until recently, the other big advantage my Garmin had over most cell phones was the ability to download  GPS tracks after a long, fun day of caching. But I recently discovered Google's "My Tracks" and loaded it on my Android phone. It's a great little tool that records your path, speed, distance, and elevation while you walk, run, bike, or do anything else outdoors. You can then store your tracks with Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Fusion Tables, or Google Spreadsheets, or export your tracks to external storage in different formats, including GPX. You can also share your tracks via most social networking sites such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

It's a great little app., and definitely worth checking out.

Cache On!

Some Really Good Hikes

So you've been caching for a while now and you've become quite the avid hiker. And now you're looking for some more challenging hikes than what you've been doing so far. Well, fear not, my east bay area friends, because the East Bay Regional Parks District has just posted a list of ten challenging hikes. These are hikes with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain and range from 6 to 20 miles in length. In other words, plan on spending the day in your hiking boots.

There are some great hikes on this list (the Las Trampas hike into Devil's Hole is one of my favorites), so if you've never been on some of these, or it's been a while since you've done them, then now's the perfect time to get out there, as these areas are also chock full of quality caches.

Cache On!

Find a WWFMX Near You

The next World Wide Flash Mob (number 10) is scheduled to take place on May 4th, and there is sure to be one near you. But how can you find one? Well, you can do a search on geocaching.com for all caches with WWFM in the "cache name" (I leave off the "X" in the name, because different event hosts use different variations, which may limit your search results).

This search produces a list of 270 events (as of today), but unfortunately, you can not sort by location, making it difficult to find any in your neighborhood.

You can use the Podcacher's List, by State, but while it's nice to see the number of events planned for each state, there's still no easy way to see just the WWFMX's planned for your state.

The best thing I've found to do is generate a pocket query in which, under "Selected Types", you only select "Event"; and under "Placed During", you select May 4, 2013 as both the begin and end date. Then, just select your "Radius" within your "home location".  You'll get all the events planned for that day near your home - and they will all likely be WWFMX events.

Save your query, then go to the Your Pocket Queries page and select the "Preview in Geocaching Maps" icon; and there  you have it:

May the 4th be with you, and Cache On!

Dinosaur Train Geocaching Challenge

First, let me just apologize if this is old news to most of you, but I just ran across this information on the Dinosaur Train Geocaching Challenge, which began a couple years back. Since my children are grown now, I tend to be out of the loop on the latest PBS offerings for kids these days. My daughters were brought up on Barney, Arthur, and Blues Clues; which should give you an indication of how ancient I am.

Speaking of Dinosaurs, this themed challenge cache sounds like a great way to introduce your kids to geocaching, especially any kids that are fans of the show. Information on the site states, "The Jim Henson Company has enlisted the help of PBS stations, museums, zoos, and aquariums nationwide to hide Dinosaur Train themed geocaches." Each geocache features one of the dinosaurs found on the online Dinosaur Train Field Guide and contains educational information related to that dinosaur."

So any parents of young kids who are anxious to get their children out geocaching, I encourage you to use any means necessary to do so, as that window is only open for a very short period. Believe me, it's amazing how one day your kids love geocaching with you, and then suddenly the switched gets flipped and they think you are the biggest nerd and your hobby is totally lame. And there's no going back.

Cache On!