June 25, 2011

What Day Is It?

Field Notes packageImage by - luz - via Flickr
I'm not sure if other people are having similar issues with their Field Notes on the iPhone/iTouch geocaching application, but I recently noticed that the date and time stamps have been significantly off. I posted some Field Notes after finding some caches on different days this week, and when I finally got to a computer where I could compose my logs, I noticed that the day my Field Notes said I found the caches was different than the day I actually found the caches. It seemed that the Field Note date was a day earlier than the day I actually posted it.

I checked my iPodTouch to see if it was set to the wrong time zone, but it was not. So for whatever reason, the Field Notes feature is not recording the date and time from the device, but instead coming up with something different. So if you use Field Notes, just make sure you double check that the date is correct when you go to compose your logs.

Cache On!
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June 18, 2011

Father's Day Is Caching Day

Like most Dads, I certainly relish the extra attention thrown my way every Father's Day. And while it's nice to get breakfast in bed and that TaylorMade hybrid golf club you always wanted, I typically request a family geocaching outing when asked what I want for Father's Day.

So, to inspire you to either take your kids caching, or your Dad, or both this Sunday, the following link will take you to a list of 119 different Father's Day themed caches. Hopefully you can find one or two near you.

Cache On, Pops!

June 11, 2011

Push Back Begins

Cell tower disguised as a palm tree in Tucson,...Image via Wikipedia
A while ago, we mentioned the concern about potential GPS receiver signal interference from LightSquared  cellular transmission signals, should the FCC approve their proposal to provide service within a similar bandwidth. Turns out others besides the geocaching community are not only concerned, but have conducted tests showing some disturbing results. According to this article in GPS World Magazine, that included testing of John Deere high-precision GPS equipment, "the tests, which simulated various cellular base station transmission schemes proposed by LightSquared in L-band frequencies between 1525-1559 MHz, without exception demonstrated severe interference to Deere’s high-precision GPS receivers." Deere went on to advise the FCC that, "no potentially effective mitigation solution, alone or in combination, has been examined such that it can be deemed to protect other precision GPS users in the construction sector or GPS in other applications."


Whether or not LightSquared's proposed cellular service will result in similar interference problems with our beloved consumer grade GPS receivers is yet to be seen. But let's hope we never have to find out.


Cache On! And do it soon...
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June 3, 2011

National Trails Day - 06/04/11

On of the dozens of trails in the Spring Mount...Image via Wikipedia
Need an excuse to get out and do some geocaching this weekend? No, I didn't think so. But by the off-chance that you need a little more enticement, here it is: The American Hiking Society has designated this Saturday, June 4th, as National Trails Day (NTD). They've even provided a map on their website of the all the scheduled NTD events around the country.

Most of the events that I've seen listed consist of organized trail maintenance activities; but what better way to give back to the trails that have given us so much? So get out there, repair a trail, and then hide/find a cache!

Cache On!
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