Is This The Beginning of The End of Geocaching?

It's barely been 10 years since the US Government discontinued Selective Availability of the Global Positioning System, making GPS signals available to us non-military types. Since then, the use of GPS-based tools, applications, and a little hobby known as geocaching, has taken off like crazy. But recently, some issues have begun to emerge that threaten our ability to use this wonderful multi-billion dollar satellite system that we've come to know and love.

FCC Approves LightSquared's 4G LTE Proposal

A little company known as LightSquared wants to build a a high-speed wireless broadband network using satellite frequencies rather than the traditional terrestrial frequency space that the larger cellular companies (Verizon, Cingular, etc.) typically use. The FCC is responsible for auctioning off, and regulating, the use of the radio frequency spectrum. The problem with the LightSquared proposal is, that they plan to operate at a frequency directly adjacent to the frequency band designated for GPS. If implemented as planned, all current GPS receivers will no longer operate correctly in areas covered by their system, which includes the overwhelming majority of the US population. There's a nicely written post on the Free Geography Tools site that describes the technical aspects of the potential GPS interference issue in layman's terms.

The threat is so real that representatives of a wide variety of industries and companies have started and joined the Coalition to Save Our GPS. 

So let's say the FCC comes to their senses, and revokes LightSquared's conditional approval. Then we can all continue geocaching as blissfully as ever, right? Well, not so fast. There's another looming, growing element that threatens to turn FTF's into DNF's:

GPS Jamming

It turns out that GPS signals are very weak, and therefore susceptible to interference. But why would anyone want to block a GPS signal, you might ask? Well, believe it or not, GPS jamming devices, while illegal, can be had for a mere $30 on the internet, and have become very popular with truck drivers that don't want their vehicles' movement tracked. These jamming devices can also block GPS-based road tolls that are levied via an on-board receiver (such as FasTrak here in the Bay Area). As our reliance on GPS-based devices and information (plane/ship/car navigation, ATM machines, Cell Phones, etc.) grows, so does the desire by a certain element to block GPS signals. There's a great article in New Scientist that discusses this phenomenon in detail, including a recount of 2007 GPS jamming incident in San Diego that disrupted the airport's air-traffic control system, the Naval Medical Center's emergency pagers, the harbor's traffic-management system, as well as cellphones and ATM machines.

Let's hope this isn't the start of bad things to come for geocaching, not to mention all the other important things that we've come to rely on the Global Positioning System for. My DNF percentages are too high already, as far as I'm concerned...

Cache On (while you still can)!

Solving Puzzle Caches

While there's still a little bit of winter left, what better time to solve some puzzle caches so you'll be ready to hit the trail running once the weather starts cooperating. Following are a few resources you might find helpful, especially if you are puzzle-cache-challenged like I am.

Outline of Cryptography
Never hurts to start with information from Wikipedia.

CryptoDox
More Cryptology information.

The National Puzzler's League
Puzzle guides and solving Tools. These people even have an annual convention.

Online Cryptanalysts Handbook

Cyphers, Cryptos and Codes; oh my. Links to a variety of different puzzle solving tools.

Practice Makes Perfect
Now that you understand the basics, you should be ready to put your skills to the test. This great series of caches actually helps you improve your puzzle-solving skills as you work your way through the set.

Good luck, and Cache On!

More Cache Location Visualization Tools

There are plenty of ways to map and view the locations of geocaches, including the mapping tools available on geocaching.com, the software that comes with your GPSr, Google Earth, and other online tools. But lately I've been playing around with a data table mapping and visualization tool from Google called Fusion Tables. The application lets you upload data tables from spreadsheets, CSV files or KML files. Then you can easily visualize your data in graphs, charts and even maps (provided your data includes location information, such as lat/long coordinates). It's all done online, and you can even post the results on your website. All you need is a Google account. Here are some great examples.


Unfortunately, you cannot upload GPX files directly into Fusion Tables, but you can easily convert your GPX formatted files (pocket queries) to KML format using Google Earth, GSAK macros, or many other online tools. In the example below, I ran a pocket query for new caches (less than one week old) in my part of the world. I then took the GPX file from the downloaded pocket query, opened it in Google Earth, then saved it as a KML file, called "New.kml", which I then imported directly into Fusion Tables:

All the data from the pocket query file is retained, including the geometry (lat/long coordinates), which the application recognizes and uses to generate a map. You can then edit the map to your liking. Here I've color-coded the points based on the cache difficulty rating. I then copied the embeddable link and inserted it below:




Lots of potential here. If you use Fusion Tables for caching purposes, I'd love to hear about it.


Cache On!

Too Many Maps?

While I’m certainly in the camp where the motto is, “You can never have too many maps”, I have to admit I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the different mapping software products offered by Garmin. And I’m just talking about the software that’s of interest to geocachers, not other products such as those for vehicle navigation systems.

When I bought my GPSmap60CSx (or was it my “TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD”?, I can’t remember), it came with “MapSource”, a nice little program that allows you to load different types of background maps on to your GPS receiver, including non-Garmin maps available from sources such as GPS File Depot.  I also use it to extract my GPSr data after a cache outing in order to view my tracks overlaid on a map, along with the trip statistics such as total length, time, and elevation gain. It also has a feature that allows you to export your track and waypoint data into Google Earth.

But as I was perusing the Garmin website (as I often do), I ran across another similar product called BaseCamp. O.K, what’s the deal, Garmin? It looks like BaseCamp is just a slightly souped-up version of MapSource, in that it supports 3D views, rotated maps, and geo-tagged photos (sort of like Google Earth), and, most importantly, allows you to import data from geocaching.com (presumably, in the form of a GPX file).

I only just started playing around with it, so I can’t provide a detailed compare and contrast analysis with MapSource. But if it truly does everything MapSource can do and more, then I might make the permanent switch to BaseCamp. Until such time, of course, that Garmin offers up yet another mapping tool...

Cache On!

Bookmarking Maps

Every time I visit geocaching.com, I inevitably end up using the map tool to scout out my next caching adventure. And I'm really liking the new Maps Beta page. So many different map choices including the standard Google Maps backgrounds (road, terrain and satellite), along with Bing Maps, My Topo, Open Streetmap and Open Cycle Map. Of course, the infinite number of caches that can be displayed, along with the quick screen redraw and refresh feature, make it much better than the standard geocaching.com map.

I like and use the new map tool so much, I've added it as a bookmark. In a previous post, I explained how to add your favorite pocket query cache searches as bookmarks. You can do the same with the maps page. Just zoom in to your favorite location on the map (your neighborhood, most likely). Then drag the little globe icon from your browser's address bar to your bookmark bar:

That's it! You're all set. Although you may want to rename the bookmark to something like "Cache Map", as I've done here. Now, every time you click on that link, you'll see a map with all the latest caches in your favorite area.

Note too that the site contains a box in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen with a "Link to this page", in case you want to copy and paste different map locations into a list of links/bookmarks of your favorite locations:

Enjoy the new maps, and Cache On!

Getting There Is Half The Fun

Anytime you make plans to go geocaching, whether it be a quick grab down the street, or a long day of hiking and caching in a state/regional park area, or an urban caching adventure, one of the first things you have to figure out is how you are going to get there. The nice thing about living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is you don't necessarily need to rely on a car to get around. In fact, sometimes you are better off without one.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Case in point: a caching buddy of mine was working on completing the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) series of caches, and I decided to come along with him to grab a few new caches of my own. So we hopped on our bikes, rode to the closest BART station, loaded our bikes on the next westbound BART train, and headed off to the Berekely / El Cerrito area along the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay.

Every BART station has a cache hidden in it, so we were immediately greeted with a cache-finding opportunity upon exiting the train at the North Berkeley station. From there, we rode our bikes north along the Ohlone Greenway, a wonderful class 1 bike trail that follows the BART right of way up to El Cerrito. The trail itself is home to numerous caches, making the bike ride that much the better.

All in all, we covered about 50 miles out and back (see GPSr track below) and found 10 caches in just a few hours. You would be hard pressed to find these same caches as efficiently, and have as much fun, by automobile.

So the next time you head out on that caching adventure, consider your transportation options carefully, as the right mode of travel can make your outing that much more enjoyable.

Cache On!

The Problem With Statistics

The interesting thing about geocaching statistics is that when your cache finds are presented to you in a particular way, you suddenly find yourself with completely new geocaching goals you likely would never have come up with otherwise. What do I mean by that? Take for example, "Most Consecutive Months With a FTF", one of many  somewhat obscure statistics generated from the GSAK macro, "FindStatGen". Certainly not a statistic I would have derived on my own, but once I saw it on my computer screen, I suddenly became obsessed with keeping that streak going (I'm up to 19 consecutive months and counting).

And take the nice calendar of finds available on your geocaching.com stats page. Again, something I would have never even dreamed of keeping track of, but now that it's there in black and white (so to speak), I've gone ahead and entered all my "missing days" in my personal (Google) calendar to make sure that I'll drop everything to find a cache on those days. I don't even know if there is a challenge cache for filling in your calendar - I'm just obsessed with wanting to see 366 days filled in on my computer screen:

That's right, I said 366 days. That's because it includes February 29th, which, as you know, only comes around every 4 years. And you can bet that I, and all the other calendar-watching cachers out there, are not going to let Feb. 29th, 2012 pass by with out getting a smiley.

Cache On!