Terms

Guest Author: Intro to GPS

This is a guest article about how a GPS works. It was written by RJ Stapell, of High Trail Expeditions, who I met at the Overland Expo 2012.

The GPS System

In General

The GPS navigation system currently maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense consists of:

  • 24 satellites (together with spares)
  • The satellites maintain six orbital planes approximately 12 miles above the earth
  • Each satellite orbits the earth twice every 24 hours
  • The system is designed so that at least 4 satellite are visible at any time of the day – anywhere in the world

The GPS system is based on line of site transmission from the satellite to the GPS receiver.  A GPS handheld or vehicle-mounted receiver requires a strong signal from a minimum of 4 satellites in order to accurately report the receiver’s position, speed and direction of travel.  The GPS signal from the satellite can be adversely affected by:

  • Canyon walls, tall buildings or other large objects or structures
  • Dense foliage or tree canopies
  • Antenna blockage by metal from cars or trucks
  • Low batteries

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11 years ago • , • Tags: ,

Geocaching Power Trails

I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time with a brand-new geocacher. This gives me a lot of perspective on what the newest of the new cachers know and what they don’t know. (And sometimes that is surprising!)

So when I was chatting with Code Wolf today about today’s geocaching article, the subject of a “power trail” came up and he asked me to write an article about it.

Now, there are people who love power trails since they can rack up a bunch of finds in a short amount of time. And there are people who think that scooting down a 10 mile long road grabbing a cache every quarter mile is just silly.

A power trail is loosely defined as a series of caches laid out along a roadway. They are usually a series of PNG caches with cache sizes being small or micro. There are some power caches that are 50 or more caches along a single route!

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12 years ago • • Tags:

Types of Caches: More Than Just Boxes of Swag

Over the past few weeks, I’ve covered the different sizes of caches, what I like to use for a cache container, and cache camouflage. Now, it’s time to talk about that all important category:

Non-Traditional Caches

For the longest time, I thought that a cache was just a box hidden in the woods. Or the city. Or wherever. I had no idea that geocaching actually offered more than just a “Here’s the coordinates, go find it” type of experience. Each cache not only has its own definition, it also has it’s own icon on the geocaching.com website. All of the icons shown below are copyright and property of Groundspeak.

Multi-Cache – A multi-cache (sometimes referred to as a “multiple”) involves two or more locations, the final location being a physical container. 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. An offset cache (where you go to a location and get hints to the actual cache) is considered a multi-cache.

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13 years ago • • Tags:

Geocaching Terms Explained

Anytime I pick up a new hobby, I have to spend some time learning a new language. There are all those terms that are unique to the hobby. Or, in some cases, are used differently inside the hobby than in the rest of the world.

Geocaching is no different!

Geocaching has its own terms and abbreviations that are unique to the game. My post Log Abbreviations: Decoded! is one of the most popular posts on FindYourGeocache.com. But, I realized that it goes over all the terms geocachers use in the log books and online, but it doesn’t cover all the OTHER terms that are part of the game.

So, here are some of the most common geocaching terms and what they mean.

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13 years ago • • Tags:

The Truth About Trackables

Ah, trackables! Trackable items can be the Holy Grail for some geocachers. But, what exactly are they? This article is about that a trackable IS; next week’s will be about what to do with one once you find it.

Put simply, a trackable is an item that is moved from cache to cache, around the world, and its movements are recorded on geocaching.com.

But, if you’ve ever tried to explain that concept to a Muggle, then you know the most common question is: “Where does it keep the tracking chip?”

The first time I was asked this, I honestly didn’t understand. I mean you TRACK it at geocaching.com… Then I realized that with GPS technology, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the trackable item itself can be read and registered from a satellite. While that’d be really cool, it’s not the case.

(Although, if they can microchip a dog, it does make a next-step type of logic!)

Trackables, also called travel bugs, TBs, or hitchhikers can be a variety of items. Each trackable has a unique code that has been registered with geocaching.com.

So, just what IS a trackable item?

A travel bug is a “dogtag” imprinted with the image of a bug made from a barcode and a unique tracking code. These are produced by geocaching.com and available from the website directly or a variety of retailers. These “dogtags” are typically attached to an item like a small toy.

Image courtesy of geocaching.com; travel bug dog tags

Trackables can also be trackable geocoins. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes but are typically metal. They also have a unique code that is registered with geocaching.com.

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13 years ago • • Tags:

CITO: The Philosophy

Don’t you just love getting into a new sport or hobby when it seems like EVERYBODY around you is speaking in some sort of weird code? That’s exactly what happened to me with the CITO term in geocaching.

I kept trying to make that into a word instead of an acronym. I was thinking to myself: “See-To”? “Sit-o”? “Chee-to”? (Gotta say THAT one with an Italian accent!)

So, I looked it up and found that it stood for: “Cache In, Trash Out” Ah! Now I know what this is all about!

Not!

Then, I came across a cache where some previous cacher had written in the log that this would be a great place for CITO. After visiting the cache, I agreed that this place would really benefit from some trash being removed. But, I still didn’t understand the underlying principals of CITO.

 

The geocaching.com website explains:

Cache In Trash Out is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the worldwide geocaching community. Since 2002, geocachers have been dedicated to cleaning up parks and other cache-friendly places around the world. Through these volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources!

But it isn’t until further down the page that the whole concept begins to make sense:

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13 years ago • • Tags: ,