December 10, 2008
Geocaching - A Great Use Of GPS Technology
There are many uses for GPS, ranging from the traditional role for hikers who don?t want to wander off the map to more technical issues like getting a rough location for new construction before the surveyors show up.
A growing use is Geocaching. A box of items is stowed somewhere and GPS coordinates are placed on the internet. Others will then seek out the cache and remove some of the items, replacing them with their own choices. There are more specialized subsets of the hobby. Items in a cache might include pictures, toys or trinkets of little actual value. A logbook will be present so the geocacher can record the date and time the cache is found.
Geocaching builds on traditions for Letterboxing, a 150 year old tradition in which the box is hidden with clues in a story. These contained a logbook and a stamp, and the Letterboxer would carry a stamp and logbook. When the letterbox was found, the stamp in the box would be used on the seeker?s logbook and the seeker?s stamp would be used on the logbook in the letterbox.
In 2000 the GPS Stash Hunt was created. The name was quickly changed to GPScaching or geocaching. One variation is the travel bug or Geocoin, which has its own logbook and is moved as people find it and its movement from cache to cache recorded. Some caches are short term, intended only for use during a specific event. Some caches are sequenced, so that finding the first cache reveals the location of the next, until the actual cache with the treasure is found. Some caches require solving a puzzle to determine the actual coordinates. Reverse caching involves seeking out some type of object or location, such as a schoolhouse, and sending back a picture and coordinates. There are even webcam caches, where you are required to find webcams in public locations and get your picture taken on the cam as proof.
There are many websites that provide locations, advice and rules on geocaching. Geocachers have to follow several rules for safety and convenience. For instance, when geocachers are too obvious in their activities, they occasionally get reported to the police. At least once geocache has been blown up by the bomb squad since it was in an old ammunition can. It is also common for poorly hidden caches to be found and cleaned out by those not taking part in the sport, a process called ?muggling? from the Harry Potter books.
There are several sites recording geocaching information, and some of those are not fully cooperative with some of the others. The more specialized types of geocaching are controlled by bodies such as the Geological Society of America. There are many options for free access to geocache sites, but there are others which require paid memberships. These may be because of generally higher quality treasures or more interesting locations.
Practical Solutions provides complete GPS, mobile navigation/mapping and other hi-tech solutions! Check us out at: http://www.ps-gps.com
