From:Courier / Press
Global positioning technology is not new. It is a satellite-and computer-assisted system that has been used to keep track of the location of both aircraft and watercraft for decades.
It was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Portable GPS devices more recently have become a coveted accessory for automobile owners, allowing drivers to select addresses and be guided to their destinations.
Hikers, hunters, campers and other outdoor enthusiasts who prowl off-road also use them.
Since 2000, GPS devices also have become hot commodities among an intrepid bunch of hobbyists worldwide, who basically use them to go treasure hunting.
It’s called geocaching. It involves people who hide things and post online clues, including the longitude/latitude locations, and people who go out looking for the items.
Several Web sites support geocaching, but the original and still primary address is www.geocaching.com, said geocacher Jim Cox of Evansville. He noted that registration is free, but there is a fee-based premium upgrade available.
The Web site explains all the parameters of the game and its history, Cox said.
Geocaching.com has about 800,000 registered caches worldwide. There are about 1,500 within 50 miles of Evansville, including about 200 in the city, Cox said.
Caches generally are located on public property. Some are handicap-accessible. The difficulty of finding an individual cache varies widely, but each is rated at the Web site.
Here’s how it works: The geocache seeker visits the Web site, plugs in a ZIP code or other identifying start point, adds a radius — say 10 miles — and gets a list of geocaches that have been hidden within that area. The site provides printable maps, longitude/latitude coordinates and verbal clues, provided by the geocachers who hide the stuff.
Cox, who has hidden 17 caches of his own, stressed that there never is anything of value in a cache and often there is nothing at all beyond a log sheet for successful seekers to sign.
“Film canisters are popular geocache containers,” Cox said, although any waterproof container will work. And some large cache boxes (Tupperware is popular) do contain trinkets: in this situation, seekers are encouraged to take a trinket and leave another one behind.
It’s a really cheap hobby, Cox said, explaining that other than Internet access, which one can gain for free at places like the public library, owning a GPS device is the only expense, “except for gasoline, if you drive around a lot looking for the caches, but a lot of people use their bicycles.”
Geocacher David Kuhn of Evansville said he got his first GPS device at a local pawn shop for $30. He used it one year to find a geocache while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
But he said his favorite stories include the time he hid about a dozen children’s toys around his neighborhood prior to a large family cookout: “We kept our 10-year-old nephew and his father entertained all afternoon looking for those toys,” Kuhn said.
And there was the time he made his brother find his own birthday present, he said.
A basic hand-held GPS device popular among geocachers is the ETrex, manufactured by Garmin, an industry leader in the field of portable global positioning technology, said Rance Evans, sales associate in the mobile entertainment department at Best Buy in Evansville.
Garmin, TomTom and Magellan are the big names in the industry, and there is a geocache application for the iPhone, Cox said.
Evans said the Etrex ($99) is limited to latitude/longitude programming. Other devices are limited to providing driving directions.
But some do both.
The most popular product Evans sells is the Garmin Nuvi 205 ($140) “which people like because it’s cheap, reliable and versatile,” he said, adding that some of the more sophisticated models can run $500.
With a dual-function GPS one can type in the street address of the Nisbet Inn, in rural Vanderburgh County, for instance, or the L&N Bed and Breakfast in Henderson, Ky., and the GPS will direct you there.
Once you arrive, enter coordinates to the geocaches located on those properties, and then head out on foot to find them.
“I suspect some of these business owners plant those caches themselves to attract business, but that’s OK,” Kuhn said.
“You don’t have to go in.
“One of the things I like best about geocaching is how you get to discover new places you never knew existed. I once found a cache in a cemetery in Louisville (Ky.) near the grave of a Revolutionary War soldier who had served with George Washington.”
Global positioning technology is not new. It is a satellite-and computer-assisted system that has been used to keep track of the location of both aircraft and watercraft for decades.
It was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Portable GPS devices more recently have become a coveted accessory for automobile owners, allowing drivers to select addresses and be guided to their destinations.
Hikers, hunters, campers and other outdoor enthusiasts who prowl off-road also use them.
Since 2000, GPS devices also have become hot commodities among an intrepid bunch of hobbyists worldwide, who basically use them to go treasure hunting.
It’s called geocaching. It involves people who hide things and post online clues, including the longitude/latitude locations, and people who go out looking for the items.
Several Web sites support geocaching, but the original and still primary address is www.geocaching.com, said geocacher Jim Cox of Evansville. He noted that registration is free, but there is a fee-based premium upgrade available.
The Web site explains all the parameters of the game and its history, Cox said.
Geocaching.com has about 800,000 registered caches worldwide. There are about 1,500 within 50 miles of Evansville, including about 200 in the city, Cox said.
Caches generally are located on public property. Some are handicap-accessible. The difficulty of finding an individual cache varies widely, but each is rated at the Web site.
Here’s how it works: The geocache seeker visits the Web site, plugs in a ZIP code or other identifying start point, adds a radius — say 10 miles — and gets a list of geocaches that have been hidden within that area. The site provides printable maps, longitude/latitude coordinates and verbal clues, provided by the geocachers who hide the stuff.
Cox, who has hidden 17 caches of his own, stressed that there never is anything of value in a cache and often there is nothing at all beyond a log sheet for successful seekers to sign.
“Film canisters are popular geocache containers,” Cox said, although any waterproof container will work. And some large cache boxes (Tupperware is popular) do contain trinkets: in this situation, seekers are encouraged to take a trinket and leave another one behind.
It’s a really cheap hobby, Cox said, explaining that other than Internet access, which one can gain for free at places like the public library, owning a GPS device is the only expense, “except for gasoline, if you drive around a lot looking for the caches, but a lot of people use their bicycles.”
Geocacher David Kuhn of Evansville said he got his first GPS device at a local pawn shop for $30. He used it one year to find a geocache while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
But he said his favorite stories include the time he hid about a dozen children’s toys around his neighborhood prior to a large family cookout: “We kept our 10-year-old nephew and his father entertained all afternoon looking for those toys,” Kuhn said.
And there was the time he made his brother find his own birthday present, he said.
A basic hand-held GPS device popular among geocachers is the ETrex, manufactured by Garmin, an industry leader in the field of portable global positioning technology, said Rance Evans, sales associate in the mobile entertainment department at Best Buy in Evansville.
Garmin, TomTom and Magellan are the big names in the industry, and there is a geocache application for the iPhone, Cox said.
Evans said the Etrex ($99) is limited to latitude/longitude programming. Other devices are limited to providing driving directions.
But some do both.
The most popular product Evans sells is the Garmin Nuvi 205 ($140) “which people like because it’s cheap, reliable and versatile,” he said, adding that some of the more sophisticated models can run $500.
With a dual-function GPS one can type in the street address of the Nisbet Inn, in rural Vanderburgh County, for instance, or the L&N Bed and Breakfast in Henderson, Ky., and the GPS will direct you there.
Once you arrive, enter coordinates to the geocaches located on those properties, and then head out on foot to find them.
“I suspect some of these business owners plant those caches themselves to attract business, but that’s OK,” Kuhn said.
“You don’t have to go in.
“One of the things I like best about geocaching is how you get to discover new places you never knew existed. I once found a cache in a cemetery in Louisville (Ky.) near the grave of a Revolutionary War soldier who had served with George Washington.”
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