The Official
RF Cafe GPS Unit
Garmin
etrex Venture HC
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In case you have not heard, there is a high-tech "geek sport" happening
worldwide known as
Geocaching.
Geocaching is a treasure hunting activity that involves finding
a pre-placed container or placing your own container in personally
chosen location for others to find. Precise GPS coordinates are
provided for where the container is hidden. Those coordinates are
placed on a website for other geocachers to use to try to find and
enter into an online log. There are currently about 2 million sites
worldwide.When you locate someone's cache, you log your
unique ID on a paper kept in the cache container and also on an
online log at the
geocaching.com
website. Cache containers can be any type of weatherproof vessel
ranging from a micro-size vial to an ammo box (a very popular container).
Sometimes people put trinkets inside that can be picked up and relocated
to another geocache site. A special type of object called a 'Travel
Bug' is used when the owner wants to formally track the movement
of it around the country or even the world. The Travel Bug is the
size of a military dog tag and has a unique alphanumeric tracking
code ID stamped on it.
 12/7/2012
Update: I have purchased a few Travel Bugs and would
like to get some of them planted outside the U.S. Each one consists
of a Travel Bug strung together with a dog tag having RF Cafe stamped
on it. If you are a Geocacher and would volunteer to plant one of
my tags, I will be glad to mail one to you. One Travel Bug would
like to go to each of the following regions, so
please
contact me if you are interested.
RF Cafe Travel Bug Regions
As the Travel Bugs are distributed, I will have a Google Map
showing their travels. Thank-you.
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RF Cafe Geocaching
Location #5 Established March 16, 2008 GPS Coordinates:
N 38°04.234', W 081°04.612'
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RF Cafe Geocaching
Location #3 Established February 6, 2008 GPS Coordinates:
N 29°53.893', W 081°18.665'
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RF Cafe Geocaching Location #4 Established February 5,
2008 GPS Coordinates: N 32°06.954', W 081°14.113'
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RF Cafe Geocaching
Location #1 Established October 14, 2007 GPS Coordinates:
N 37°48.148', W 081°12.766'
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RF Cafe Geocaching
Location #2 Established October 14, 2007 GPS Coordinates:
N 42°09.301', W 080°05.370'
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I was going to get a waterproof container and place an RF Cafe
T-shirt or other item in it for leaving at the cache sites, but
there are two basic problems with that. One, the size could end
up being wrong for the lucky geocacher, and two, there are laws
against placing objects without written permission on a lot of government
land (parks, roadside stops, etc.). So, instead, I decided to take
photos of the locations, like the ones below, and requiring geocachers
to send in an e-mail that tells what is on the plaque. This is technically
known as "Virtual Geocaching." Also, because it might be possible
to figure out the required info without actually being there, a
photo of yourself where the professional model is standing in my
picture is required to qualify
(you can blur your face if you want to maintain anonymity).
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