AzGeocaching.com is dedicated to the sport of Geocaching, Global Position Satellite (GPS) equipment, letterboxing, and any other similar game/sport in the Arizona Area.
 
Join over 400 other Arizona geocachers on our mailing list dedicated to sport of Geocaching in Arizona. It's free, (including ad free.. we hate spam) and a great place to discuss behind the scenes finds, geocacher get togethers, tips and tricks, make friends with people that have a similar interest or whatever else you like might have to do with geocaching.
"I never thought I would spend my free time driving around looking for dollar store items hidden on top of mountains under a bunch of rocks."
-Denny Ford of Tres Hombres
"In time, all caches will devolve and entropy will be achieved"
-Steve Gross of Team Tierra Buena

The News

News

Good news everybody!

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The Governor has overturned the rule that stopped geocachers from caching on state trust land.  State trust land still requires a small fee to receive a permit to be on the land as always, but other than that you can now geocache as normal.

Suspicious Activities

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A small town in the UK was shut down while the police were out to blow up a geocache.

Arizona Loses a great man

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Judi and I learned this evening that Bob Renner, GCB0B, passed away yesterday after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.
 
Bob was a true pioneer of Arizona caching. At the Deer Valley Ten Year Event Cache last May, when they did the countdown of who had been caching the longest, Bob (who can be seen in the group photo on that cache page, front row center in the white hat) was the "last man standing". Bob placed Arizona'ssecond geocache in October, 2000. It's still active and I can speak from experience that it is a worthy and worthwhile challenge.
 
Bob made many other contributions to Arizona caching. He created Arizona's first event cache in March 2001. He created what is certainly one of the firstmulti-caches in the state, and it is still active today. He placed a still-active cache at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. And his still-active "Box O Books" cache (GCB0B) is probably the only cache anywhere that not only has a GC ID that is an acronym of the cache title, but also a GC ID that is identical to the hider's name!
 
Bob was a giver. He taught "Introduction to Geocaching" classes at REI, and at the Desert Outdoor Center at Lake Pleasant. He introduced geocaching to numerous scouts in Boy Scout Troop 824. In 2002-2003, Bob served as a liaison between the geocaching community and the Arizona State Historical Preservation Office and other land management agencies, at a time when those agencies perceived geocaching as a threat to sites with archaeological or environmental sensitivity. Were it not for Bob's efforts, we might have far fewer acres in the state on which to play our little game. And he did all this with calm in the face of stress, humor in the face of threats, and thoughtfulness in the face of emotion. Geocaching in Arizona would not be the special experience it so often is had we not had the good fortune of Bob Renner's participation.
 
Bob is survived by his wife, Marion, and two sons. As I write this, funeral and memorial plans have not been announced. I will pass along any information that I receive.
 
Steve
Team Tierra Buena


I believe he was the first one to create a travel bug... before they were even called travel bugs

http://azgeocaching.com/mrtata.html

He will truly be missed.

Jason
AzGeocaching

Return of reverse geocache

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The reverse geocache has returned, this time it's smaller, but it's still just as fun of a project to give someone.

New Sats coming soon...

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New generation of sats starting up....

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/04/st_gpsreboot/

Arduiniana

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The Reverse Geocache Puzzle ™


Check out this link to this really cool idea of a reverse geocache.

http://arduiniana.org/projects/the-reverse-geo-cache-puzzle/

Southwest Trail Maps

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MarkFleming, (GoNorthWest) has jest release a map set for garmin GPSr that cover the SW trails.

Quoted from the mailing list:

"This mapset is designed to transparently overlay any existing maps you have on your Garmin GPSr. With this mapset, you can see, and follow, and trails that are in your area. No longer do you need to download tracks or routes to your GPSr when all you want to do is have the trail. Assuming that your desired trail is in the current data set, you're covered!

I would very much appreciate people at least checking out the web page and providing constructive feedback. This project is in it's infancy, and there is lots of work to be done. But, in my own field testing, it's proven to work pretty well so far. I intend to allow user contributions in the very near future, so you can send me new trails or corrections to current trails. Anything that makes it better!"

 

GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping in 2010

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A report is causing some concern that the GPS signal could become less accurate as soon as 2010.

The summary from the report reads:

It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected. (1) In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result, the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed to November 2009--almost 3 years late. (2) Further, while the Air Force is structuring the new GPS IIIA program to prevent mistakes made on the IIF program, the Air Force is aiming to deploy the next generation of GPS satellites 3 years faster than the IIF satellites. GAO's analysis found that this schedule is optimistic, given the program's late start, past trends in space acquisitions, and challenges facing the new contractor. Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation. (3) If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users, though there are measures the Air Force and others can take to plan for and minimize these impacts. In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite capabilities. Diffuse leadership has been a contributing factor, given that there is no single authority responsible for synchronizing all procurements and fielding related to GPS, and funding has been diverted from ground programs to pay for problems in the space segment. DOD and others involved in ensuring GPS can serve communities beyond the military have taken prudent steps to manage requirements and coordinate among the many organizations involved with GPS. However, GAO identified challenges to ensuring civilian requirements and ensuring GPS compatibility with other new, potentially competing global space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems.

GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping In 2010

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"A US Government Accountability Office report raises concerns about the Air Force's ability to modernize and maintain the constellation of satellites necessary to provide GPS services to military and civilian users. TidBITS looks at the situation and possible solutions."

OpenStreetMap, mapping party

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The mapping party is over, but we hope to see you are the next one

The Phoenix Linux Users Group (PLUG) and AzGeocaching will be teaming up to do an OpenStreetMap training and Mapping party.

What is OpenStreetMap you ask....

OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.

Contributors to OpenStreetMap take handheld GPS devices with them on journeys, or go out specially to record GPS tracks. They record street names, village names and other features using notebooks, digital cameras, and voice-recorders.
Back at the computer, contributors upload those GPS logs showing where they travelled, and trace-out the roads on OpenStreetMap's collaborative database. Using their notes, contributors add the street names, information such as the type of road or path, and the connections between roads.
That data is then processed to produce detailed street-level maps, which can be published freely on sites such as Wikipedia, used to create handheld or in-car navigation devices, or printed and copied without restriction.

This starts out at PLUG's East side meeting 1 which is held on the second Thursday of every month, the 14th of this month, with an introduction to OpenStreetMap given by a OpenStreetMap representivive Hurrican McEwen, on what is OpenSteetMap and how to use it.

Then on the 16th and 17th, there will be mapping parties2 using Boulders On Broadway as a base camp.

1

Phoenix Linux users group location and time
When: Second Thursday of each month at 7:00PM
Where: Sequoia Charter School, 1460 S. Horne, Mesa AZ

Enter by the drive way gate just south of Holmes Ave. Meetings are held on the south end of the fourth building on the left, room 402.

What to expect:
  • 6:30 - mingling/networking and last minute setup
  • 7:00 - Formal meeting starts with announcements and other plug business>/li>
  • 7:15-7:30 - Presentation(s)
  • 9:00-9:30 - Clean up and CAT (Chat About Technology) at the local Filibertos. (We sit around and talk about Linux over Mexican food)

2

OpenStreetMap mapping party location
Where: Boulders on Broadway, 530 W Broadway Rd., Tempe, AZ 85282-1311
The restaurant is directly west of the marker right on the north-east corner of Broadway and Roosevelt.
  1. A.J.A.C.S. 5th Annual Campout Event Cache
  2. 404 - Page not found
  3. Mr. Tata Head's Adventures
  4. New Website

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