Etymology
GEO-: - combining form
# 1 : earth : ground : soil
# 2 : geographic : geography and geopolitics
CACHE:
# 1 a : a hiding place especially for concealing and preserving provisions or implements
b : a secure place of storage
# 2 : something hidden or stored in a cache
I discovered this hobby on my birthday 2004, Thanx to a former friend of mine. The friendship ended but the love of the hobby remains.
Quite simply put - geocaching is like a modern-day treasure hunt. One person hides a geocache - and then the rest of the community downloads the coordinates from geocaching.com into their GPS recievers, and ... the search is on!
It puts a fresh perspective on familiar places. It gives you objectives when exploring new places, and takes you to some really incredible views.
Once you arrive at the cache site (typical accuracy is between 30-50 feet), the search begins. Caches come in ALL shapes and sizes, from "micros" as small as film containers, to traditional ones that can be large ammo cans. ( These are prefered by many cachers for there durability ) Caches can contain a variety of items, from childrens toys to small tools, books to jewelry - and EVERYTHING in between. Just browse a few cache listings and you'll see the types of things they were initially populated with, and the log entries will show what people have traded.
I don't really spend allot of time caching. In fact I might spend only one or two days a month doing it. There are some cachers that will Geocache every waking moment. This is a hobby after all I feel that
When a hobby starts to occupy a good portion of you personal time, That is not healthy!
Another hobby that I have is Ham or Amateur Radio. What is Ham Radio? Check out the site at the ARRL or The Amateur Radio Relay League. They have all the information needed to get you started in ths fun and rewarding service. If you are a Ham, I always carry a radio with me. I can be found one of THREE places. Either on 147.555 splx, 52.525 splx or on the W6CX repeater. I use this machine because of it's great coverage. I know some people have a problem with the operators of this repeater but I like it and I use it. If you are in the SF bay area you can find it on 147.060 + 100pl - available via IRLP (W6CX-R)or The WinSystem IRLP #9453 This is the node for the Dallas Reflector used by the WinSystem. Are you in the LA Area? Look them up at www.winsystem.org and find the repeater closest to you. This is an open group of VERY freindly Hams and be sure to shout at Shorty K6JSI and tell him how much you enjoy the system !!
Enjoy and I hope I gave you just a peek into the fun to be had in the Great Outdoors!!
73 Ken K6KAW
Geocaching.Com
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Geocachers of the Bay Area (GBA) supports the game of Geocaching in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.