GPS for Dummies.pdf - Engineering Surveyor

118Part II: All About GPSaccurate to about 300 feet were accurate to 30 feet. This level of accuracyoffered some creative possibilities. Three days after SA was turned off, thefollowing message appeared in the sci.geo.satellite-nav USENETnewsgroup:From: Dave (news2yousNOneSPAM@hotmail.com.invalid)Subject: GPS Stash Hunt... Stash #1 is there!Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-navDate: 2000/05/03Well, I did it, created the first stash hunt stash and hereare the coordinates:N 45 17-460W122 24.800Lots of goodies for the finders. Look for a black plasticbucket buried most of the way in the ground. Takesome stuff, leave some stuff! Record it all in thelog book. Have Fun!Stash contains: DeLorme Topo USA software, videos, books,food, money, and a slingshot!Earlier that day, in the same newsgroup, Dave Ulmer had proposed a worldwidestash hunt, where people would post GPS waypoints on the Internet tolead searchers to hidden goodies. While Ulmer envisioned thousands ofstashes tucked in places all over the world, he had no idea how popular hisidea would become.Starting with a humble little bucket full of goodies in Oregon, Ulmer’s idea tookoff like wildfire. Within weeks, caches were hidden in Washington, Kansas,California, New Zealand, Australia, and Chile. A newsgroup and Web site thathosted the coordinates of the stashes soon popped up as the word started toget around.The original caches: letterboxesThe whole geocaching concept isn’t that new.Over 100 years ago, something similar developedin England: letterboxing. Letterboxing comprisesplacing a blank logbook and a custom-maderubber stamp in a waterproof container andthen hiding it. Clues are distributed with thecontainer’s location, and searchers armed withinkpads and notebooks try to find the hidden box.If they are successful, they stamp the logbookin the box with their own personal rubber stampand also stamp their logbook with the box’sstamp. This low-tech version of geocaching is stillvery popular. Depending on whom you talk to,10,000–40,000 letterboxes are hidden in England,and around 5,000 are lurking in the United States.Read more about letterboxing at www.letterboxing.org.