On May 1st 2000 President Clinton ordered the defense Department
to turn off selective Availability - the jamming signal that
prevented recreational users from pinpoint accuracy. The press
release was ' Today I am pleased to announce that the United States
will stop the intentional degragatioin of the GPS signal available
to the public beginning at midnight tonight....This will mean that
civilians users of GPS will be able to pinpoint locations up to 10
times more accurately than they do now.'
A soft ware engineer called Dave Ulmer watched his GPs units
accuracy greatly improve and thought that maybe this could be used.
On May 3rd in Portland, Oregon he placed a 5 gallon bucket near a
wooded road about a mile from his home. Inside was a log book and
some trinkets for trading. He called it the Great American GPS
Stash Hunt.
He posted the co ords on a technical website where he posted the
rule 'Get some stuff, leave some stuff' The following day it was
found.
Less than 5 days later the idea had cottoned on and other caches
were in place in California, Illinois and Australia. This was
starting to go worldwide. Geocaching had begun.
To celebrate our great hooby and pasttime come along to our
caching event at the above co ords.
Sunday May 2nd
At the beach at the Gunsite
11.00am till 3.00pm
Bring a picnic or buy something from the cafe. Bring buckets and
spades and beach things
Plenty of parking at Goose Green carpark, though all parking in
area is paycard
If you're new to the game come along, it's always good to meet
the cachers who find and sign our logs
Get help for that puzzle cache you're struggling on, ideas, help
with your GPS and meet friends
As always there will be some fun caches and prizes
The event will go ahead whatever the weather, as we can always
go across the road to the Goose on the Green Pub
To qualify for a special 10 year icon there are some
requirements
* At least 10 people must attend the event.
* A video or picture must be taken at the event. At least 10
attendees must be in the video/photo along with a legible sign
showing the event coordinates and location name.
* The people in the video or photo should be festive. Be
inventive! But please keep it family friendly.So bring your buckets
and spades for the photo and lets hope the sun shines
Hope more local cachers will log to attend this special
event