New souvenir: Blue Switch Day 2024!
We often underestimate our reliance on GPS (Global Positioning System), yet, over the course of 24 years, it has fundamentally reshaped our lives and the world we inhabit.
Imagine how different our daily routines would be without GPS technology. Among many other things, paper maps would be necessary to navigate from point A to point B and turn-by-turn delivery tracking would be impossible. Notably, geocaching would never have come into existence.
This transformation traces back to a pivotal moment on May 2, 2000—dubbed Blue Switch Day by geocachers. Before May 2000, Selective Availability restricted accurate GPS technology to military use. However, on Blue Switch Day, the U.S. government made a landmark decision which opened up accurate GPS technology for public use. Geocachers commemorate this day as a milestone, marking it with pride and celebration.
The advent of precise GPS technology brought a new era of possibilities, fostering innovation and exploration worldwide. It’s no coincidence that the very next day, on May 3, 2000, the first geocache was hidden, giving birth to the game of geocaching.
Geocaching HQ created a souvenir for geocachers to celebrate Blue Switch Day 2024. To earn this souvenir, geocachers must find one geocache, Event Cache, or Adventure Lab® Location between May 2–5, 2024.
How will you celebrate Blue Switch Day this year?
