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EKO VOR Traditional Cache

Hidden : 11/16/2009
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
3.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Cache is a large plastic OD green ammo box. It's a gravel road from Hwy. 228 up to the cache. once at the top there is a turn out just before to fence. the rest of the search is going to be on foot, but not to worry the cache is within 300m. hiking shoes would be best.

The cache is located at the Elko VOR (Variable Omni Range) Station. VOR's are one of the first navigation systems that pilots learn to use. The radio beacon sends out a signal that instruments in the plane use to depict the direction and distance to the station. Like all radio stations, the beacon is assigned call letters, Elko's being BQU. Well what's that call sign have to do with Elko you might ask? The three letters are short for Bullion, the name of the station, for all the gold in the area. Fitting, don't you think? Pilots tune the station in and identify it by those call letters. But, they're transmitted in Morse code. So, on all aviation maps the dashes and dots are given in the station info bubble. We got to make it a bit easy.

As I said before, all radio stations have a call sign, like 93.7FM KLKO, or KRJC. So why isn’t this VOR four letters, and some other letters? Well the Identifier for the Elko airport is KEKO. All U.S. airports codes are three letters, in fact. But, so to not confuse them with other airports in the world, they are preceded with a "K". And because EKO was already taken, the FAA often tries to name stations and waypoints after local interests. Fore instance, the VOR at Minneapolis is called Gopher, for the Golden Gophers. And that’s how we get to BQU – Bullion.

As other forms of navigation are getting more and more used, the VOR system is slowly going to go the way of the dinosaur. And you guessed it; the technology replacing it is GPS.

So on your travels around the country; one might catch a glimpse of these stations at airports, and even in the middle of no where.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Jura lbh pbzr gbn sbex va gur ebnq. Lbh'yy Xabj gur "Evtug " jnl gb tb Vg'f abg orlbaq gur srapr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)