430.825 MHz Radio Beacon (Eastbourne) Mystery Cache
430.825 MHz Radio Beacon (Eastbourne)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This cache is a magnetic 35mm film pot located near to ground level. Sorry, but its location makes it inaccessible to wheelchair cachers - although the view from the car park near the cache is rather good so it might be worth going there if you are passing that way.
Warning: there is pay parking near the final location and wardens are known to patrol the area.
There are at least six ways to find this cache.
1) use a receiver tuned to the frequency in the cache name and a directional antenna to home-in on the transmitter. Please note that unless you have the means, including the necessary licence, to force the station to transmit when you want it to, finding this cache could take you hours;
2a) surf the web to see how and where in Eastbourne this frequency is used. Please note that its published web location is only accurate to about 500m. So go there and then look south for a suitable radio mast;
2b) if you can't see the nearby 50ft mast that is stuck out in the middle of nowhere then do the following to its published web location (NB: you will need to convert the location to the Geocaching Degrees / Minutes format first, so it is probably much easier just to go there and look south):
N minus 0.150 Minutes; and
E plus 0.247 Minutes;
3) go to the published Geocaching start co-ordinates on a Thursday night, and look for a bunch of blokes with anoraks, bobble hats and walkie-talkies who will be talking about nothing but radios all night. NB: sometimes they dress like cachers so, be warned, they could look totally normal some evenings. These guys have the necessary direction finding equipment and may be persuaded (after having been bought a beer?) to take you out to find it or, if its a cold night, simply tell you where it is; or
4) do a Big Girls' Blouse PAF to somebody who knows where it is;
5) accidently come across it when looking for another cache;
6) try to publish a cache near to the final location of this one and be told that LostInTheWoods! has one nearby already. Then go and search everywhere within 528ft.
Once in the area of the mast, hunt around at almost ground level for the magnetic film pot. NB: you do not need to climb any gates or fences to reach the cache. The Location hint should make this a really easy find.
I doubt whether many geocachers will have the necessary equipment to direction find this transmitter so, as the rules say, you only have to sign the log to claim a Found It!.
You may therefore use any legal method you like to find the cache, including those listed above.
Talking of Legal:
I am not certain yet whether Garmin Chirp radio beacons are legal to be sold or used in the UK (and if not, a waste of money at ~£30 each), hence my use of an alternative type of radio beacon / transmitter.
UPDATE (14 Jan 11): it has been confirmed that Garmin Chirps do not currently have a 'valid' CE Mark. This means that they cannot be sold in Europe.I believe that the UK Trading Standards Authority has been informed and will be taking appropriate action.
Please don't publish the final location or make the location too obvious in your logs, e.g. I picked up this cache while finding the XYZ cache that was only a short distance away.
Happy hunting.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Final location: abegu-jrfg pbeare.