Skip to content

Log a find

This page shows you how to log what happened at a cache: a find, a did-not-find or a note. It is for any player, in the app or with a radio; at the end your log is in the cache's logbook.

Before you start

Log in the app

  1. At the cache, open its sheet and tap ✓ Log a find. On a phone you can also tap Log in the bottom bar. The button shows Locating… while the phone gets a fix.
  2. Tap Allow when the browser asks for your location. That reading is what verifies your find. Without it, tap Log without location; the find is still logged, but not verified by your phone.
  3. If the phone places you too far from the cache, the app asks first: You're 34 km from the cache — log anyway? Tap Log anyway or Not yet.

The result card opens with Logged, a badge, and one line that says why. ✓ next to Logged means the find counts as verified.

Other log types

You tap It logs The card shows
Couldn't find it a did-not-find (DNF) Marked DNF
Add a note, then Post note a note in the logbook Note posted
Add a note, then Post as maintenance what you checked or fixed, for the cache's owner only Note posted

After a find, Add a note on the result card adds a note to the same cache.

Is the container wet, broken or gone? Tick The cache needs maintenance before you tap ✓ Log a find or Couldn't find it: the box sits above both. The flag goes with that log, the owner hears of it, and the cache page shows needs maintenance until the owner posts a maintenance log.

Noticed it only afterwards? Once you have logged a find or Couldn't find it, the cache page offers Report a problem: needs maintenance. Say what is wrong, tap Flag for maintenance, and the flag goes out as a note.

Read the result

Badge What placed you at the cache
Radio-verified A receiving station that is not yours heard your APRS position on the air near the cache.
Location-verified Your device's location, read when you logged, was at the cache.
Logged Nothing independent. The find is on record but not verified.

How finds are verified explains each badge, with the distances and times.

The line under the badge says why, for example Your device was 12 m from the cache when you logged it. Some caches need a better badge than yours. The line then says so: This cache needs a Radio-verified find. Yours was Location-verified, so it is on record but does not count as verified.

signed with your device key means your browser signed the find with a key that stays on your device. You do nothing for it. The signature ties the find to your callsign, even if you move to another instance.

One find per person

Each cache takes one find from each person: your base callsign, any SSID of it such as OE8APR-7, and any other callsign on your account share it. The find is scored when you log it. Logging it again with the same callsign shows You already logged this, and your first find stays as it was scored. A find under an SSID counts for you on the leaderboard, your profile and your badges.

Caches that take no find

  • An archived or disabled cache takes no find and no Couldn't find it. You can still post a note.
  • You don't log your own cache as found. As its owner you post notes and maintenance logs.

The app shows why in place of ✓ Log a find. The same rules hold for a log from your radio, and for a log waiting offline: if the cache was archived meanwhile, the queued log lands under Needs attention.

Log without signal

With no mobile data, a log is saved on your phone. The card shows Saved and offline — will sync when you're back online. The top bar counts what waits; tap it to open Logs to sync.

When the signal returns, the app sends the log. Your find is verified for the time you made it, not the time it synced. If the instance refuses a log, it moves to Needs attention with the reason. There you retry it, edit it or discard it. Hunt without signal has the details.

Log from your radio

No phone with you? Send an APRS text message from your radio to the instance's service call. The call is your sysop's callsign with SSID 15, such as OE8APR-15; You → Logs sent over the air names the one your instance uses.

Message Logs
FOUND AC-1234 nice spot a find, with optional log text
DNF AC-1234 muggles a did-not-find, with optional log text
NOTE AC-1234 log is full a note; the text is required
HELP a reply with the command list

NEAR ON and NEAR OFF switch the message your radio gets near a cache: see The "you're near" prompt.

The dash in a cache code is optional. A heritage place takes its reference as the code, for example FOUND OE/ST-001. A MeshCom direct message to the service call works the same way.

The log goes to the account that holds your callsign, with any SSID. Your callsign must be verified first; otherwise the message is not logged, and You → Logs sent over the air lists it as not logged with the reason. A message the instance could not read shows there the same way.

Where it lands

  • Heard on the air by a receiving station the instance trusts: the log is written at once.
  • Sent from the app's own radio bridge (Settings → My radio (browser)): written at once too, since your device signs it.
  • Arrived only over the internet (APRS-IS, or a relayed MeshCom message): it waits under You → Logs sent over the air, marked to confirm. Tap Confirm to log it, or Discard. Anyone can put your callsign on an internet message, so the app asks you first. A message you do not confirm within 7 days expires.

How radio finds are verified

The find is scored for the time you sent the message. A radio message carries no phone location, so it gets one of two badges:

  • Radio-verified when a receiving station that is not yours heard your position beacon near the cache in the 30 minutes before the message. Beacon at the cache first, then send FOUND.
  • Logged otherwise.

Acknowledgements and limits

  • Your radio gets an acknowledgement when it numbers the message. Most radios number messages that want one.
  • A text reply, such as AC-1234 found, Radio-verified, comes only if your sysop turns replies on. HELP is answered either way. You get at most one reply every 10 minutes.
  • A retry of the same message within 30 minutes is only acknowledged again, never logged twice.
  • One callsign may send ten commands an hour, all its SSIDs together. More are ignored, with no acknowledgement.

Announce your finds on APRS-IS

With a verified callsign, each verified find can be announced to APRS-IS as a short status message from your callsign, for example Found AC-1234 (Rover on the ridge) via aprscaching.net. Announcing is off unless you opt in: turn on Settings → Announce finds. The result card then shows announced to APRS-IS. The switch covers finds logged in the app and by radio, from any SSID of your call.

Check that it worked

  • Open the cache sheet and scroll to the Logbook. Your log is at the top, with its badge.
  • For a radio log, You → Logs sent over the air shows logged.
  • For an offline log, Logs to sync is empty once it has synced.

Next