Request for help please

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Bunnylump
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Request for help please

#1 Post by Bunnylump » Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:37 pm

My cousin is asking for help for a puzzle. I have no idea. Anyone else?
Clever cousins help!
Or anyone who has the faintest idea help!
I think this is a cryptogram, I don’t know how to solve it, I even wrote it out to see if I had an idea, it seems to be musical notes, it’s supposed to give co ordinates.
If someone could give me a clue I’d appreciate it…..
The co-ordinates above are for a start of a rocky track that leads down to the adit. This area contains a number of tunnel entrances and in order to obtain the co-ordinates for the one with the cache in, you must first solve the following puzzle:
N° DGFAC CBBCD EFAAG DBCEF FDECA BBCGF FAGCD
W° ADFBE CCEBF DAAGD BCCFG BBCAA GDBEE FDCGG ADBE
I am guessing she is geocaching!
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

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SparkOut
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Re: Request for help please

#2 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:21 am

Is she going to look into the light?

I will try and look today, but bak to wok

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Re: Request for help please

#3 Post by Bunnylump » Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:20 am

SparkOut wrote:
Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:21 am
Is she going to look into the light?
:? I don't know anything about geocaching! :lol:
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”

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Re: Request for help please

#4 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:39 am

Geocache GC1AGGD is called Look into the Light.

It's a 5/5 (hardest difficulty and hardest terrain classification).

I hope your cousin is a spelunker! The entrance is basically a badger's sett, and a good part of the tunnel floor is flooded with ice-cold water, which is over the knees, even in summer months. Apparently it does get drier nearer the cache.

(Not that I have any progress to report on the cipher yet.)

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Re: Request for help please

#5 Post by Bunnylump » Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:52 am

Oh, I see! Thank you!

I tried playing the "notes" as chords to see if it might be a tune (mainly because it referred to a "rocky track" but it didn't seem to be. The only other thing I could think of was to assign a-1, but that would only give 7 numbers, and the lengths of the code didn't look right for coordinates anyway.
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”

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Re: Request for help please

#6 Post by Bunnylump » Tue Jan 03, 2023 12:33 pm

Just found this https://www.dcode.fr/music-sheet-cipher

Puzzlers beware! :lol:

I don't know if this is the answer or not though!
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”

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Re: Request for help please

#7 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 5:04 pm

I doubt it, but not sure.

So, this cipher is encrypting 7 northing digits, and 8 westing digits.

The puzzle cache listing is on Exmoor, and rules are that it has to be within two miles of the puzzle co-ordinates.

So DGFAC CBBCD must decipher to 5 and 1. ADFBE CCEBF DAAGD must decipher to 0, 0 and 3.

The solution can be checked here https://www.geochecker.com/index.php?co ... 4c69676874

Format: N51 00.000 W003 00.000

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Re: Request for help please

#8 Post by Bunnylump » Tue Jan 03, 2023 6:13 pm

Goodness, thank you! I have absolutely no idea how you did that, but I will pass it on! :D
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

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Re: Request for help please

#9 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:04 pm

Well, now I am just starting to have a look see and try to decipher the digits. I am not sure what encoding is used.

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Re: Request for help please

#10 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 7:08 pm

Most of the info is from here https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1 ... -the-light

(for some reason I had assumed ot was a premium cache and you wouldn't be able to see it, but seems not so)

(Note, the bottom of the page shows a decryption key - that's just for the additional hint next to it, and has nothing to do with the cipher)

Gallery of cachers' photos https://www.geocaching.com/seek/gallery ... cd93cd81bf

(See page 2, Ambling exitwards)

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Re: Request for help please

#11 Post by SparkOut » Tue Jan 03, 2023 8:43 pm

I'm not getting anywhere yet.
Anyone else with an idea how DGFAC CBBCD decodes to 5 & 1 (or any other ideas?)

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Re: Request for help please

#12 Post by SparkOut » Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:25 pm

OK, this is done!
I did need some help from other sources to get to the bottom of this but, essentially this is a 7 segment display puzzle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:7_Se ... gments.svg

What threw me was the breaking up of the string into "words" of 5 letters (except the trailing ones). But first you have to take the string and mash it all together. Then break it apart again where there are double letters:
Into the Light text.png
Into the Light text.png (4.87 KiB) Viewed 303 times
(Scurra's hinty link for this set of puzzles actually includes a decoder: https://www.dcode.fr/7-segment-display)

This gives you
Into the Light.png
Into the Light.png (5.07 KiB) Viewed 301 times
So the co-ordinates with the formatting for the checker are
Formatted Coordinates.png
Formatted Coordinates.png (4.12 KiB) Viewed 302 times
Last edited by SparkOut on Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Request for help please

#13 Post by SparkOut » Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:32 pm

And the confirmation
Into the Light solution.png
Into the Light solution.png (36.26 KiB) Viewed 302 times

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Re: Request for help please

#14 Post by Bunnylump » Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:42 pm

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

Wow thank you SO much!! I have relayed this - she's probably in bed by now but I'm sure she will be delighted when she sees it.

What a clever man you are.
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”

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Re: Request for help please

#15 Post by SparkOut » Sun Jan 08, 2023 10:51 pm

Like I said, I needed help too.

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Re: Request for help please

#16 Post by Scurra » Mon Jan 09, 2023 12:14 am

Oh yeah. 7-segment seems obvious now. (It clearly wasn't musical notes, but I couldn't think how A-G could be indicating anything. Not that I'd thought about it much, because my brain has been mostly mush this week thanks to some sort of 'flu thing - not Covid though.)
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
All of my puzzles are simple and obvious. For certain values of "simple" and "obvious".

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Re: Request for help please

#17 Post by Bunnylump » Mon Jan 09, 2023 12:17 am

Sorry to hear you are poorly, Scurra. Sounds like what my son had over Christmas. Hope you feel better soon.
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”

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Re: Request for help please

#18 Post by SparkOut » Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:14 am

We've all had it since Christmas too, and it won't go away.

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Re: Request for help please

#19 Post by LAT » Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:27 am

Oh dear, hope everyone gets better soon.

And I guess we can look forward to a puzzle based on 7-segment display sometime!

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Re: Request for help please

#20 Post by Scurra » Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:02 am

We've had a couple. But not using that specific code which is probably why I didn't recognise it. :D
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
All of my puzzles are simple and obvious. For certain values of "simple" and "obvious".

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