Feet vs. GPS Coordinates

[EnergySaver]

Assuming I’m running about in Wisconsin … How many feet is a N coordinate of .001 equal to? How many feet for a W coordinate of .001? When I’m a finder in a heavy wooded park, I tend to be estimating my hike wrong causing me to end up on cliffs rather than taking the easy path below (see my log and photo at “Rainbow’s End…Pot-of-Gold” as a classic example). I wish GroundSpeak.Com would sell geocaching.com ropes and parachutes! –EnergySaver

[sbukosky]

I once read for this area it is six feet. I just did a little test on Mapsource and for lattitude it is six feet and longitude it is five feet for SE Wisconsin.

[sbukosky]

Just a little addition to that. Other things to keep in mind is that even if you are dead on the coordinates, ground zero I call it, this means that you have a built in error of a 3 feet radius IN ADDITION to the ever present circle of error. What that means is you may have to search as much as a 60 foot radius (almost 3,000sq.ft.) from what your GPS interprets as ground zero.

We invite people making logs to comment on the apparent accuracy of the coordinates. When logging, there is the provision to list the coordinates you found them to be, assuming that they are not giving away things in a multi-cache.

[Stooper and B]

Are you having a tough time figuring out the distance to the cache, or just curious about lat/long distances?

If you just need to figure out how far the cache is, try playing around with your GPS to have the distances show on your screen. My eTrex has that option as do (I think) many other brands. This way I have the compass with a big arrow, lat/long, and distance in miles (feet when I get closer)

But like sbukosky said, error is a factor so use your “geo-bloodhound sense” to get right to the spot.

Stooper and B.

[This message has been edited by Stooper and B (edited 05-29-2004).]

[SirPoonga]

Because the earth is round, the W coord is going to be different from the south of the state to the north. The term for measuring distence via coords is called geodetics I think.

[Cheesehead Dave]

North to south, 0.001 degrees is a constant 6.074 feet. East to west, it varies from about 4.48 feet in southern WI to 4.33 feet in central WI to 4.18 feet in the north.

A quick guide can be found here.

[Ray]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cheesehead Dave:

A quick guide can be found here.

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You have just been “Markwelled” or, would that be a double Markwell since it takes one to Kelly Markwell’s home page?

[Cheesehead Dave]

quote:

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Originally posted by Trudy & the beast:
You have just been “Markwelled” or, would that be a double Markwell since it takes one to Kelly Markwell’s home page?

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And if Kelly does it himself, it’s the extremely rare Triple Markwell…

[jthorson]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cheesehead Dave:
And if Kelly does it himself, it’s the extremely rare Triple Markwell…

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And if Kelly does it TO himself, it’s the infinite loop Markwell, and it ends the universe as we know it…

[Ray]

I wonder if K.M. reads these threads?

[EnergySaver]

You guys are having way too much fun with my question! I think I’m getting better now. Not sure why, but I tend to not log waypoints on my GPS … I drive close to the coords and march around to approach the final coords. Sometimes I under estimate the distance to walk and wish I had driven to a different spot … but you hit a point at which it becomes silly to turn around and get your car. Maybe if I’d waypoint the GPS, I could would rely on the GPS to tell me how close I am in miles, rather than trying to estimate distance based on coordinates. I do know how to log the waypoints, just for some reason I can’t explain I just never tend to do that … I like to print off the pages and run to my car.

[Cheesehead Dave]

quote:

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Originally posted by EnergySaver:
… I like to print off the pages and run to my car.

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If you’ve got a data cable for your GPSr, when you print out the page, also click the link to download the *.LOC file. You can use EasyGPS to open the file up, then send it to your GPSr and save you the trouble of having to enter it yourself. Takes about a minute.

[EnergySaver]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cheesehead Dave:
If you’ve got a data cable for your GPSr, when you print out the page, also click the link to download the *.LOC file. You can use EasyGPS to open the file up, then send it to your GPSr and save you the trouble of having to enter it yourself. Takes about a minute.

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… thanks for the tip, however I know how to do that (have done for some multi-stage caches and when planning/verifying my own hides). The problem is that I lookup and print cache pages at work, drive home and hop in the mini-van where the GPS is in the glove compartment. It’s a habit problem, not a technical knowledge problem. Maybe I need to quit my job so I can stay closer to my GPS !

[Miata]

Why not use EasyGPS to put say 200 of the closest caches to home in the GPS and when you get close to the area just use the find nearest waypoint and go from there.

I use this method quite a bit with my GPS III.

[EnergySaver]

quote:

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Originally posted by Miata:
Why not use EasyGPS to put say 200 of the closest caches to home in the GPS and when you get close to the area just use the find nearest waypoint and go from there.

I use this method quite a bit with my GPS III.

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Ding, Ding, Ding … we got a winner! That’s something I’ve not thought of doing. Thank You!

[Author]

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