› Forums › Geocaching in Wisconsin › Help › Feet vs. GPS Coordinates
- This topic has 22 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 21 years, 6 months ago by
SirPoonga.
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06/29/2004 at 4:54 pm #1739921
What GPSr do you have?
I like that suggestion too, download alot of waypoints. You can use other utilities like Utopia, GSAK, etc… to filter out the ones you want to search for when you are ready to search for them. You can find links to those utilities on the Texas Geocaching Asscociation’s website under Tools. There might be links here, I haven’t gone to the links section here in a while.
06/29/2004 at 5:52 pm #1739922GPS = Garmin Emap
Some time ago I download “GpsBabel” software, which works well for converting .loc files to MapSource (.mps) files for my Garmen software to take in.
This was never an issue about lack of knowing what to do, so lack of doing the right thing at the right time.
This past weekend I download 4 caches and went out with the kids … found them all quickly (the caches, not the kids) … it’s a lot easier watching an arrow pointing in one direction or another and telling you it’s 427 feet away … rather than watching all those N and W numbers flying by (of course you still need those Ns and Ws the last few feet or you end up in a swamp).
06/29/2004 at 7:45 pm #1739923quote:
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.
This is my strategy. I get a GPX file with the 500 nearest unfound caches, so wherever I am in SE WI or NE IL, I can always tell when I’m near a cache.
06/30/2004 at 3:21 pm #1739924Just an observation … I think it’s funny that my simple little question (how many feet = a coordinate “tick”) has caused enough traffic to get a flaming folder symbol! I though I was going to get one answer from one person and that would be it. Ain’t forums a fun thing!
07/05/2004 at 4:06 pm #1739925Energysaver, if you were trying to find a cache by watching the coordinates change, you definitely did it the hard way! I started with an eMap also and found many caches, always following the arrow and watching the distance count down.
Where reading the coordinate screen can be helpful is when you are very close and the arrow does what we call “the bee dance”. Ken Braband may still have it on his website on how to use the coordinates to triangulate, or in this case, bi-angulate ground zero. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, even at ground zero, you may have to search 3,000 sq ft or so based on coordinate error.
An easier methos is to use a compass. Unfortunately, the eMap does not give a bearing to the cache as many other models do. In those cases, like in my Garmin V and 60c, they have a compass rose and bearing arrow so I know the cache is X feet from me and at a bearing of XXX degrees true or magnitic. I can then use the compass to line up a landmark that I estimate is X feet away, walk to it and retake the distance and bearing.
Another use of this method is when the overgrowth is very dense and you can’t get a good signal lock. By moving out to where you get a good signal, you can take a bearing and distance. Then walk in the woods or brush while estimating the distance, again using a landmark such as a bush, tree or whatever.
I have also used this method when hiding a cache in order to post the most accurate coordinates that I’m able to.
07/05/2004 at 9:57 pm #1739926Yup, my tip is still on my web site. http://www.rocketink.com/howto.htm
07/06/2004 at 2:18 am #1739927For the last 5 or 6 finds I have been “changing my habit” and uploading the coordinates to the eMap GPSr and then running Find/Waypoint/Goto for the waypoint. It is much more instictive to watch an arrow and watch 10ths of Miles and then Feet moving downward. Again … my mistake/frustration was a product of bad habit (print and run), rather than knowledge of doing the best thing to prepare GPRr to be the best tool that it can be. More often than not it was not a problem in the last few hundred feet … I just had a habit of being on the wrong side of a creek, ravine, road, etc. more often than need be.
07/08/2004 at 4:54 am #1739928quote:
Originally posted by EnergySaver:
Just an observation … I think it’s funny that my simple little question (how many feet = a coordinate “tick”) has caused enough traffic to get a flaming folder symbol! I though I was going to get one answer from one person and that would be it. Ain’t forums a fun thing!
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