Minicup28

I always use Crucial Technologies products.

I have had one for almost two years and love it. I mapped our property and all the trails & features. I find it to be quite accurate and repeatable and have not had the problems some have reported.

I did exactly as you described along a 1500' boundary. The corners were averaged 200x and I repeated the track 3 times dropping flag tipped wires every 20' or so. On the 4th trip we averaged the flag placement by line of sight. I agree it is not legal, nor would I cut wood within 20' of it but it gives my neighbor & I a reference mark to respect. The other 3 boundaries are well surveyed as a result of sales or timber harvesting. By following those marked lines using the same method gave me a good indication of the walking errors that can occur with obstacles and sidehill walking. When it came time to get a building permit it was sufficient to show that I was more than 100' from the line and right-of-way and I saved the $1500 the surveyor wanted to mark the line.

Averaging is 1/sec on the Vista HcX, so it only takes about 3 minutes to mark a waypoint. When I first mapped the property and went back to known points I found that they were "off" by the stated accuracy which could have been 10-20 feet on a single reading. When you are averaging you will see the accuracy drop from the initial single reading of say 17 Ft. to 7-10 Ft. depending on tree cover, slope, etc.

I just completed recording my newly purchased 34 acre property. It is much easier if you can locate at least one of the corner markers. Starting from that point, record a waypoint with averaging until the accuracy is at a minimum. At my location that was about 150-200 readings before the accuracy reading stopped decreasing. From that point project and estimated point from your survey plot. For instance, 1000 Ft. Due North. Set your GPS to Find and follow it to the estimated point. In my case it led directly to the other posts. Record the position of each with averaging as you find them. If you create a route connecting the corners and overlay that on your Topo map, you know where you are at all times relative to your boundries or other POI that you have marked. After you have your readings for the corners & POI you can load them into one of the Satellite maps such as ArcGIS and you can observe you property from above and at angles.

I have found that highways I-95 in MA, I-90 from MA to NY and I-88 in NY are OK when the map scale is a few miles. If you enlarge to 20 Ft. you are not in the center of the road. I only use the base map for interstate travel and ignore it for offroad hiking & 4 wheeling use.

I have found that highways I-95 in MA, I-90 from MA to NY and I-88 in NY are OK when the map scale is a few miles. If you enlarge to 20 Ft. you are not in the center of the road. I only use the base map for interstate travel and ignore it for offroad hiking & 4 wheeling use.

I'm a new user. What are some of the methods you should use when following a GOTO line to a waypoint? I try to pick an object aways away on the intended line and as I walk to it, the GPS (Vista HCx) indicates that I'm +/- the accuracy at that time on either side of the line. If I try to correct for it I wind up zig-zagging. I am using "track up", should I zoom out more to lessen the visual indcation of error? Thanks,