mortikahn

Most GPS units are accurate to within about 30 feet (15 feet or so with a good WAAS lock)(and yes I know these numbers are not exact, I'm just estimating), so theoretically if the cache owner placed the cache with his/her GPS unit and only had a 30 foot accuracy, and then you come along with your GPS that only has 30 foot accuracy. Technically you could be 60 feet away from the cache. But most likely 30-45 feet is about what I have seen, in all the caches I have found (yeah i know its not that many). Only 1 cache was way off from the coordinates, and it required a second visit, with 2 additional GPS units to help triangulate its location. Even with 3 GPS units, the location provided by the CO as compared to those looking for the cache, seemed to be off by about 20 feet.

Thanks a ton.

I noticed that when logging a "Needs Maintenance" it does not count as a find. I logged this cache The Departed as a need maintenance log, however It doesn't seem to record that I found the cache (total finds is one less than it should be) Do I need to log a find for this cache as well as the needs maintenance log? I would have thought that if I think the cache needs maintenance, that I would have had to find it in order to see that it might need maintenance. anyway whats the SOP for this, do I log the find, and a needs maintenance log, or just the needs maintenance?

Which is more important? Do i write a nice long log in the paper log, or is it better to keep the paper log short, and place my thanks etc in the geocaching.com log. I ask this, because being new, I'm not sure of the proper etiquette when logging finds. Is TNLNSLTFTC w/ name and date sufficient for the paper log, and put more detailed information into the geocaching.com log? or Should I make the paper log, and the geocaching.com log say the same thing? what say you?