GeoRockers

We planted a new cache which should not get wet by the Sacramento River runoff: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=19853 Have fun!

We planted a new cache which should not get wet by the Sacramento River runoff: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=19853 Have fun!

quote:Originally posted by Ron Streeter: I become increasingly convinced that if we just take a set of readings (even in a clearing) that that is not good enough. I have done that, then walked a quarter mile away (to let some time go by and SAT positions change) and have walked back in. While my original setting showed accuracy to 4 feet, when I walked back in and stood at the cache I had just placed, it showed it was still 50 feet away. I believe the accuracy of our consumer units are +/- 15 meters (around 50 feet), 95% of the time... for WAAS units, the specified accuracy is +/- 7 meters (about 23 feet), with an observed accuracy of +/- 3 meters (around 10 feet) 95% of the time. quote:I have started taking readings with two gps units. I know...not everyone has two. BUT, you can take a reading. Walk out, walk back in, take another reading. Even come back later in the day if you are in the same park....and check your coordinates. When I see on a repeated basis (from a number of cachers) that coordinates are off by 40 feet, I start to give up ! I trust my gps to take me down to a few feet of the cache coordinates, but if the person who posted the coordinates did not do a very accurate job of taking them, it's all for naught... The 40 feet fall within the accuracy specifications... We carry a Garmin eTrex and a Magellan 315 or Meridian Gold when planting a cache. A good rule of thumb for those with auto-averaging units is to let the GPS auto-average for 20 minutes on top of the cache. This normally places the reading in the 95% level. While the Magellan is auto-averaging, we approach the cache with an eTrex from 8 directions (if possible), at a distance of 100 yards, average its readings, and post both sets of averaged coordinates. The averages have never been the same value, but fall within the accuracy specifications. Given a worst case scenario, where the cache hider has -50 foot accuracy, and the cache finder has +50 foot accuracy, it is possible to be off by 100 feet. With this in mind, if we haven't found the cache within an hour, we start a spiral search pattern from a given center point, to a radius of 150 feet. If this isn't successful, then we go home, log the miss, and read the log entries... but we don't read the clue. If we miss a second time, we go home, log the miss and read the clue... Some of the competitive cachers in the area look for caches with logged misses... and join the hunt! After a while, we can normally tell if the cache hider used a Garmin or Magellan unit to take the readings. quote:Well, those are most of my feelings I guess. I hope we will get some input on this. George and I seem to be having a "tin cans on a string" conversation going here, and this forum is for all Modesto/Stockton/Lodi/Sacramento cachers who have opinions. The string now stretches to Sacramento!

quote:Originally posted by Ron Streeter: I become increasingly convinced that if we just take a set of readings (even in a clearing) that that is not good enough. I have done that, then walked a quarter mile away (to let some time go by and SAT positions change) and have walked back in. While my original setting showed accuracy to 4 feet, when I walked back in and stood at the cache I had just placed, it showed it was still 50 feet away. I believe the accuracy of our consumer units are +/- 15 meters (around 50 feet), 95% of the time... for WAAS units, the specified accuracy is +/- 7 meters (about 23 feet), with an observed accuracy of +/- 3 meters (around 10 feet) 95% of the time. quote:I have started taking readings with two gps units. I know...not everyone has two. BUT, you can take a reading. Walk out, walk back in, take another reading. Even come back later in the day if you are in the same park....and check your coordinates. When I see on a repeated basis (from a number of cachers) that coordinates are off by 40 feet, I start to give up ! I trust my gps to take me down to a few feet of the cache coordinates, but if the person who posted the coordinates did not do a very accurate job of taking them, it's all for naught... The 40 feet fall within the accuracy specifications... We carry a Garmin eTrex and a Magellan 315 or Meridian Gold when planting a cache. A good rule of thumb for those with auto-averaging units is to let the GPS auto-average for 20 minutes on top of the cache. This normally places the reading in the 95% level. While the Magellan is auto-averaging, we approach the cache with an eTrex from 8 directions (if possible), at a distance of 100 yards, average its readings, and post both sets of averaged coordinates. The averages have never been the same value, but fall within the accuracy specifications. Given a worst case scenario, where the cache hider has -50 foot accuracy, and the cache finder has +50 foot accuracy, it is possible to be off by 100 feet. With this in mind, if we haven't found the cache within an hour, we start a spiral search pattern from a given center point, to a radius of 150 feet. If this isn't successful, then we go home, log the miss, and read the log entries... but we don't read the clue. If we miss a second time, we go home, log the miss and read the clue... Some of the competitive cachers in the area look for caches with logged misses... and join the hunt! After a while, we can normally tell if the cache hider used a Garmin or Magellan unit to take the readings. quote:Well, those are most of my feelings I guess. I hope we will get some input on this. George and I seem to be having a "tin cans on a string" conversation going here, and this forum is for all Modesto/Stockton/Lodi/Sacramento cachers who have opinions. The string now stretches to Sacramento!

quote:Originally posted by topografix: My current understanding of the Meridian character set matches everything you said, with these two exceptions: I was told it was colon ":", not semi-colon ";". I was told the comma "," wasn't available. My apologies. I should have worn glasses. It wasn't a semi-colon and comma... it is a colon and period.

quote:Originally posted by topografix: My current understanding of the Meridian character set matches everything you said, with these two exceptions: I was told it was colon ":", not semi-colon ";". I was told the comma "," wasn't available. My apologies. I should have worn glasses. It wasn't a semi-colon and comma... it is a colon and period.

quote:Originally posted by topografix: I'd like to hear more about this "accepts 30 character comments, but only stores 20" behavior, if anyone can prove or disprove it by actually checking their GPS. I ran into this yesterday. It is easy to perceive that the Meridian "accepts 30 character comments, but only stores 20". On a Meridian gold, with firmware version 3.08: A 30 character comment can be added to 200(documented *feature* ) of the 500 waypoints. When the GOTO button is pressed, and the waypoint is highlighted, ?? of the 30 characters are displayed in comment summary field, depending upon the characters used in the comment (proportional font). If the comment is comprised of all upper case 'I', then all 30 characters appear in the comment summary field. If the comment is comprised of all upper case 'W', then 13 of the 30 characters appear in the comment summary field. Editing of the waypoint will display all 30 characters. FWIW - the English character set is A->Z, a->z, 0->9, space, dash, comma, single quote, slash, exclamation point, at, octothorpe, less than, percent, caret, ampersand, greater than, left paren, right paren, plus, equal, semi-colon, and back slash.

quote:Originally posted by topografix: I'd like to hear more about this "accepts 30 character comments, but only stores 20" behavior, if anyone can prove or disprove it by actually checking their GPS. I ran into this yesterday. It is easy to perceive that the Meridian "accepts 30 character comments, but only stores 20". On a Meridian gold, with firmware version 3.08: A 30 character comment can be added to 200(documented *feature* ) of the 500 waypoints. When the GOTO button is pressed, and the waypoint is highlighted, ?? of the 30 characters are displayed in comment summary field, depending upon the characters used in the comment (proportional font). If the comment is comprised of all upper case 'I', then all 30 characters appear in the comment summary field. If the comment is comprised of all upper case 'W', then 13 of the 30 characters appear in the comment summary field. Editing of the waypoint will display all 30 characters. FWIW - the English character set is A->Z, a->z, 0->9, space, dash, comma, single quote, slash, exclamation point, at, octothorpe, less than, percent, caret, ampersand, greater than, left paren, right paren, plus, equal, semi-colon, and back slash.

Two out of three GeoRockers will be there! []

Two out of three GeoRockers will be there! []