Well, this is my first post and I hope I am not asking the obvious. I have spent some time (too much) on the forum learning what I can. I picked up a used Garmin GPSMap 60 and have been playing around with geocaching and finding benchmarks and also mapping (e.g. custom maps, etc).
For kicks I wanted to know what others use as a known control point to get a sense of how accurate their units are. From reading I know the accuracy isn't a simple thing and there are various factors involved. At first I thought the answer was to find a local benchmark, take readings, and then see how "close" it was. But in reading about benchmarks I understand some are "adjusted" and some are "scaled". Even then I am not sure if I can assume that the coordinates shown for each benchmarks are in fact the "exact" coordinates to use.
Is that the only option? are there better ways? Like picking coordinates off one of the online maps (e.g. a building or structure)? Or is it finding a "GPS Only" benchmark from the Geodetic site's list of benchmarks. My next thought was to find a local surveyor that might have some documented control points they would share. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
