Navdog

Roadside hazards

I'm surprised nobody ever made a locationless that requires you to show several existing locationless caches in the same picture.

Kinda hard to use that when your in the middle of a forest working a multi. The topic was about using your GPS for projections while you are in the field.

Who says you couldn't log this one?

You should be able to do this. Read datums post above: To get to the PROJECTION feature...go to the POSITION SCREEN. That's the one that has your TRIP ODOMETER on the bottom of the screen and your POSITION COORDINATES at the top. Press MENU button. Scroll down to PROJECTION. Press ENTER. Then scroll down to the distance and bearing fields so they are highlighted, press enter to change these numbers to what you need. I don't have a Meridian but this sounds like the same way it's done on my old Mag315.

This is pretty COOL! After Warriorrider mentioned the Meridians allow projections down to the 1/10 foot, I was playing around with my GPS V and found when you have the distance field highlighted for your projection distance, if you scroll over and highlight the default "mi." display to the right of the number field, and press the menu button, it allows you to change the setting from miles to feet! So you can enter 000.0 feet to 999.9 feet for a projection. Something the manual doesn't mention and makes projections much easier.

With the MeriPlat you can project to less than one foot. How many decimal places is less than a foot? A difference of .001 is normally between 4.5 and 6 feet. First I enter.01 and hit the enter button. Now it changes to feet and you can edit that. 0.82 ft. was the lowest I was able to save it.... as if I really need to project a waypoint under my toes That's pretty cool! Kinda overkill though, but nice to know.

A “reverse GOTO” is pretty much my way of figuring projected waypoints, especially those under .10 mi., which most GPSr’s start measuring by the foot. All you need to do is figure the reciprocal bearing and walk the specified distance. It is best to let your GPS settle down at the reference point before you mark your spot for a projection. It is also better to use a new set of coordinates for your starting point, than to rely on the coords given by the hider. Your coords account for the satellite PDOP at the current time you are doing the cache, and not the PDOP of the hider when they placed the cache weeks ago. This assures you that when you reach the other end of your projection you will have better accuracy. Pulling away from the trunk of a tree 5-10 feet along a north/south axis may help your reception, just be sure to account for this on the other end or readjust your coords before heading towards the other end of your projection. When I do line of sight projections, I use my Suunto optical hand bearing compass. Looking through the eyepiece gives me ½ degree accuracy for the bearing line, then I walk off the distance and compare that to the GPS reading for distance. Knowing what your stride distance is can be very accurate. This may not help the cacher without a manual compass, but it ensures me that my projection is correct. GPS projections are inherently more unstable at shorter distances with poor satellite geometry. If you can do a line of sight reading with a good sighting compass you will get better results.

There are several ways you can set this up, but I think most folks would understand if you state: Add .100 N to coordinates, or add .100 to north longitude. There are amny ways to incorprate math into solving the final coords for a cache. Here is an example of one way: Willamette Falls Cache

I use that. It's a lot of fun to play around with.

I keep my GPS set on "track up". It works better for the rectangular screens on most GPS units. You have more area in front of your location arrow. Maps are oriented "track up" or north up when I need to confirm north, which is seldom. On a side note. There has been studies done as to why women are more landmark oriented and why men are more spatially oriented, but I won't jump into that frying pan.

Just joking about the littering.

That's the ones Jolly. Except I paid $4.99 for a package of 50 at the nursery. I am sure you'll like them. The ability to engrave/write on them, it's a soft aluminum, with a ballpoint pen gives you lots of options as to what info you can put on them, plus the advantage of having both sides to write on. You can also take a fine point sharpie and write over the grooves to enhance the visibility of the lettering, but it is really not necessary.

Wouldn't that be littering? I have a friend who wants her ashes spread near a rock up on the slopes of Mt Hood. Whenever I see soil washing downstream, I think of Leopold's story (A Sand County Almanac) of a molecule called X traveling through nature. "The break came when a bur-oak root nosed down a crack and began prying and sucking. In the flash of a century, the rock decayed, and X was pulled out and up into the world of living things. He helped build a flower, which became an acorn, which fattened a deer, which fed an Indian, all in a single year." Finally X ends up in a beaver, "an animal that always feeds higher than he dies. The beaver starved when his pond dried up. X rode the carcass down the spring freshet, losing more altitude each hour than heretofore in a century. He fed a crayfish, a coon, and then an Indian, who laid him down to his last sleep in a mound on the riverbank. One spring an oxbow caved the bank, and X lay again in his ancient prison, the sea." Just a few snippets from an essay that speaks well to our existence here on earth.

I have several multi-caches that require waypoint projections. I am a big fan of having navigational elements in caches. Unfortunately my GPS V does not allow projections under .10 mi. and then only in 1/10 mi. increments. There are several ways to get around this problem, but I was wondering how others project waypoints. It would also be nice to hear which GPS units specifically allow projections under .10 mi. I know my Vista does, what about other units?

I would suggest making it at least six inches above the elbow to allow for comfortable downhill walking. A taller staff is fine if you don't put any grip area to it.

Wonderful story!

This spoofing is most easily accomplished by using a GPS satellite simulator. Such simulators are uncontrolled and widely available. To conduct the spoofing attack, an adversary broadcasts a fake GPS signal with a higher signal strength than the true signal. The GPS receiver believes that the fake signal is actually the true GPS signal from space and ignores the true signal. The receiver then proceeds to calculate erroneous position or time information based on this false signal. I see the makings of a truly devious cache.

You could place a cache at the local airport that reports the weather. I have used real time weather magnets on some cache pages before that were lengthy multis requiring several hours to finish, but javascript was disabled on cache pages, so I resorted to using a link to the nearest reporting station.

I found them at a local retail nursery. Here is the link to the manufaturer, they may be able to lead you to a distibutor in your area. Califonia Plastic Products

Just thought I would show you what I use for metal tags. These are small, 1"x3", but you can write a lot of info on them. For multis, I put the waypoint on one side and a hint on the other. Easy to engrave the info on them with a ballpoint pen. You can string some metal wire through the holes and hang them from a branch or you can nail them to something, although nailing them leaves only one side visible. Painting them after you engrave them helps camoflage them if needed.

Here are a couple links for you: CK Tools JM Tools Try a google for letter punches

I think a well written book on geocaching is one of Jeremy's wet dreams. What better way to legitimize the sport. And hey, at least she didn't use the capital "C" in the title like the other book.

A good Porter is the best cool weather caching beer, clandestine or not, I find I can carry my bottle of Black Butte around all afternoon and when I pop the top at the cache site, it's at the perfect temperature for enjoying the moment. And to answer Criminals question, hypothetically speaking, anarchist caching would be intriguing, especially with a good Porter.

Welcome to the game! You picked a great GPS. Heck, any GPS is a good tool, but remember it's more about the journey. Happy caching!