majsvf

I was looking for three caches yesterday and ran into big differences in the way my GPS was reporting position. First position (about 2pm, 90 degrees F). I was getting strong signals from seven satellites moderately high in sky (not on horizon). The GPS reading was dead solid center on the geocache marker. Trees to the South/North but fairly clear E/W (along a road). Accuracy estimate at 6 ft. Second position (aboust 2:30, 95 degrees F). Still strong signals but fairly good tree cover. Some drifting (standing still) but location was consistently triangulated within about 10 ft. Third positoin (about 3:00, 100 degrees F). Eight strong satellite signals. Several 80ft pines and oaks but open park space. GPS readings while standing still were drifting and not stablizing with variations up to 30 feet. I think the position was nearly 100ft away from recorded geocache location. I have heard that geocachers have noted GPSr units tended to be less reliable during late twilight or with satellites down close to the horizon. I suspect a problem in this case with heat distortion. Can anyone confirm or list conditions that reduce stability of the GPSr readings?

I just saw a rest area that I wanted to make a virtual cache because of its beauty and a unique (at least I think it was unique) feature and history. When this category is setup would it be practical to set a subcategory for rest areas that have something special or out of the ordinary which waycachers may want to seek to distinguish them from rest areas that are picked out for convenience reasons? Sorry , just saw the Scenic Overlook category and it is closer to what I was thinking about here.

My first finds were with a map and compass racing against a novice using a GPSr. I enjoyed it as much as I later did using a GPSr. With the Lat/Long coordinates of a multi cache you can be surprisingly accurate once you have validated one site.

I am an occasional lurker... I travel a lot on business and usually can only grab time to search during waits for changes in transportation (on the way to the airport for example). Only occasionally because I don't have time to read through a lot of messages that don't provide information or insights. That said, I basically agree with Cloudcatcher (or was that Cloudcacher?) I do wish for more powerful keyword searchs to help find pertinent messages to questions I am looking for more efficiently.