[Brand Newbie Question]

Personally, I never liked the idea of that restriction of distance to your home. The maintanance thing is a bit of a myth. The way to deal with this is to instill in all other cachers (finders) the ethic of helping to maintain the caches they find. <snip>

 

HELP TO MAINTAIN THE CACHES YOU FIND.

I'm not sure how this works. What's done with a log that's replaced?

 

Am I wrong or is the owner supposed to check the physical log against the virtual (Groundspeak) log to verify those who claim to have found it really did? Is this so?

 

If so, how does the helpful cacher access the Groundspeak records in order to do the required maintenance?

[Brand Newbie Question]

I had this virtual in Italy approved in a matter of hours

I have to ask. How can a virtual have a find difficlty of 4 stars?

[My Gps Is 31 Feet Off From Cache]

I bought my Sportrak last fall and the same thing happened to me.  I was always out  on the west coordinate.  (I can't remember if it was  out .020 or .030) . . .

 

I took it back to the store to complain - they gave me a new one that worked.

 

So, you can't always assume it is you and not the machine.

That’s an interesting experience. Are there any places that have very accurate coordinates where a person can check the accuracy of their unit?

 

I've done several Benchmarks and they seem to be way off, so I don't think you can rely on them for an accuracy test.

[How Do I Find My User Stats Page?]

Maybe I didn't find it before -- I don't think I realized that thing was a link.

 

Thanks.

[How Do I Find My User Stats Page?]

When you click on a users name it takes you to a ‘User Profile’ page with three tabs at the top. The center tab is named “User Stats”. Clicking this tab takes you to a page that shows how many caches of different types you have logged. I can’t figure out how to find such a page for myself. If I click on my username I get an entirely different response than clicking on anyone else. If I try to log off and do it when it doesn't know who I am, it tells me I have to be logged on.

 

I think I found the key to this once, but I can’t figure it out now.

[How Close Does The Gps Get You?]

Okay, I made an attempt at averaging the replies. Occasionally this required doing some fancy windageing of the person’s complex reply, but I did the best I could. I was able to quantify 21 replies. This gave an average (arithmetic mean) distance of 16 feet from the cache. This would mean that half are closer and half further than 16'. For statistics fans the mode is 15' suggesting that the average is probably pretty good.

 

Given the spread in the replies, one should expect individual caches to fall in the range of 2' to 50'.

 

Cachers with less experience appeared to be more optimistic than experienced cachers. This makes me suspicious of estimates that most or all caches are closer than 10 feet. But, if I throw out all estimates less than 10' the average only increases to 18' and the mode to 20'.

 

All this would seem to say a newbie cacher should expect to be typically within 10-30 feet of the cache, with an average being in the range of 16-20 feet.

 

Update:

 

I found a few more estimates in other threads. This additional data did not change the overall average from 16’ but it did shift the mode up to 20’. Also, now, if I throw out the 10’ and unders this average also rises from 18’ to 20’. So maybe 20’ is a better estimate.

[Changing User Name]

I did this. I suggest doing it as soon as possible after you establish your account.

 

Any posts you've made to the forums will retain your earlier name unless you post to the thread after the change.

 

There's one thing I've wondered about:

 

I assume one purpose for signing the physical cache log is so the owner can verify you've actually been there when they find your virtual log on Groundspeak. If you signed the physical cache log under your earlier name and your new name shows up in the Groundspeak log (for the reasons explained in The Leprechauns post above) the cache owner will not see your new name on the physical log and might delete your virtual log thinking it's a fake.

[Benchmarks]

What are benchmarks?

click here

[My Gps Is 31 Feet Off From Cache]

You may want to review this thread. Click here.

 

My unit advertises a 10 foot error. When I first began I had the good luck (or bad depending on how you look at it ) of my GPSr pointing very close to the cache – about 3 feet. And my tests at home kept coming up close. This gave me a false sense of how accurate the process is. Then when I started getting more common results of 15-25 feet error I spent far too much time looking at the spot where it pointed and too little time expanding my search area. Now, even when it points repeatedly to a given location I assume the cache may be up to 30’ away. I had a case like that this past weekend. My unit consistently and repeatedly (with an EPE error of 8’) took me to a spot 30’ from the cache. When I got home I looked at the logs and no one mentioned problems with the coordinates. I don’t understand what it all means, but the message is don’t rely too heavily on the specific spot where the gadget points.

 

As far as I know, the best any of these hand held units are advertised to do is about 10 feet and the cheaper/older ones it’s 50 feet. So, there’s your error, plus the cache owner’s error plus, at 3 decimal minutes of arc there’s an entry/recording error of 3 feet. Thus, using the root mean square method of calculating cumulative error, the best you should be able to do is 15’. If one of the two units is the 50’ error type the best you can do is 51 feet. So, I’m not sure how to explain the people who seem to consistently get closer than 10’.

[Math Equations]

He's right, it means multiply.

[Avatar]

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to change those words. I think they are automatically chosen by the forum software based on how many messages you have posted unless you are a paying member. If you are a paying member you can customize the words. Tadpole means you have posted fewer than maybe 10 messages.

[What Exactly Is A Mystery Cache?]

Thanks. I've stumbled across that page a couple of times before but I couldn't find it when I wanted it. You can imagine how good I am at finding caches.

[What Exactly Is A Mystery Cache?]

Somehow I must have missed the description/definition of a mystery cache. As an example, what should I expect if I go to this one?

[Other Geocaching Sites]

And then there are similar but different games such as geodashing

[Moving Pictures In Log]

I just uploaded pictures to this traveling photographer's cache log http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...09-e231eeff374c

 

They require a documentary “proof” shot to show you shot it after the game began. This is a tacky shot but it's getting first billing because I made the mistake of uploading it first. The last picture should be the featured shot. Is there a way to change the order of the pictures without deleting them all and uploading them again?

[How Do You Close In On The Cache]

In the cache area: Compass

I've read several times here to switch to a compass when near the target. I’ve probably tried that 4 or 5 times. It never seems to give me useful results. I find the GPS pointer much more likely to point me in the correct direction. Logically the compass should work, but somehow it doesn’t for me.

[Hyperlinks]

This needs to be added to an FAQ somewhere. I asked the same question last week.

 

FWIW I tried the ‘visit link’ method and couldn’t get it to work. The HTML method worked fine.

[Difficulty Ratings]

I’m new at this, but I have a suggestion.

 

There seems to be a lot of variability in how people rank the “Difficulty” factor. I suggest there be some kind of formula that takes in to account the percent of failures-to-find. I suspect many people don’t report failures, so when you see one reported there are probably several (many) more failures that weren’t reported. Being new I tend to go for the ones that are marked easy (one star) while I’m learning how to search for them. I don’t read the logs because I don’t want to run into spoilers, but I’ve started very quickly looking at the bottom of the page for purple faces.

 

This morning, while selecting a new cache, I did this and saw several. So, I went to the entire log listing for this one and saw many failures. I counted the finds and failures. There were 14 founds and 11 failures logged. Almost as many failures as founds and this cache is rated as easy (one star). Something’s wrong with this. One of the founds was a guy who lived nearby and had come back 5 times before finding it, and he had not recorded any of his failures. On caches that are truly easy I usually see no real failures. Sometimes they’ll have one or two with remarks like, “Too dark when we got there,” or something that says it wasn’t really a failed search. These 11 were all failed searches. A close reading of the logs suggest the coordinates are probably way off, but whatever the reason, it’s absurd to rate a cache with this ratio of failures as easy.

[How Close Does The Gps Get You?]

If my gps says 12 feet from a set of coords that someone took with another gps that has a 12' accuracy, am I 24' off? 

It's been too long ago for me to be sure this is right but as I recall, cumulative error is the root mean square of the individual errors so in the case you suggest this would be:

 

Square Root of 12 squared + 12 squared or √144 + 144 = 17 feet.

 

I realize the error of the person placing the cache has to be taken into account. That’s one reason I wanted to get advanced cachers experiences. I can do tests to get a feel for my units performance but only field experience will show what one can expect from the combination of my error and the cache owner's error.

[How Close Does The Gps Get You?]

It's all dependent . . .

Understanding there are a lot of variables, I urge you to try to take a shot at an overall estimate of your typical distance.

 

One way this is done in the estimating world is to add the closest you can reasonably expect + twice your best guess of typical/average + the greatest you can remember and divide by 4.

 

In my VERY limited experience this would be 2 + 2x4 + 40 = 50 divided by 4 = 12

[How Close Does The Gps Get You?]

I just read a post that said the closest one should expect to get using the GPS is within 50 feet. This was a revelation to me. Is there general agreement among experienced cachers that one shouldn’t expect the GPS to get them closer than 50 feet? Could some experienced others give their estimates of how close they typically get?

 

Fifty feet is a large area in which to find a microcache well hidden among in an zone of jumble or tall weeds. It seems like that could verge on the impossible.

[How Do You Close In On The Cache]

Generally speaking, if the GPS gets you within 50 feet of the target, you're doing good.

Gosh, that's a revelation. Is there general agreement among experienced cachers that you shouldn’t expect the GPS to get you closer than 50 feet? If not, could some others give their estimates of how close they typically get?

 

Fifty feet is a large area to find a microcache well hidden among an area of jumble. It seems like that could verge on the impossible.

 

NEVER MIND, I'M GOING TO START A NEW THREAD FOR THIS QUESTION.

[Okay, The Good Luck Stopped]

I have had MUCH better accuracy when 3d mode is enabled. If it is off a cache can jump 200 feet! Just my 2 cents.

I don't think my unit has a "3D" mode.

[Okay, The Good Luck Stopped]

I too have the Magellan 315 and i too had the same problem. <snip> Try changing the batteries? I dont know if the weather changed much but when i changed the batts. it worked better.

 

Niss

Thanks for the reply. I always start a new hunt with freshly charged NiMH batteries. In this case the unit had not been on for more than 5-10 minutes when the jumping from left to right began.

 

I haven't had a reason to use the unit again, but I'll probably try that cache again next week. If it happens again I'll do as someone suggested and turn it off and back on. I should have though of that -- "Dammit Jim, it's just a computer."

[How Do You Close In On The Cache]

I am wondering what screen to use . . . for the final approach. I have used the coord. screen and walked until the numbers match perfectly, but the distance still says 50feet or something. If i walk by the distance screen, my coords. are way off.Whats the deal. If i go to where the coords. match or the distance is 0, Two or three times it will be in a different spot each time.  Is it me ? is it the meggelan? or what,    Discouraged!!!

Good questions. I'm a newbie too, and I posted a similar message a couple of days ago. I think my initial good luck gave me a false sense of how accurate these gadgets are. Mine is spec’d at a 50’ error, but the first couple of times, after a little walking around and coming at it from different directions it pointed to the location within 3’.

 

When I first got the gadget I did a couple of tests where I marked a couple of locations and then checked how close it came to locating them. It did very good – closer than 2’.

 

But, Monday when I went hunting and it began doing what you describe. It pointed to a location. To verify the result I got some distance away and went for it again. It pointed to an entirely different location. I did this 4 times and got 4 quite different locations. The Fartherest two were about 40’ apart – the closest about 20’ apart. There was simply too much dense/difficult shrubbery in the area covered by these readings to find a 1"x 2" microcache wrapped in camo tape, so I gave up.

 

I have a Magellam GPS 315. So far I have used the screen named “Plot Screen.” It shows an arrowhead in the center of the screen in the middle of a circle. The circle represents the distance indicated on the bottom left of the screen. Pressing the left/right arrows widens/narrows the area represented by the circle As I get closer to the target I change to smaller and smaller circles. The smallest circle is 0.1 mile or about 500 ft. The arrowhead points in the direction you are walking (your heading) the target is an icon on the screen. You can see where the target is related to the direction you are walking. If possible you change your direction until you are walking directly at the target. When the arrow is on top of the icon you are presumably at the spot. I remember (mark?) the spot, move away to a different angle from the target and come at it again. One good way (if possible) I’ve found it to go in the opposite direction as you came from (walk past it) then come back. If you stop at the same spot it is probable close. Sometimes you can’t walk directly toward it and must depend on figuring out when you are beside it – when it’s immediately off to your left or right. With my unit you must walk fairly briskly so it doesn't lose your heading/direction.