Snosrap
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Posts posted by Snosrap
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The Streetmap conversion page will return a postcode which in turn could maybe be checked against some form of address finder?
A bit messy but could be made to work I assume. The main problem is likely to be that all the automated address finders I've seen require a fee or have very limited functionality.
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I've noticed a recent trend for difficult caches to have a 1.5 or 2 diff rating.
Is this a ploy to solicit phone calls or e-mails from stumped (or stupid) cachers?
I don't have any phone numbers other than family with me and only use a mobile for emergencies. So please, if a call is necessary please say so in the cache description (or a diff rating of say 3.5+) so I can avoid them.
As you might be able to tell I'm suffering the after-effects of taking the family on three DNFs out of three over the Christmas/New Year period!
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Weren't the 'hints' any use for the DNFs?
I have tried three caches over the last week and all three were DNFs.
One was flooded and I've been told by the setter that it is currently 15 feet into the river (pun intended) and I'll return in better weather. The other two were extremely frustrating because the GPS reception was not fantastic and the hints totally useless. On each occasion I was with my 5 year-old son and so splitting up to search was not an option.
Both were rated as difficulty 2 or less so I will not go back to either.
If I have to 'phone a friend' to find it I'm stumped (not being or wishing to be part of the enlightened few).
It's been a really frustrating time!
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Have a look at Streetmap.co.uk. I think you have to enter Northings & Eastings rather than Landranger Grid but it also has a useful co-ordinate conversion facility which converts Lat/Long to OS (including Landranger) and even postcodes.
The conversion page is not easy to find - look at the blue box below the 'Ask Jeeves' advert.
Hope this helps.
Edit: Just opened my eyes enough to see that you can enter Landranger as well as OS Grid directly.
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I couldn't agree more.
If the cache is meant to be a difficult find then the difficulty rating should reflect this. It seems to be getting more common to find posts referring to the fact that the finder had to phone or e-mail the cache setter to get a meaningful clue.
The most useless I have come accross yet was "Ouch!" in an area surrounded by stinging nettles, gorse bushes and holly trees!
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Where does the gpsr measure height from? I understood this was from the centre of the earth with height above mean sea level approximated from an ellipsoid model of the surface of the earth (which is also used as an additional datum when the GPSr registers a 2D fix from only 3 satellites).
This is surely likely to be much less accurate than an OS measurement taken from the actual sea level? Which means that accurate height readings are most likely to be pure coincidence.
Have I misunderstood this?
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I thought the whole point of Geocaching was to provide an excuse to buy the shiny kit in the first place!
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I used mine on a BA internal flight last year and the only reaction I got from the cabin staff was: "where are we?"!
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Libran Tiger
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Thanks for the input guys. I'll keep trying various 'solutions' and see if something comes up.
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I know I'm being totally pedantic
but PLEASE note that there should not be an apostrophe in "Captions". It's driving me NUTS - and that's not a long journey![Heard on Radio 2 the other day: "Who lead the pedants' revolt? - Which Tyler!"]
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Sounds like maybe you should get your Garmin checked out Snosrap
If the bars stay grey and never turn blackish...then that would suggest to me that the Garmin is not receiving useful data from those satellites??
Here's a clip from the GPSV firmware update history:
"Improved WAAS/EGNOS satellite selection algorithm to select the satellite with the most beneficial corrections given the unit's current position. A unit will not use a WAAS/EGNOS satellite if the unit's current position is outside of a given WAAS/EGNOS satellite's service volume. "
Perhaps this is the case for my location (N Yorkshire). Can any of you learned chaps make sense of this for me?
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I've mentioned before on this thread that I cannot seem to get a lock on the WAAS sats on my Garmin GPSV. The receiver finds the sats and shows them as grey bars as if it is trying to analyse the information it's receiving but no matter how long I leave it they never become solid.
Has anyone else managed to get an augmented fix using a Garmin V??
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Isn't it pronounced ..W Aaaaaaaaaaaagh S
I think W'ARSE might be more appropriate!!
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...and I still can't dadgum well get it! The occasional grey bar is the nearest I've yet seen.
So as far as I am concerned the answer to the question posed by this thread is "only in certain places, at certain times and with certain equipment."
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I'll second that.
Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (universally known as GSAK) is a fantastic tool for all cachers - and for free!!
-edit to add link.
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Dig the palm back out!!
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Not really Lake District. More North Pennines.
The LD is a great area for caches and I visit regularly, but the areas you are going to I know little about. Been up Cross Fell a couple of times and love the Howgills but all in pre-caching days.
If I'm visiting an area I've not been to before I dowload the area's caches to Cachemate on my palm and the waypoints on to the GPS and just head off!
Hope you have fun. It's a great area.
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Following a suggestion on another thread I decided to try to find out how accurate my GPSr really is:
I took it to one of the OS Passive Stations (see www.gps.gov.uk), Skell Gill near Pateley Bridge for those who care, and having entered the waypoint (approximated as accurately as the GPSr allowed) placed the receiver next to the bolt.
The GPSr indicated that the waypoint was 3 feet away. Doing a bit of maths allowing for the fact that I can only enter waypoints to within about 50 inches I worked out that my trusty Garmin was actually accurate to within about 4 and a half feet.
I know this proves nothing and accuracy changes continually but I was
with the result. Anyone else tested theirs (with or without WAAS)??
By the way, the "GPS Accuracy" stated by the machine was 16 feet at the time.
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People think that "only" 10 satellites somehow deprives them of accuracy??!!!!
You can get good accuracy from GPS with only 4 satellites. Even better with 8.
10 satellites is wonderful.
You'll be happy with your old 8 channel receiver then?
For us in the real world tracking 12 rather than 10 (or 8) sats makes a significant difference to maintaining a fix in difficult conditions. I assume you'd agree (even without a mathematical formula) that no fix is 'less accurate' than a fix?
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Is there anything as simple as a coverage map anywhere?
Am I just in a bad location for the functioning sats (North Yorkshire)?
I think if you take a peek
Ullium.
Well that makes about as much sense as most of this thread!!
Thanks anyway Ullium. I think I just need something that is written in a language more akin to English!
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Is there anything as simple as a coverage map anywhere?
I have tried to enable WAAS in my Garmin V and on the rare occasions it can see any of the sats above 32 it cannot get a lock on them. Even leaving the thing stationary for a couple of hours does no good.
Am I just in a bad location for the functioning sats (North Yorkshire)?
Of course the real downside to leaving WAAS enabled is that it leaves only 10 channels for the Navstars which degrades the reported 'accuracy'.
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Don't people find some odd ways to say "no"!!
but PLEASE note that there should not be an apostrophe in "Captions". It's driving me NUTS - and that's not a long journey!
Isn't it pronounced ..
with the result. 
Unfinished Business
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
That's a fantastic idea except that if you use a machine to decrypt (I use CacheNav on the Palm) or carry a copy of the decrypted web page you get all three done at once.
I just don't have the willpower not to read all three!
On a wider note I think I'm missing something here.. Do people generally enjoy the hunt once on site?
Personally that is the least enjoyable part of the sport. I love the planning, having an excuse to visit new and unusual places, getting the family out into the fresh air and the feeling of knowing something that the general population do not. But the actual kicking round in the undergrowth and dog poo when my GPSr is showing 80 foot accuracy with a useless hint and a pair of impatient 5 year-olds in tow is just dadgum annoying!
Must be me. Since turning 40 I've suddenly turned into a grumpy old git!!