Garmin Etrex

[phauge]

I am brand new to geocaching. I have been visiting this site for quite a while, and had been looking around for a GPS unit for some time now. They went on sale at Target today, so I picket up the etrex for about $80. I brought it home, watched the video it came with, and played around with it for about an hour. I then entered the information for the cahe closest to my house (about a half mile away). After about 30 minutes of looking around, I gave up and returned home cache-less. The cache was only ranked a 1 or 1.5 as far as dificulty goes.

 

While I was "around" where the cache was supposed to be, I couldn't belive how frustrated I became with the unit. Even when I was walking around, the arrow was bouncing around like crazy. One second I was 1' from the point. The next, I was 90' from it. Is this how it is supposed to work? or are there more accurate units availible? Will I get better results from $50 more? Anything higher priced, and I probably wouldn't bother.

 

While I might sound irritated and turned off by the whole experiance, this is actually not the case. I had fun looking around and traveling to the location. While I thought finding the cache would be much easier than it was, I think this is just something that some people have a knack for, while others like myself might not have to work a little harder at.

[+wiseye]

Hi, If this was your 1st experience using a GPS and in seeking a cache, it's no wonder you got fustrated. try spliting it into 2 functions. I would suggest getting comfortable with the Etrex first. Pick a point, a street corner, your front door, a mail box ect. A big open field would be great too, put a rock in the center. Mark the location as a waypoint in your GPS. walk in a straight line away from it seeing how the postion (LAT/LON) changes. turn around and walk back, see how the GPS reacts much as it did while caching. You will probally be off when you get to your known location. Stand still for awhile the unit will settle down. You should be pretty close now. You Etrex is what many of us use, no need to spend more money. Try doing the exercise without using goto, just the sat. screen., so you can get used to the LAT/LON numbers . You will soon be able to tell from the Lat. if you are going N or S, or if you need to go N or S. The same with Long. E OR W. Get so you can figure out what the L/L will do if you move in a certain direction. Then start playing with the goto trying to get to a waypoint. Get used to that. If the cache you are seeking is in an area of tree cover you will loose accuracy. The Gps is only a tool to get you close to the cache. when near the cache go slow, let it settle down for several minutes, thats a long time but if you do the coords will become very stable. when you are within 10-20' ( I'll hear about this one) stop worrying about the Gps and start figuring out where the cache could be. I hope you aren't starting with a micro. Remember, the person who hid it has more experience hiding things then you do finding them, have patience. Of course ,like most things, thats easier said than done. If you can find a cacher to go out with the first time you will learn quickly. Good Luck and be of Good Cheer!!

[+Audion64]

A higher priced unit will NOT gain you anything in accuracy. In this aspect all GPSr's are almost identical. The higher price will gain you more bells & whistles. I found my first 100 caches with a $50 Garmin Geko 101.

 

As for the 'bouncing arrow'.... as you use the GPSr and find a few caches you will get more comfortable with just how it works. Typically you will walk following the arrow, walking at a normal walking pace until you are showing about 50ft from the cache. At that point slow down, pretty much ignore the arrow and instead sort of play 'hotter/colder'... slowly walk in a direction and see if your distance to the cache drops.

At slow walking paces you can't use the arrow because the GPSr only knows which way it is to the cache while you are moving. When you stop moving it gets confused. Not a very clear description I'm sure... but you'll get the hang of it quickly. Almost all of us were probably frustrated by the bouncing arrow syndrome when we first started.

 

Also, don't expect to the GPSr to put you right on top of the cache... typically even when it's saying 5ft to the cache you'll need to search in around a 30ft radius circle around that point. That's just the nature, and part of the fun, of the game.

 

Good luck, and welcome to the sport!

[peter]

One additional comment in addition to the previous advice. The antenna in the eTrex will work best when the unit is held nearly horizontal. Your body (and anything else that contains lots of liquid water) is an excellent absorber of GPS signals, so to give the unit the best signal quality hold it so you're blocking as little of the sky as possible. The indicated position will still bounce around, but it shouldn't often do so by as much as the 90' you indicated.

[Neo_Geo]

One of the best pieces of advice I've heard is to get get close to the cache (to the point where your GPSr gets confused as you described above), and then look around and ask yourself "where would I hide a cache around here?"

 

Sometimes it can be your bad luck that the cache has disappeared sometime between the last posted log and your arrival. Such was the case with my 2nd cache. Stage 1 of a multi had apparently washed away during a rain storm. I was bouncing around all over an area of about an acre. I emailed the cache owner and told him details of my search. He went out to check on it a few days later and reported that it was gone. He put Stage 1 in a new location and edited the coordinates on the geocaching cache page. Then I went back out, found Stage 1 and proceeded to Stage 2. It took me several attempts to find Stage 2 - it was SUCH a clever hiding place - down inside a narrow hollow tree stump! It actually took me about a year to find that one after all was said and done!

 

The more caches you do, the easier they'll be to find them, but sometimes they're just not there to be found.

Edited November 26, 2005 by Neo_Geo

[+briansnat]

A new unit takes a while to get a full almanac of stats. If you turn it on and head directly into the woods you may not have the best results. Take it to a open field (the local football field perhaps), turn it on and let sit about 10 mins.

 

All units will jump around a bit. Going from 1 - 90 feet is not common but not unheard of, particuarly if there are cliffs or tall buildings nearby. You might get some strange readings if you get signal bounce off them. While it happens most often near cliffs and buildings, I've also experienced it in areas with relatively few obstructions.

 

When this happens you have to determine where the unit is pointing most of the time. That is usually your destination.

 

You will also see the directional arrow get confused as you near the cache. There are two reasons for this. First, you need to be moving at a fairly brisk pace for the GPS to be able to figure out which direction its moving in. Since most people will slow down as they reach the cache, the GPS could get confused. Second, once you're within your unit's EPE from the target (usually 15-30 feet) it really has no idea where it is within that radius. If this happens, back up about 100 feet and start walking to your target again at a brisk pace.

 

You're going to see some inaccuracy and signal bounce with a $50 unit and a $500 unit. Its all part of the challenge. Hey, where is the fun in walking right up to the cache every time?

Edited November 26, 2005 by briansnat

[+Les Nomades]

Hi,

 

Go and have a look, maybe you'll get the answer

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=114418

[phauge]

Great advice so far. I'll play around with the unit some more using the tips provided above, and give it another shot. I kept telling myself that the cache was stolen or "cleaned up" by some park maintenance people, but I agree that whoever hid the cache is probably better than I am at finding them. I'll give the same cache another look after I think I have the hang of the GPSr.

 

One thing that I was thinking about: Do the GPS units with the built-in basemaps of North America help at all with geocaching? Are they detailed down to the street name and intersection? I'm thinking that if I the GPSr was "placing me" 50' away from an intersection corner that I knew I was 5' away from, then I could compensate for this and get a better idea of things.

 

Thanks again for all the helpful tps and advice thus far.

 

Mason

[+Les Nomades]

What model of Etrex do you have. On my LegendC, there are so many setup that you can do like "follow road or of road" "lock on road" etc. Before, once the car parked and near the cache, I would sometimes forget to change the setup to "off road" when recalculating and walking to the cache wich would make me go nowhere because it was looking for the closest road.

Edited November 26, 2005 by Nomades

[+W4G_SOTAGoat]

Some come with a basemap with interstates and major highways. However, the resolution of the map comes into play here. A basemap is not going to be near as accurate as a street level map.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Keep in mind that the GPSr will only get you close (within 20 feet usually) but will never pinpoint the cache. Get close, then look in the likely hiding places. Also, start with a regular size cache. You can find the micros when you have some experience.

[+Red90]

One thing that I was thinking about: Do the GPS units with the built-in basemaps of North America help at all with geocaching? Are they detailed down to the street name and intersection? I'm thinking that if I the GPSr was "placing me" 50' away from an intersection corner that I knew I was 5' away from, then I could compensate for this and get a better idea of things.

You don't need a map on the GPSr. Go to one of the map links at the cache page and then print out the map when zoomed in enough to see the streets. This will give you an idea of the location.

 

If you have a reasonable view of the sky, the etrex should take you within 10 feet of the cache.