Feature Request: Altitude

[+sTeamTraen]

At this time of year (in the Northern hemisphere, anyway), it would be really useful to be able to filter caches (in PQs, or using GSAK) by their altitude. For example, I know that there's no point in me looking for anything over 800 metres in my area from now until mid-March, as it will be under enough snow to make the search frustrating, difficult, or downright impossible.

 

A structured field on the cache submission form to allow the owner to give an indication of the elevation of the GCxxxx waypoint (and/or the cache) would enable this...

 

Thanks

Nick

[+StarBrand]

I understand the concern here but it really isn't universal - some of us live well over 800 meters and don't worry too much about snow.

 

Also sometimes the altitude is a dead give-away when altitude is listed.

[+BalkanSabranje]

We usually include the altitude above ground level in our spoilers.

[+Mopar]

how about just searching on the snow friendly attribute?

[+Team GPSaxophone]

My house sits just below 6400 feet in elevation. Not sure what that is in meters, but I imagine it's a lot. Caches in town are findable all winter except for the day or two following a snowstorm. Caches at the higher elevations might be tougher to get to. I agree with Mopar that you should select the winter-friendly/unfriendly attribute.

[+BalkanSabranje]

how about just searching on the snow friendly attribute?

That icon says "available during winter", which is in no relation to snow.

[+Mopar]

how about just searching on the snow friendly attribute?

That icon says "available during winter", which is in no relation to snow.

You're taking that too literal. I'm pretty sure it's meant more as a snow thing, since that is pretty much the only thing different in winter that would effect finding the cache. At least that's what everyone I know of uses that attribute to mean. Findable in the snow.

[+sTeamTraen]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for "snow-friendly". Unfortunately, most caches round here don't use the attributes (including mine... ).

 

I guess I'll carry on looking up the icons on my topo maps.

[+jerrytcher]

I'd like to see an (optional) field on the cache submission page for cache altitude/elevation. I don't think it's anywhere near accurate enough to worry about giving away cache locations, but would sure be nice to know when you're hiking up a hill/mountain and you want to know how much the elevation is going to change from your starting point.

[+DocDiTTo]

The "Topozone" link from the cache page plots the cache location on a topo map and gives you an accurate elevation. I doubt you'd get the same accuracy from individual cache hiders who rely on their (probably uncalibrated) GPSr for the same information. Granted, providing an optional place to include the data is fine (I'm all for options) but I doubt I'd personally find it useful. I'd want to take a look at a topo map myself anyway, regardless of what the writeup said.

[Jeremy]

It isn't something most would find useful now, but it's worth thinking about and introducing in the future. I'll put it in as an enhancement request. Thanks!

[+Markwell]

When I talked to a couple of PR guys from GPS manufacturers while doing some research, they all agreed that unless you're using a calibrated barometric altimeter, the altitude reading in the GPS is not that great.

 

The problem is that to accurately get an altitude reading, the GPS would need a wide dispersal of satellites scattered across the horizon instead of clustered overhead. But of course, scattering the satellites around the horizon would also increase the amount of atomspheric distortion to the signal, and weaken the accuracy of the fix.

 

Chicken-Egg-Chicken-Egg...

[+dkwolf]

This is true, I forget what the vertical accuracy of a waas gps is...10m? Not nearly the 10ft most of us are used to searching caches with, but decent enough to give us an idea what we're in for on the search. I'd like to see it as an option.