livlovezcatz Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 I am so new. I need advice. I've done *gulp* ONE cach and need help on how to find caches and stuff like that. the GPS I have was like $$150 and It's not very accurate. it gets pretty close and then switches like '3 feet' and '5 feet' and '15 feet' from my destination even if i dont move AT ALL. The nice thing is though it has a built in commpass YEAAAHHH!! Well I have to admit one thing, geocaching sure is an adventrue! Quote
+T F T C Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 Commercial GPS units are only accurate really to like 30 feet or so, so you were pretty good. Also, keep in mind that the coordinates you have in your GPS for a geocache are the coordinates that another GPS user marked, and they may not have been as accurate. Quote
+imajeep Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 Relax, and welcome to the game. I'm nearly as green as you are! But it's a lot of fun, and the community is very open. you've come to the right place. These are the first forums I've hung out in--in twenty years! Quote
+Trucker Lee Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 Nothing wrong with your accuracy, the GPS always tries to refine it's info as it continues reading the satallites and recomputes. You can get around this by taking bearings from several directions, then figuring GZ is where the bearings cross. Start by searching a 15 ft radius, expanding out as needed. Quote
+rlridgeway Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 (edited) Like the others said, your unit is just fine. My confidence in GPS went down a little when I first realized my GPS unit gave different readings even though I was standing still. Don't worry, its a limitation of the system. GPS is pretty good until you get to within about 50 feet or so of a known location. Within that radius, GPS gets pretty squirrelly. I think the rule of thumb goes something like this; 95% of the time your GPS will be within 3-12 meters. The other 5% of the time, the reading can be off, sometimes way off. (There are industrial grade GPS setups that are more accurate but they cost thousands of dollars) All this being said, GPS works great but you should keep in the back of your mind the limitations of the system. My last three geocaches were something like 6, 8 and 24 feet from the caches. Those numbers were what my unit said the instant I looked at the screen. Within a few seconds, the unit gave slightly different readings. When I am closing in on the cache I try to determine an area of about 100 feet across where i guess the cache is hidden. Then the hard part begins, I turn off the unit and perform a search. Edited June 9, 2007 by rlridgeway Quote
dreamcatcher97and04 Posted June 9, 2007 Posted June 9, 2007 I'm a newbie too! I also just got a GPS and am still figuring out how to use it correctly. I've got the general idea down, it's just the specifics I'm still working on. Like I have no idea how to read a compass! Does the compass point to the direction the cache is in? I've also noticed that my coordinates waver the closer I get to the cache. I've read on here, though, that once you get close just to shut the GPS off. I've done that with both of my finds and it seems to work just going on instinct and getting my hands dirty. I am also enjoying the adventure of geocaching. I've got two that are deceiving me right now and I swear I am even trying to figure them out in my dreams! I've got a lot of activities on my "plate" but I am trying to fit in caching as often as I can, even if it is just to find one cache on my way to something else. Good luck! Quote
+CokeCachers Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 I am also very new to GeoCaching. Bought my Garmin eTrex Vista CX via the Net & have been learning to use it & have a long wat to go but today we went out & found our first 3 caches. We are not hooked. There are so many in the area I live so we have many to find. ********************************************** Mike, Wendy & Sam our Chocolate Lab 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 27C Retired National Park Ranger Boondocking with Solar Panels, Inverter & Generator Manual Roof Mount Hughes Internet Satellite System http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2276 www.we2rv.com http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MikeCoke Quote
Neos2 Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 (edited) Hi livlovezcatz (and everyone else who says they are new!) and welcome to geocaching. You say you've already found one cache? Great! Now you might want to log it online. Just go to the cache page and click the "Log your visit" button at the top right to get to the place to do that. Select "found it" and make sure the date is right for the day you found it, and write your log, then click send. Try not to spoil the hunt for anyone else, but do feel free to say it was your first hunt and whether you had fun, etc. Like everyone else has already said, the GPS will only get you "so close" --when it says 20 feet or so, put it away and start using your eyes and instinct. The arrow on the compass does point in the direction of the cache, but they do tend to bounce around a little when you get close--but that is good ~It means you are close! It the wobbling of the arrow gets too bad, walk away a bit (30-40 feet), see which way it is pointing, and mark that spot mentally, then walk to that area a bit faster. Sometimes we walk too slowly. It that doesn't help, do the 'walk away and look back' trick three times from different places to try to get an "average" spot and look in that area very closely, then circle out from there. Try to find some other caches similar to the one you already found. Larger caches are easier for some people when they first start out. Caches that are rated 1/1 are the easiest--try to stay under 2/2 for your first few tries and you'll do fine. If you can't find a cache after looking for it pretty well, log online with a "Did not find it" log and tell the story of your adventure looking for it. That lets the owne know that someone tried to find it (they will realize that you are new to all this). Sometimes people will email a new person and ask if they want an extra hint. There is no shame in taking the extra hint when you are new. Most of all, have fun. Edited June 10, 2007 by Neos2 Quote
+michigansnorkelers Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 Turn that compass off! I have a Garmin 60cs and learned to turn the compass off. Also, with my unit, you have to recalibrate the compass every time you change batteries. Check if that's true with yours. Also, I find it necessary to recalibrate the compass whenever the unit acts squirrely. My unit also seems to get tempermental with low batteries. And like others said, as you walk closer to the cache (100 feet away) start looking for obvious spots in the distance. Large or unusual trees, stumps, log piles. Then, once you're within about 30 feet, set your GPSr aside and start hunting. Pretend someone took you blindfolded into the woods, removed the blindfold, and told you the cache was probably within 15 feet but could be as far as 45 feet away. And, there you are. Also, keep in mind that some caches are MEANT TO BE FOUND while others are MEANT TO BE HUNTED. The difficulty level will let you know. Stick to difficulty 1 or 2 for now. Difficulty 4? Imagine an ammo can suspended 50 feet up in a tree, accessed by a cable going through pulleys to a tree 50 feet away! Yup; been there, done that! You don't even want to know about difficulty 5! Quote
+michigansnorkelers Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 I'm a newbie too! I also just got a GPS and am still figuring out how to use it correctly. I've got the general idea down, it's just the specifics I'm still working on. Like I have no idea how to read a compass! Does the compass point to the direction the cache is in? I've also noticed that my coordinates waver the closer I get to the cache. I've read on here, though, that once you get close just to shut the GPS off. I've done that with both of my finds and it seems to work just going on instinct and getting my hands dirty. I am also enjoying the adventure of geocaching. I've got two that are deceiving me right now and I swear I am even trying to figure them out in my dreams! I've got a lot of activities on my "plate" but I am trying to fit in caching as often as I can, even if it is just to find one cache on my way to something else. Good luck! Do you really have a compass? Many units don't. What they have is a bearing indicator. And even if you do have a compass, like I do, you'll probably leave it off most of the time and use the bearing indicator mode. The bearing indicator is not a compass. Once you're walking IN A STRAIGHT LINE FOR A WHILE, it will indicate the direction of the cache RELATIVE TO THE DIRECTION YOU'RE MOVING. It doesn't matter what direction you point the GPSr while your walking, the display will remain the same! You can hang the GPSr unit from your belt and it will still work this way (provided you get satellite reception). Once you get close to the cache, it may be more helpful to watch the distance display. Now, if you have the compass on, that's another matter. The compass display should point to the cache, and it DOES matter what direction you point the GPSr. However, that is an electronic compass and slow to respond. I usually keep it off. Quote
dreamcatcher97and04 Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 (edited) Maybe it is not a compass at all then! It looks like one, but like I said, I have no idea since the technology of the GPS is even new to me. It pops up on one of the navigation screens on my Magellan 210. There's a two sided arrow that moves but there is also a dotted line. I really haven't looked at it much since I have no idea what it all means! The caches that I have looked for are relatively easy ones. Which means when I get to the area and can see on the GPS that I am close, I actually just turn it off. Since I'm only after one at a time, I figure I don't need the GPS anymore. I'm sure as I pick harded finds, I will rely on the GPS more. Thanks for the compass/bearing indicator explaination. Edited June 10, 2007 by dreamcatcher97and04 Quote
Beanboys Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 I am also new to geocaching and gps. Just got my Rino 120 in the mail Friday and have logged 5 caches so far. The one thing you absoutely must understand about the gps system is that it works off triangualtion with the satellites in the sky. If you aren't moving, the triagulation gets thrown off. Your gps will work best and be most accurate when you are moving (careful not to move too slowly). Happy caching. Quote
Beanboys Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 (edited) An additional tip: From past experience with hunting/scouting using maps I've also found it more useful and intuitive to use the UTM coordinates, as opposed to the degrees. As you change degrees of longitude, their distance changes. For example, one degree on the equator = 69 miles (if I remember right), while a degree at the north pole = 0. UTM is consistent wherever you're at. Edited June 10, 2007 by Beanboys Quote
+Outspoken1 Posted June 10, 2007 Posted June 10, 2007 When I first started, I found that if you stand still, the readings can get wonky. If you read the manual (most manuals are really poorly written), you will read that the GPSr works much better if you are walking. Most geocachers will use a clover-leaf or zig-zag pattern when they get close. You readings will also be effected by line-of-sight. In other words, the leaves on the trees, awnings from buildings, skyscrapers, canyons, etc. are much harder to get accurate readings than a nice sunny day on a flat park. Readings can be a bit sluggish with cloud cover. Electrical lines or other electrical equipment can play havoc with a GPSr! There are some caches in my area that are specifically hidden under HUGE power lines to make the search harder (these caches are more than a 1.5 difficulty). But this is a problem faced by all geocachers. When you get within roughly 50 feet of the cache, start looking around and see if you can locate possible cache locations. Newbies should try to stay with difficulty 1 and 1.5 caches for a little while. If you are looking for a tupperware container (which can be from baseball size to a breadbox!), look for an area that could hide that size of a container. When you get to micros, then the possible hiding places increase because it is easier to hide a film case or little plastic tube than an ammo can. Often the name of the cache will provide a clue to the location of the cache. Read other people's logs--many times there are hints in the logs. It sounds like your GPSr was caught under some trees and the leaves or under/near a power line which caused the weird readings. Have fun and keep posting! Take care, Outspoken1 Quote
+Knight2000 Posted June 11, 2007 Posted June 11, 2007 Turn that compass off! I have a Garmin 60cs and learned to turn the compass off. I disagree a lot. Depending on the model it can work differently. When i get close i line up the N on the GPS to the actual N of the area (what i think it is) then it tells me which way to go and how far. It seems to work great. If you have a fancy GPS then it should point you in the right way even if you move around. Quote
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