Multicache Finding

[+BillHSKC]

Tryed my first Multicache yesterday, once I found the 1st location I could not figure out how to enter the coord. to the second location. What I thought was right, took me way out of the area. Had to give up and head for home. My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes. how do I use these? Do I add or subtarct these from the 1st waypoint coord? I am new to caching and I cannot seem to locate anything on the web about this.

[jholly]

Tryed my first Multicache yesterday, once I found the 1st location I could not figure out how to enter the coord. to the second location. What I thought was right, took me way out of the area. Had to give up and head for home. My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes. how do I use these? Do I add or subtarct these from the 1st waypoint coord? I am new to caching and I cannot seem to locate anything on the web about this.

 

From what you said I would guess you add them. WP2 looks like a fairly reasonable location nearby.

 

Jim

[+va griz]

My guess would have been the same as Jholly's.

 

Email sent.

[+briansnat]

My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes

 

Is it a new cache? It sounds like it could be a typo to me.

[+BillHSKC]

My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes

 

Is it a new cache? It sounds like it could be a typo to me.

[+BillHSKC]

My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes

 

Is it a new cache? It sounds like it could be a typo to me.

 

No this cache has been around since Jan 08 and has been found by at least a dozen others.

[+va griz]

Judging by the description, all the stages will be within a reasonable hike. So you are right, coordinates that take you more than a mile away are in error. My guess is you have a decimal error. For instance, when you add 37 11.048 and 0.048 minutes, you should get 37 11.096 With those listed small additions, the second stage should be within 500 feet of the first. And no spoilers please, I haven't found that one yet.

[+LifeOnEdge!]

Tryed my first Multicache yesterday, once I found the 1st location I could not figure out how to enter the coord. to the second location. What I thought was right, took me way out of the area. Had to give up and head for home. My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes. how do I use these? Do I add or subtarct these from the 1st waypoint coord? I am new to caching and I cannot seem to locate anything on the web about this.

 

Bill,

 

This is whats called an "offset cache." The final coordinates are offset from the initial coordinates ... which have to be calculated from the supplied numbers.

 

A couple things are issues here:

 

- Coordinates are generally stated with only partial units. This is such a common mistake that most simply read the missing units.

 

Since you are new, you're coming in with no assumptions. I'll explain:

 

You state your first coordinate pair as N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050.

This is actually N 37° 11.048' W 076° 26.050', meaning North 37 degrees 11.048 minutes, West 076 degrees 26.050 minutes.

 

North and south degrees only go from + 90 degrees (the North Pole) to - 90 degrees (the South Pole). Because of this, the number is only written with two numbers. East and West coordinates are different. They are expressed through +/- 180 degrees, and are therefore written with three numbers, including the leading 0 if less than 100 degrees. This is sometimes dropped as well. Remember than negative West (or East) refers to East (or West) with no negative sign. So, moving East with a West coordinate, the numbers are subtracted.

 

Your offset coordinates are: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes OR N 00° 0.048' W 000° 0.050'

 

Since you are going north and west of the initial position, you ADD corresponding coordinate number.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096' and similarly with the West coordinates ADDING if you are going West and SUBTRACTING if you are going East.

 

Remember that there are 60 minutes per degree if you are adding larger numbers or are using numbers close to 60 minutes.

 

There may, in fact be a typo in the numbers supplied since the offset and the original postions share the same numbers. This may have just been a chance occurance or something done as "cute" by the cache owner. You might read through the previous logs on the cache page to get clues to errors (typos) such as this. They are quite common.

_________________________

 

A couple quick (related) tips:

 

- On the trail and needing to move to a new waypoint, I always mark a brand new waypoint where I am standing and edit the coordinates to where I want to go. This creates a whole new waypoint on your GPS (assuming you have the room) but it does allow possible error. You have to edit, check, and recheck your numbers with math and your entry.

 

- You can easily write coordinates like N 37° 11.048' here, on a cache page (description) or in a post by copying and pasting the coordinates found at the top of any cache page. The numbers can then be edited and the degrees symbol retained.

 

- There is also a waypoint feature that formats the numbers for you as well as displaying them in bold at the top of a log on the cache page.

 

This solves the problem of having to write out "degrees" or typing some other character and eliminates confusion.

_________________________

 

I hope some of this helps. If you have questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me at lifeonedge@gmail.com. I'll be happy to clarify anything I may have not explained well here. - Pat

[+BillHSKC]

Tryed my first Multicache yesterday, once I found the 1st location I could not figure out how to enter the coord. to the second location. What I thought was right, took me way out of the area. Had to give up and head for home. My question is this, the location of the 1st waypoint is: N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050. The clue to the 2nd way point is: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes. how do I use these? Do I add or subtarct these from the 1st waypoint coord? I am new to caching and I cannot seem to locate anything on the web about this.

 

Bill,

 

This is whats called an "offset cache." The final coordinates are offset from the initial coordinates ... which have to be calculated from the supplied numbers.

 

A couple things are issues here:

 

- Coordinates are generally stated with only partial units. This is such a common mistake that most simply read the missing units.

 

Since you are new, you're coming in with no assumptions. I'll explain:

 

You state your first coordinate pair as N 37 11.048 W 076 26.050.

This is actually N 37° 11.048' W 076° 26.050', meaning North 37 degrees 11.048 minutes, West 076 degrees 26.050 minutes.

 

North and south degrees only go from + 90 degrees (the North Pole) to - 90 degrees (the South Pole). Because of this, the number is only written with two numbers. East and West coordinates are different. They are expressed through +/- 180 degrees, and are therefore written with three numbers, including the leading 0 if less than 100 degrees. This is sometimes dropped as well. Remember than negative West (or East) refers to East (or West) with no negative sign. So, moving East with a West coordinate, the numbers are subtracted.

 

Your offset coordinates are: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes OR N 00° 0.048' W 000° 0.050'

 

Since you are going north and west of the initial position, you ADD corresponding coordinate number.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096' and similarly with the West coordinates ADDING if you are going West and SUBTRACTING if you are going East.

 

Remember that there are 60 minutes per degree if you are adding larger numbers or are using numbers close to 60 minutes.

 

There may, in fact be a typo in the numbers supplied since the offset and the original postions share the same numbers. This may have just been a chance occurance or something done as "cute" by the cache owner. You might read through the previous logs on the cache page to get clues to errors (typos) such as this. They are quite common.

_________________________

 

A couple quick (related) tips:

 

- On the trail and needing to move to a new waypoint, I always mark a brand new waypoint where I am standing and edit the coordinates to where I want to go. This creates a whole new waypoint on your GPS (assuming you have the room) but it does allow possible error. You have to edit, check, and recheck your numbers with math and your entry.

 

- You can easily write coordinates like N 37° 11.048' here, on a cache page (description) or in a post by copying and pasting the coordinates found at the top of any cache page. The numbers can then be edited and the degrees symbol retained.

 

- There is also a waypoint feature that formats the numbers for you as well as displaying them in bold at the top of a log on the cache page.

 

This solves the problem of having to write out "degrees" or typing some other character and eliminates confusion.

_________________________

 

I hope some of this helps. If you have questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me at lifeonedge@gmail.com. I'll be happy to clarify anything I may have not explained well here. - Pat

 

Thanks for taking the time to educate me on one of the finer points on GPS navigation. I'm on the road right now so when I get back to Yorktown I'll head back to the cache and put this new education to work. I'll try to let everyone know when I find the cache.

[+with.a.twist]

Your offset coordinates are: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes OR N 00° 0.048' W 000° 0.050'

 

Since you are going north and west of the initial position, you ADD corresponding coordinate number.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096' and similarly with the West coordinates ADDING if you are going West and SUBTRACTING if you are going East.

 

Remember that there are 60 minutes per degree if you are adding larger numbers or are using numbers close to 60 minutes.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096'

 

This math confuses me. what about the 11 degrees in the answer?

[jholly]

Your offset coordinates are: North 0.048 minutes West 0.050 minutes OR N 00° 0.048' W 000° 0.050'

 

Since you are going north and west of the initial position, you ADD corresponding coordinate number.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096' and similarly with the West coordinates ADDING if you are going West and SUBTRACTING if you are going East.

 

Remember that there are 60 minutes per degree if you are adding larger numbers or are using numbers close to 60 minutes.

 

N 37° 11.048' + N 00° 0.048' = N 37° 0.096'

 

This math confuses me. what about the 11 degrees in the answer?

 

Try this - add four cents (0.04) to $11.04. Do you get $11.08 or just 0.08?

 

Jim

[+with.a.twist]

Try this - add four cents (0.04) to $11.04. Do you get $11.08 or just 0.08?

 

Jim

 

LifeOnEdge! must have had a typo then. he simply forgot to type 11 (instead typing 0) I didn't know if there was some trickery at hand.