Is it me or my equipmnet?

November 28, 2009

I have a e trex vista on order but borrowed a friends etrex legend to get started. I have attempted to find 4 caches with no sucess. When I google earth them and then go to the coordinates on my gps I am no where near where I think I am supposed to be. One cache coordinates took me to middle of a residential area- not were the cache was described? I think I have the lastest updates and stuff. Does magnestic north or true north make a difference? Thanks for any input!

8.3k · November 28, 2009

Two things come to mind.

1. You have the wrong datum selected, make sure it is WGS-84

2. You have the wrong format selected and are trying to enter the co-ordinates even though the format is wrong. Make sure you have selected HDD MM.mmm

Jim

4.7k · November 28, 2009

sometimes you have to look for a bunch before you find that elusive first.

if you have borrowed a GPS from a friend who caches, it's probably already set tot the proper datum.

many people will recommend that you start with easy, full-size containers and while that's often good advice the best i can tell you is to have patience. you WILL start to see them, and when you do, it will get a lot easier for the most part.

8.6k · November 28, 2009

That stuff as said above!

Plus, if you can stay away from attempts at micros to start with.

Next, if you don't know, the GPSr will not take you to the cache. At best, it is going to take you to within feet or meters of it. THEN, you have to look for it. Normally, occasionally better, it will put you in a 20 ft circle of the cache. But you also have to bear in mind that the hider used their GPSr to give them the coordinates, so............. that 20 ft circle can easily be expanded to 40 ft.

And you thought it was going to be easy, didn't you?

It is, much of the time, but there are people with 1,000's of finds that still get stumped.

Practice, practice, practice. Just like playing the piano.... at what point do you become good at it?

November 28, 2009

This is a great question and one I was about to ask myself, even though I own and have been using my eXplorist for about a year now. Is it just me, or is this the normal way Geocaching works?

For the record, I have 30 Finds and I know for sure that I have missed four of them that I've hunted for. Here's the scoop:

One I just didn't find. Period. My fault most likely.

Two were muggled, (moved, taken away or destroyed by a muggler) Not my fault. I've since found one of those after the CO replaced the container in it's proper place. Even better, I found it without even having the GPSr in hand at the time. I read back on the log entries and saw that the CO placed the cache back where it was originally intended to be and I remembered the original hint for that cache. End result, another Find.

The forth one I just got (on the 3rd time out to it!) is similar to one of the muggled caches I found before. The CO has moved the cache and Changed Coords for it since I had it loaded into my GPSr. I read back on the logs for that one too, and found the coord update. I reloaded the new coords to my unit, and I find it the next day back to the illusive cache.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moral of the story, it takes Practice and Experience. I have 30 finds, but by no means do I consider myself very experienced yet. I'm no Pro Cacher, for sure! But... I've learned a few things along the way.

First, check on the back logs for each cache. Information for it could well have been changed!

Next, I've concluded that it IS pretty much just my fault when I can't find a cache. Prime Example is when I had the wrong coords loaded into the GPSr device.

Finally, I think I've learned that it's not always me or my equipment's fault. It's the nature of the game. This is just how Geocaching works. Consider ALL of the variables involved with each and every cache that is out there. You have different folks hiding caches while other folks are looking for them. Each cacher has a different GPSr device. By nature, these all work a little differently from each other. Likewise, each Cacher has their own different level of experience both in the field and also with the understanding of their particular GPS unit. Combine all of the available variables, and it starts to become obvious that this is just how this game works.

What??? Well, of the 30 Finds I've logged, my GPSr has been 30 feet off from GZ a Lot more often than not. So much so that I have started to ask myself your very same question. Is it just me or what?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My conclusion.... It's the nature of the game. It's not unusual for any given GPS devise to be off by 30 some feet of GZ when you consider that it's very likely that the Hider and the Finder are using different GPSr's. And that the Hider and the Finder are likely on different levels of experience in the game.

Funny that someone should mention the Piano. That's something else I'm pretty good at IMHO. But in your eyes, am I good at it? Well I don't know.

It's all up to the eye of the beholder.

November 28, 2009

I'm going to take a guess that you may have entered your coordinates into the wrong format, hence the location being off from what you expected.

Once you're sure you've got the coordinate format and datum right (datum will put you off, but not THAT far off of the actual coordinates), then you can worry about techniques to actually find the caches. At this point, don't go assuming it's not there if you can't find it because some of them are quite clever. I'd recommend avoiding micros for the time being until you get the hang of it.

November 28, 2009

Wow- Thanks to everyone for all the great input! Still new to forums too so I didn't know if I had to reply to everyone indiviually or as a group. Again thanks for all the information and the quick replies. I will check my datum and the formats for my coordinates. I will keep trying until I get the elusive first one!

8.6k · November 28, 2009

Wow- Thanks to everyone for all the great input! Still new to forums too so I didn't know if I had to reply to everyone indiviually or as a group. Again thanks for all the information and the quick replies. I will check my datum and the formats for my coordinates. I will keep trying until I get the elusive first one!

You did well as is. Simply acknowledging receipt is great as above. :lol:

11.6k · November 28, 2009

When I google earth them and then go to the coordinates on my gps I am no where near where I think I am supposed to be. One cache coordinates took me to middle of a residential area- not were the cache was described?

This can happen if "routing" is enabled, where the GPS then sticks to street routes. On Garmin Oregon, I must switch to "Geocaching" mode (from "Automotive" mode), in order to see a proper "crow flies" pointer to the cache. Sorry, I can't find any info on how to do this on the Etrex. But I did read that the Etrex has a routing ability on its included basemap.

If it's routing you, it won't direct you to leave a street, so you can end up many yards from the cache. I have no idea how to tell if this could be your problem, but I thought I'd better mention it.

November 28, 2009

Wow- Thanks to everyone for all the great input! Still new to forums too so I didn't know if I had to reply to everyone indiviually or as a group. Again thanks for all the information and the quick replies. I will check my datum and the formats for my coordinates. I will keep trying until I get the elusive first one!

Post back here and let us know when you do find your first one! :angry:

November 28, 2009

:angry: We did it! 649 and I found our first cache and we are so thankful to all of you who posted answers to this forum. I especially want to thank Jim (jholly) because our GPS indeed had the wrong coordinates format as he suggested. GPS was set to HDD.MMM.SS instead of HDD.MM.MMM. As a matter of fact, we found two caches today. We are so excited. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help :unsure: .

Ligia (and 649)

8.6k · November 28, 2009

Well done to you both! May they be the first of many enjoyable finds. :angry:

MrsB

November 29, 2009

We did it! 649 and I found our first cache and we are so thankful to all of you who posted answers to this forum. I especially want to thank Jim (jholly) because our GPS indeed had the wrong coordinates format as he suggested. GPS was set to HDD.MMM.SS instead of HDD.MM.MMM. As a matter of fact, we found two caches today. We are so excited. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help .

Ligia (and 649)

Hehe.. Congrats! What is it about this game? From the 1st time I heard about it there was something about it

that appealed to me at such a deep level I ran out and bought a GPS I saw on sale.....that was a mistake and another story though.Anyway,I don't get out as often as I like but I will be doing it everywhere I travel,

and I'm betting I'll see some cool stuff not found in any tourist info.Anyway,everytime I read one of these

posts I feel like I did the 1st time I went out.Good to hear always!!! :lol:

November 29, 2009

It definitely feels great to get another find each time we head out. I/we (daughter) just got 3 more today.

There's definitely something about this game. It's just addictive and Fun to do. I'm just happy that so many caches have been hidden right around our immediate area near home. Now I'm even getting into Hiding the caches myself.

Congrats of your first finds, and I wish you many more! Happy Caching!!! :angry:

November 29, 2009

We did it! 649 and I found our first cache and we are so thankful to all of you who posted answers to this forum. I especially want to thank Jim (jholly) because our GPS indeed had the wrong coordinates format as he suggested. GPS was set to HDD.MMM.SS instead of HDD.MM.MMM. As a matter of fact, we found two caches today. We are so excited. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help .

Ligia (and 649)

Congratulations! I hope you continue to enjoy!

8.3k · November 29, 2009

We did it! 649 and I found our first cache and we are so thankful to all of you who posted answers to this forum. I especially want to thank Jim (jholly) because our GPS indeed had the wrong coordinates format as he suggested. GPS was set to HDD.MMM.SS instead of HDD.MM.MMM. As a matter of fact, we found two caches today. We are so excited. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help .

Ligia (and 649)

Your welcome, glad that solved the problem.

Jim

November 30, 2009

I have a Nuvi 500, does anyone know how I check which datum it is set to? I have been consistently 9 feet off of the cache location and was wondering if I had something set wrong. But reading this thread, it seems I am getting as close as can be expected... But, I'd still like to know how to check the datum. And does the datum change in different parts of the country? I was in Albequerque recently, and I was 0 for 5 cache attempts and my signal bounced all over creation.

November 30, 2009

I have no idea on how to check the Datum on my unit, let alone a Nuvi 500. Sorry. (I have an eXplorist 210, BTW.)

But, I think 9 feet for the norm is pretty darn good! Daughter and I just got 6 more today out of 7 hunted for. On a few of them though, the GPSr told me we had 50 feet to go!! The one we missed also had 2 other DNF logs for it and the CO just Disabled it today after our DNF log. That one may have been muggled by animals. (of all things, huh?)

Anyhow, an average of 9 feet off is pretty darn good IMHO. Sorry I don't know how to check the Datum settings, but when you're that close I think experience can usually take over. JMHO of course.

5.8k · November 30, 2009

I keep seeing this topic at the top of the list, so I just have to say...

It's ME!!

Is it me or my equipmnet?

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