First cach

[+Hoppy100]

Hi all,

Have hidden my first cach taken co-ordinates (not an average). Have tried to submit these via the online form but the map is about 12 miles out. Enter the same co-ordenates into google & comes up with the correct locating.........what am I doing wrong??

Thanks in advance.

[+WeightMan]

Without seeing how you entered the coordinates, my suspicion is a format error. You may have entered something like 32° 45.987 as 32.76645. Those are the same, but in different format. Geocaching requires the former, but google will accept the latter.

[+niraD]

Could you be entering the coordinates as N dd mm.mmm E dd mm.mmm rather than as N dd mm.mmm W dd mm.mmm (or vice versa)?

 

Another common mistake is to enter the digits of decimal degrees (dd.ddddd) coordinates as if they were the digits of decimal minutes (dd mm.mmm) coordinates, or to use the wrong datum. But 12 miles seems pretty far for either of those mistakes.

[+WeightMan]

Could you be entering the coordinates as N dd mm.mmm E dd mm.mmm rather than as N dd mm.mmm W dd mm.mmm (or vice versa)?

 

Another common mistake is to enter the digits of decimal degrees (dd.ddddd) coordinates as if they were the digits of decimal minutes (dd mm.mmm) coordinates, or to use the wrong datum. But 12 miles seems pretty far for either of those mistakes.

I agree that 12 miles is a bit far for the types of errors I can imagine. Can you help us out by giving us the coordinates as you entered them?

[+chillypenguin]

My money is on the East / West issue 6 miles from the meridian will give a 12 mile error.

[+dprovan]

Could you be entering the coordinates as N dd mm.mmm E dd mm.mmm rather than as N dd mm.mmm W dd mm.mmm (or vice versa)?

In addition, while I don't know it the cache submission parser is like this, some parsers quietly interpret the coordinates as East if you forget to include either E or W.

[+Hoppy100]

Thanks for the replies. These are the co-ordenates N 51º30.938 W 000º18.549

Should be in Ealing Broadway London W5

[+WeightMan]

Thanks for the replies. These are the co-ordenates N 51º30.938 W 000º18.549

Should be in Ealing Broadway London W5

Are you sure both were entered as West? Entering longitude as East might just do it.

[+Hoppy100]

Just get this now:

Please correct the following issues:

Unable to Parse N 51º30.938 W 000º18.549

[+niraD]

You used the ordinal indicator character: º

You could use the degrees character: °

 

They look similar, but are not the same.

 

Or you could just leave out the degrees character completely, like this:

N 51 30.938 W 000 18.549

[+Hoppy100]

You used the ordinal indicator character: º

You could use the degrees character: °

 

They look similar, but are not the same.

 

Or you could just leave out the degrees character completely, like this:

N 51 30.938 W 000 18.549

 

Bingo, thanks for the help…much appreciated.

[+GeoTrekker26]

You used the ordinal indicator character: º

You could use the degrees character: °

 

They look similar, but are not the same.

 

Or you could just leave out the degrees character completely, like this:

N 51 30.938 W 000 18.549

 

Bingo, thanks for the help…much appreciated.

 

This is an issue that GS could easily correct and save a lot of angst among new cache hiders. But I guess they would rather read about it in the forums than add a line of dialogue in the new submission form. Granted, the proper fix would require a little bit of code to ignore the degree symbol but a line of text is easy to add and would reduce the incidence of the problem.

[+dprovan]

You used the ordinal indicator character: º

You could use the degrees character: °

Are you kidding me? That's amazing. I had no idea. I found one set of coordinates using the ordinal indicator character in my database. I picked it up from a cache page that made the mistake. Luckily, the parser I wrote just ignores any potential degree indicator, so it didn't get confused by this impossibly subtle distinction. My thing to learn today. Thanks!

 

I don't understand why the GS parser would look specifically for the degrees character if it isn't going to cough up a syntax error if it finds something else. This makes the problem a pure bug, not merely an inconvenience. So how did it interpret those ordinal indicator characters that simply displaced the cache by 12 miles without so much as a peep of complaint?