Hello from a new Geo hunter from Leeds . Help!

[+FireBoxRazor]

I just bought an Oregon 650 as I heard good things about it regards geochaching, just tried my first and .. no chance. Anyway. I have a few questions I was hoping some of you could help me with.

 

How do I find beginner or easy Geos to find? as somebody new, trying to find a thimble in the woods is not easy, I need something the size of a fridge (joke) is there anyway to search for those type of things? aka New People Geo's. (Pudsey, Leeds area) for things that ease you in?

 

Is there any way to make the Oregon more accurate? i was stood still at the location and it kept saying 10ft north, then 8 foot south etc.. I was stood still. There may be a option to increase this accuracy as i only had the unit a day and the manual is garbage.

 

It also drew a pink line directly over houses and buildings, is there a way to make it follow achievable path when in cites? aka roads and turns? It did come with a Discovereer min sd card, the actual map looks garbage, thought it would be better than that.

 

Any advice on the unit or help for a new Hunter, very appreciated. With thanks

 

FireBoxRazor.

 

Leeds.

[+Bear and Ragged]

It also drew a pink line directly over houses and buildings, is there a way to make it follow achievable path when in cites? aka roads and turns? It did come with a Discovereer min sd card, the actual map looks garbage, thought it would be better than that.

 

You can get it to Route on Road.

However, in this setting, if the cache is more than 5 feet from the road, the GPS wont get you TO the cache, only near!

 

Have you got the map enabled?

Other maps worth looking at are the talkytoaster ones --FREE-- based on OpenStreet Maps.

 

Is there any way to make the Oregon more accurate? i was stood still at the location and it kept saying 10ft north, then 8 foot south etc.. I was stood still. There may be a option to increase this accuracy as i only had the unit a day and the manual is garbage.

 

Watch where the arrow points, when the distance gets to around 30-20 feet, you should be putting the GPS down and using your eyes to look for the cache.

NO GPS will get you "bang on" to the cache itself. (Where would the fun be, if they did? )

 

How do I find beginner or easy Geos to find? as somebody new, trying to find a thimble in the woods is not easy, I need something the size of a fridge (joke) is there anyway to search for those type of things? aka New People Geo's. (Pudsey, Leeds area) for things that ease you in?

 

Look for the larger size caches. AVOID any marked Micro/nano or "Other/Not Listed"

Choose the lower Difficulty rated ones.

 

http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk/resources/default.shtml is worth a read, and worth bookmarking for future reference!

 

Oh, and Welcome!

Edited August 31, 2015 by Bear and Ragged

[+Bear and Ragged]

UK cachers used to be found over in the UK and Ireland forums > http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=35

But now mostly use facebook. The GAGB is a decent place to start > https://www.facebook.com/groups/thegagb/

 

talkytoaster > http://talkytoaster.co.uk/

[+niraD]

A common recommendation for beginners is to stick with small size, regular size, and large size caches. Until you're more experienced, avoid micro size caches, some of which are smaller than most beginners can imagine (sometimes called "nanos"). Save those for later, after you have some experience.

 

Also, stick with caches that have a difficulty rating of no more than 2 stars . Save the more difficult ones for later. You may also want to choose caches with easy terrain ratings. (The difficulty rating tells you how hard it is to find the cache once you get there. The terrain rating tells you how hard it is to get there.) And it is often best to start with traditional caches, which will be at the published coordinates. Multi-caches or mystery/puzzle caches or other cache types can require more work just to figure out where the container is located.

 

Under ideal conditions, a consumer GPSr will be accurate to about 3m (10ft). That applies both to your device, and to the cache owner’s device, so you may find the container 5-6m (16-20ft) from ground zero under ideal conditions. Under less than ideal conditions, both GPSr readings can be much less accurate. Once you get within that distance of ground zero, put your device away and look around for places where a container could be hidden.

 

Where would you hide something? Do you notice anything unusual? Is anything too new, too old, too organized (e.g., UPS: an Unnatural Pile of Sticks/Stones), too symmetrical, not quite the right color or shape, etc.? Don’t look only on the ground; the cache may be knee-level, waist-level, eye-level, or overhead. How might the container be secured in place? With magnets? With a hook? With string? With fishing line? With something else? Does anything move when you touch it? (Be careful when touching things though.)

 

Go ahead and read the cache's additional hints (if provided), and read the past logs and look at any photos in the cache's image gallery. They may help you understand what you're looking for, and how/where it may be hidden. It may also help to look at some of the cache containers available online. For example, check out the cache containers sold by Groundspeak. Also, take a look at the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread in the forums, and check out some geocaching videos on YouTube.

[+FireBoxRazor]

Brilliant thank you all. Not knowing how small a 'small' geo is I suppose difficult or noobs. And not knowing what your looking for I guess comes with experience. I am told there is a setting on the Garmin to increase accuracy somewhat so I shall look into it. I was hoping as a new new new new hunter there would be a super tight close up of the find, a clue to get you going Thanks again all very appreciated.

[+FireBoxRazor]

ps. have looked EVERYWHERE how do i change distance to miles/??? its not listed in options under units

[+niraD]

Not knowing how small a 'small' geo is I suppose difficult or noobs.

FWIW, the "What does a geocache look like?" section of Geocaching 101 describes the size ratings like this:

 

Micro - Less than 100ml. Examples: a 35 mm film canister or a tiny storage box typically containing only a logbook or a logsheet. A nano cache is a common sub-type of a micro cache that is less than 10ml and can only hold a small logsheet.

Small - 100ml or larger, but less than 1L. Example: A sandwich-sized plastic container or similar.

Regular - 1L or larger, but less than 20L. Examples: a plastic container or ammo can about the size of a shoebox.

Large - 20L or larger. Example: A large bucket.

 

And not knowing what your looking for I guess comes with experience.

In addition to knowing what you're looking for, it also helps to know where something might be hidden. And that comes with experience. A lot of caches with low difficulty ratings are rated that way because they're in the "usual place" that experienced geocachers know to search. But that doesn't help novice geocachers who haven't learned what the "usual places" are yet.

[+Chief301]

8-10 feet is well within the acceptable margin of error for consumer grade GPS units. There is no "setting" on the Garmin that will put you any closer than that. GPS accuracy is measured in yards, not inches. Plus, you must remember that the GPS is not leading you to a cache container....it is leading you to a set of coordinates where a cache container is supposed to be. The container may be there or it may not. It may have been moved by previous finders. The original hider may have taken great care obtaining his coordinates or may have been haphazard so his coordinates may be quite good or they may be pitifully off.

 

In short, don't rely on your GPS to put you right on top of the cache. it only gets you to the location.

[+FireBoxRazor]

Thank you that size guide you mentioned is very helpful. appreciated. Still don't understand how a galaxy s5 can be more accurate, faster and have better zoomed in detail that a dedicated garmin unit. Confused/ Even with the 50k maps worth £200 for the uk, zoom into and it looks terrible. Guess i was hoping for a cool sat nag with outdoor possibilities seems harder to navigate anything with the unit that a phone!

[+Graculus]

I guess you mean the Garmin GB Discoverer OS maps? These are 'raster' based which means if you zoom in too much they go 'fuzzy'. They are fine for the countryside and show much more detail than other maps. A UK cacher, TalkyToaster has created excellent maps based on Open Street Maps which you can download for free. These are 'vector' maps which means you can zoom right in with no loss of detail - ideal for urban areas. Details of all these UK maps and where to get them are on my resource site.

 

Miles - go into settings/units and change from Metric to Statute.

 

Chris

Graculus

Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com

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[+speakers-corner]

Here is a Link that might help you. Its in German but it must be possible to translate it into English. I used it to set my Oregon 450 up.

 

http://www.navigation-professionell.de/garmin-oregon-600-650-einstellungen/

[+FireBoxRazor]

I should probably post this in another topic, but today tried an easy Geo... but had utter utter frustration with the garmin 650 so much so not sure wether to take it back.

 

Satellites said 4 meters..

 

Followed the route with the gps and it took me to quite close so i switched to the compass .. 38 meters north... (only 1 way point by the way) i get there it says 4 meters.. so i turn it off as it said 4 meters accuracy. I look around for 2 mins thinking theres nothing here.. switch it on.. points now 15 meters another direction.. i end up climbing over a wall in a cemetery.. (clue was memorial stone) i give up thinking this is is so inaccurate no way to pin point a memorial stone in here there are hundreds..

 

Climb back over... switch it back on.. now says 38 meters to the bottom of the park... i get there... 18 meters back where i came from..

 

Can anybody tell me what is going on here.. My galaxy s5 is spot on for location, yet a £300 quid gps system has no idea.. really don't understand it. Map is fuzzy as chuff when you zoom in (discoverer package was £200) I feel like i may have jumped in before i can swim. The joy so far of geo hunting has left me frustrated and fed up.

 

Can anybody help me? tell me whats going on? is the gps set up wrong?

 

i have a message when booting it up "Too many JNX files they will not be displayed" >> ?

 

Satellite system is set to : GPS + GLONASS

 

WAAS/EGNOS is = ON

 

Position format = British Grid

 

Map Datum = Ord Srvy GB

 

Map Spheroid = Airy

 

help

[+niraD]

Still don't understand how a galaxy s5 can be more accurate, faster and have better zoomed in detail that a dedicated garmin unit.

Smartphones can often get an initial fix more quickly because they can use AGPS (Assisted GPS). They can get an initial position using other systems (cell tower triangulation, wifi networks), then refine that position using GPS. They can get satellite position data from their data connection, rather than waiting to decode the satellite signals. And so on.

 

But dedicated GPS units can often get a better fix in areas with poor GPS reception. Examples include heavy tree cover, steep rocky canyons, and "urban canyons" (where buildings cause multi-path signal errors).

[+Graculus]

Satellite system is set to : GPS + GLONASS

WAAS/EGNOS is = ON

Position format = British Grid

Map Datum = Ord Srvy GB

Map Spheroid = Airy

help

 

You've got the coordinate format as the British Ordnance Survey OSGB which is fine but caches are listed with coords in Lat and long and degrees and decimal minutes (more info here). If you entered the coords in OSGB as shown on the cache page (just under the lat/long ones) it should be OK. But it's easier to set the GPS to the same format as the caches use. The other thing is the compass in the GPS does need calibrating (page 5 in the user manual). You should also set the compass pointer to Bearing and not Course (bottom of page 11). Bearing pointer will point to the waypoint/cache you're navigating to. The Course pointer indicates your direction differently. If you head to the left or right the pointer swings round to show you which direction you should be moving.

 

Re the fuzzy maps, see my earlier post.

 

Chris

Graculus

Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com

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[+Graculus]

Forgot to add... if you want to do a simple test to check how the GPS is operating and telling you what you expect just stand outside your house and make sure you've got a good signal and reasonable accuracy. Mark the location as a waypoint. Now, walk about half a mile down the road and round a couple of corners. Select the waypoint and navigate back to your house. The compass should point the way (directly, as the crow flies) and you'll get a distance to go (again, as the crow flies with that straight line). See how that goes. It won't make any difference what coord format you're using for this test.

 

You can set the GPS to navigate by road but I never do that. I prefer a straight line and look at the map to see where it's taking me.

 

Chris

Graculus

Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com

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[+The A-Team]

...so i turn it off as it said 4 meters accuracy...

...switch it on...

...switch it back on...

This could be part of the problem. Are you actually turning the Oregon completely off? When you turn a GPS unit on, it takes time for it to locate the satellites again and for it to determine its location. You'll want to leave it on while hunting or you lose the accuracy it has built up over the time you've been out and about.

[+Chief301]

...so i turn it off as it said 4 meters accuracy...

...switch it on...

...switch it back on...

This could be part of the problem. Are you actually turning the Oregon completely off? When you turn a GPS unit on, it takes time for it to locate the satellites again and for it to determine its location. You'll want to leave it on while hunting or you lose the accuracy it has built up over the time you've been out and about.

 

This

[+K13]

Or, it could be that you are hunting the earth (geo) instead of the cache?

 

As most others have advised, when you get within 10 metres of the spot, quit looking at the device and begin looking for the container (cache). GOOD LUCK!!