GPS ACCURACY

[M&Ms]

The rewards for climbing up a hill to bag a cache are stunning views, totally absorbing as you sit with a well-earned drink scoffing the odd samosa and schwarma. The rewards are not quite the same when sitting in a wadi bottom and this is the time to turn thoughts towards GPS accuracy. Why is it that the caches on wadi walls or wadi bottoms will inevitably attract ye olde comments on coordinate accuracy when logging a bag. Well as a none expert let me postulate a theory. A reading at the bottom of a wadi with say 16m horizontal accuracy may well include the top of the wadi. When bagger-the-next comes strolling along he may get to the top of the wadi and receive a very accurate reading and be delighted on the prospect of a quick find. If he puts his GPS away before starting the hunt he may not appreciate that as he descends the wadi side the accuracy drops off which leads to the possibility of the cache being outside his original boundary for the hunt as the possible area gets larger. Indeed as he drops down the wall, the area in which the cache could be located begins to take on a decidedly pear shaped appearance, well sort of. So what? Well its my old theme of when setting a cache consider it from the bagger’s point of view. If the accuracy with which you set a cache is less than perfect then it should be included within the write up so that when bagger-the-first arrives at the wadi top and obtains an accurate reading he should immediately become suspicious. Ok, ok, I accept that he will carry on has he always

did before but any grumbles he makes on the cache page will be his fault rather than that of the setter.

[walzuhair]

Interesting point.. Saves up a lot of calories..

 

waleedsgallery.biz

[Dick Turpin]

A recent bag to The Redoubt and the shanigans that went on there raises another interesting point. A lot of care seems to be taken in setting caches and yet often there are complaints about the coordinates being incorrect. I wonder if calculated positions do change dependant on the time of day you visit a cache and the relative positions of satellites though I would have thought the recorded accuracy should sort that one out.