boreal jeff & sons Posted May 20, 2002 Share Posted May 20, 2002 Up until a couple of weekends ago, I have found every cache I went after. Several of the caches even had "no find" logs. Well that all changed two weekends ago and its been bugging me. I went looking for a cache but even though my GPS said we were right at the spot and I had the Cache page with me, I couldn't find the cache. Others had found it before me and someone has found it after my attempt. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=7303 The cache is on a rocky knoll of a hill. I know this type of rocky terrain can cause a GPS to read eratically and the GPS was giving eratic readings. First it said 1 meter distance from cache then it would jump to 9 meters, then to 6, etc. So I knew the cache was not right at my feet but assumed it should be in a 10 to 15 meter radius. It was not. How much can the signals, bouncing off of the rock, throw the readings out by? Why was my GPS effected and others apparently not? I had a similar thing happen while trying to navigate to a cave in a rocky hill. Is there some way to compensate for this? Every hour spent geocaching is added to the end of your life Quote Link to comment
+cliffy Posted May 20, 2002 Share Posted May 20, 2002 Hi Jeff, Yes, I too tend to get funny readings under certain conditions be it a rock face, heavy coniferous forests (Especially in the rain) or in ravines. Whenever I've encountered this situation I've always backed up into a clearer view of of the sky, obtained a bearing to the cache then pulled out my compass and shot a sightline......A few times this has led me to a find where I'd otherwise of failed. Now I generally use the compass regardless on the last 20-30m to a cache as walking slowly always seems to induce the dreaded here/there/everywhere pointer syndrome. lol ----------------------------------------------------------- "Whad'ya mean you didn't save the location of the truck?..EEEK!!!..." Quote Link to comment
+Olar Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 quote:Originally posted by cliffy: .... Whenever I've encountered this situation I've always backed up into a clearer view of of the sky, obtained a bearing to the cache then pulled out my compass and shot a sightline......A few times this has led me to a find where I'd otherwise of failed. Now I generally use the compass regardless on the last 20-30m to a cache as walking slowly always seems to induce the dreaded here/there/everywhere pointer syndrome. lol Cliffy's got it. His method should be automatic on all cache hunts. I personally start looking for a clear spot at the 50 metre point, get a compass sight-line, walk 30-50 metres beyond suspected cache site and repeat. Then I put the GPSR away and let the "force" take over. Failing that I pull out my Palm PDA and read the hint. Cheers, Olar Quote Link to comment
+DxChallenged Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 Hey, Now some cachers use "GPS" fritzing to make the cache more difficult.... Not that we would...but did place a cache on the side of a hill...many cachers have reported "abnormal readings" and then when they find it they all seem to smile (all be it a few have had mud in their teeth while they smiled) So yeah a compass is a great backup and response to devious cachers.... Dx "Have you no news on your travels?" the Book of fairy & folk tales of Ireland (1888) Quote Link to comment
MajBach Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 quote:Originally posted by cliffy:Whenever I've encountered this situation I've always backed up into a clearer view of of the sky, obtained a bearing to the cache then pulled out my compass and shot a sightline...... I find that to be the hard way. I just use my 'Spidey Sense'. MajBach You can't have everything,where would you put it? Quote Link to comment
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