New To The Forum

[Dave590]

Hello all!

 

I just found out about this site today.

 

I have recently written a book about outdoor navigation and had "heard" about the concept of geocaching. In a conversation today, I was discussing the idea of "hiding" stuff in the woods for other folks to find when the name of this site came up.

 

I am very interested in starting a local "group" so-to-speak, and look foward to finding stuff that others have already put out there to find.

 

I could'nt help but notice that most of the topics on here reference lat and long in Hours minuts and seconds...I generally use UTM and NAD 1927...Is that as unusual for the folks on here? The maps available around here are ALL in UTM, NAD 1927. In fact, I would go so far as to say; It's next to impossable to even FIND a map other than the UTM format.

 

Anyway, Hello!!! And I look foward to coming here often!

[+Spoo]

I must tell you, as a trained Navigator, I am used to the DD.MM.SS form of co-ordinates. Most people do not realize how easy it is to look at these numbers and be able to understand how far they have to travel and in which direction.

 

The GPS doesn't care. Once I got over my DD.MM.MMM allergy, I realized that I just needed to find something close by.

 

The GPS does it all for you. This can be good or bad.

 

Given GPS and LORAN, the U.S. Navy decided to quit teaching celestial navagation in 2000.

 

You want to cripple the country? Just take out a few satellites. LOL

[+Prime Suspect]

I could'nt help but notice that most of the topics on here reference lat and long in Hours minuts and seconds...I generally use UTM and NAD 1927...Is that as unusual for the folks on here?

Actually, most of the coordinates mentioned here will be in the degree decimal-minutes format. Thats the standard for geocaching, and the out-of-the-box format for most handheld GPS units.

[Dave590]

Thanks for the reply Spoo,

 

I was in Uncle Sam's Navy back in the eighties and early nineties...The Loran "Charlie" was, at the time, the hottest thing since sliced bread.

 

I've not seen much mentioned here (I'll admit, I'm still searching) about maps in general. As much as I enjoy using my GPS, I still like to use landmarks and azimuths as my primary means of finding my specific location.

 

Do the folks on here generally use the maps that are displayed on their GPS units, or is it common to use a "sure enough" map.?

[+sept1c_tank]

Hi Dave. Welcome to geocaching.

[Dave590]

Prime Suspect, Thats interesting...As I mentioned, most maps that are available here are of the UTM format.

 

When you mention "out of the box", I have found that, for here in Virginia, The UTM format is pretty much all there is...Unless you want to go with a gazeeter type 1;50,000 scale map.

 

The typical 1:24,000 scale map here is gonna be a UTM format.

Edited March 15, 2004 by Dave590

[Dave590]

Thanks septic tank....By the way,,,,,How did you come upon a screen name like that.

[Jamethiel]

Part of the Longitude/Latitude thing may be that most folks you'll encounter aren't familiar with UTM. Personally, up until my 3rd year of college I had never used UTM, but HAD had many classes which used Lat and Long as the coordinate systems. And WGS 84 is pretty easy to use when you have a good grounding in Lat and Long.

Welcome to the game!

We have a Garmin Legend and in addition to my USGS topo maps we have uploaded maps to our GPS. We usually end up looking at the GPS only. I use the maps for land ownership and overviews but otherwise navigate with the GPS.

You may find that using maps works for you, or combineing them is good, everybody has their own methods.

Good luck if you decide to start caching!

-Jennifer

[+sept1c_tank]

...How did you come upon a screen name like that...

Do a search for Cockney rhyming slang, or check my profile!

There's a few good stories about screen names here.

[Dave590]

I've been checking out the different topics and home page throughout the course of the day and I have a question.

 

Before I pose my question, I think I should give a little bit of my own navigational background. I Hunt, Fish, and backpack in some very large tracts of land,,,, close to a couple of million acres. My navigational tools include a GPS, Compass, grid reader and 1;24,000 scale maps of the area's I'm in. It's not particularily unusual for me to be out for a week or more at a time. I tend to use the GPS more often than not, but enjoy using other methods of navigation also... methods such as compass, or sun and stars.

 

Now here is my question, and I'm asking this not to sound pretentious, but because I have not really seen it discussed in any of the topics that I have read thus far...

 

Do you guys generally use only the maps that are downloaded into either your GPS's and PDA's (I have no idea what a PDA "is"...I've only read about them on here ) or do you tend to use real honest to goodness "paper" maps that require pencil and protractor plotting.

[bug and snake]

Some do, some don't, some will, some won't! The aim is to find and log caches. Since that can be done without map reading skills I would GUESS that the majority of cachers rely on the GPS to get the job done.

[Jamethiel]

We usually take and use maps only when going further than a mile into the woods. Otherwise we rely on the GPS's downloaded map and our sense of direction. Any cache trip further than 1 mile (not round trip) usually has me looking at maps and throwing them into the bag o'stuff. Along with the extra batteries for the GPS. One of the important things that new cacher learn is marking a waypoint at your car so you can find it when you get back. Also important is actually observing the area so you know what it looks like in case your batteries die.

You will find that map/orienteering skills are really only needed for the caches out in the woods or puzzle/offset caches that require you to follow certain steps to find the box. Most urban caches are short enough that a map isn't necessary.

-Jennifer