Gpsr Settings

[+Team ARK-ville]

I have a Magellan GPS Blazer 12 I have been using for the past couple months and have had good success with finding caches. However I am only able to set the receiver for LAT/LON using degree/minutes or degree/minutes/seconds or UTM. I have the meter set for degree/minutes but it will not accept the complete numbers given on the cache locations. It will only accept 6 digits for north coordinates and 7 for west coordinates. Would I be better off using the UTM setting? I think because of the limit of numerals accepted I am not getting as close to the caches as I could be. It seems that most are within 100 feet or so when the meter zeros. Any suggestions, besides buying a new GPS? Thanks

Edited May 24, 2004 by arkville

[+clearpath]

I use a Garmin Vista and have never had to deal with the kind of issue you describe. Sorry, I'm not much help. Hopefully a couple of Magellan users can respond to this thread. If not, you may consider looking at the 'GPS Units and Software' discussion listed in the Groundspeak Forums. Good luck.

[+The Cheeseheads]

The online manual is here. From what I can tell, you can only enter two digits for the decimal part. That will certainly make your hunts a bit more challenging, though not necessarily in a good way...

[+leecee]

I've used the same GPS and didn't find the two-digit resolution to be a problem. When entering the coordinates, I left off the last digit and usually managed to get within 100 feet or so of the cache, after which I used a good ol' fashioned compass to transfer the bearing from the GPS.

 

Don't think you can't hunt successfully with this GPS, you can. It might take a little more time, but that's half the fun.

[+wolf452]

0.005 minutes = 0.3 seconds.

0.3 seconds in Lat and 0.3 seconds in Long by me = approx 37 feet.

15 meters (accuracy of handheld) = 50 feet.

 

I don't normally complain about <50 feet difference between mine and the setters. Yes, we always think we are right, but I know I'm not.

[+Team ARK-ville]

Thanks all for the help. It looks I am setting things correctly and doing Ok with my finds with this GPSr. May upgrade in the near furure to a better unit.

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

If you would like to be able to get a lot closer to the cache there is a simple trick you can use if your display shows the XX*XX.XXX format.

 

Write the cache coordinates on a small piece of paper (like a post-it-note), then when you get within 100+ feet of the cache switch to the display screen and compare coordinates. When the coordinates match you will be within 6 feet of the spot + or - any error in the signal.

 

With a little practice you will know which direction to move to get the cordinates to match up.

 

Good luck and happy caching

 

John