Navigation settings

[ceek]

i was wondering if any more experienced cachers

could recommend navigaitonal settings. there are so many to choose from, and of course distance and heading are a given but other fields on my etrex include course, speed, turn, velocity,...

if anywone can tell me what they have found to be the most useful, i would really appreciated it.

Thanks

[+Renegade Knight]

I haven't changed anything from what my GPS was set to by default. That works for me.

 

Wherever you go there you are.

[Lyra]

Unless you bought your GPSr used from a military surplus store in a third world country currently involved in a war. The default settings on your GPSr should be the easiest to use with this site.

 

Always wear proper caching safety equipment!

[+MrGigabyte]

1) Set your Navigation screen (or GoTo screen) to display Heading and Bearing.

2) Set your Settings > Heading to Magnetic North.

3) Buy a cheap compass

 

Now, when you are stopped looking for a cache and spinning around, the GPSr will still show you the CORRECT bearing to the cache. Ignore the Direction Pointer which will have no idea of your orientation if you slow down or stop.

 

Dial in that Bearing displayed into your handheld compass, take a sighting where it points, pace off the distance the GoTo page says, find cache, wipe grin off face.

[+Cachetrotters]

I've used the majority of them just to see how they worked. The one setting that you definitely don't need is the VMG, or 'velocity made good'.

Most useful when boating or airborn. All of my screens have at least both bearing and distance. The second least useful bit of data when close to the cache is speed. Only a few of my screens display it. I know how fast I walk, and I don't need a speedometer to tell me I'm standing still. I do like, however, to see my EPE, which tells me how confident I can be in the indicated distance.

 

don

[K618]

quote:

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Originally posted by ceek:

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if anywone can tell me what they have found to be the most useful, i would really appreciated it.

Thanks

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I find the "Turn" field on a nav-screen is quite helpful, especially when you are near a cache. When you walk back-and-forth in the area, it gives you an indication whether it's left or right of your position.

[+mcdefjef]

What K618 said - I use the turn data.

 

Most of the times given the underbrush, its easier to do your wandering on the trail rather than off the trail (plus its gentler on the earth). I walk on the trail PAST the target and note an entry path where the turn=90deg and note how far off the trail it indicates. I keep walking on the trail another 150 ft, turn around, let the GPS arrow flip and continue until I PASS it again. Do this a couple times and I get a good idea where to enter and how far to walk. And I'm not tripping over fallen trees, getting in poison ivy, pricker bushes, etc.

[+writer]

With at least some receivers, the heading numbers can become wildly inaccurate if you are moving too slowly (2mph according to the tech person I spoke with at Garmin). Make use of the mapping page that shows your track and the location of the cache. I've found it more generally reliable.

[+Brown Dwarf]

quote:

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other fields on my etrex include course, speed, turn, velocity,... if anywone can tell me what they have found to be the most useful, i would really appreciated it.

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On the map screen, I've found "Track Up" to be a easier to interpret than "North Up", which is the default -- especially in the car. With Track Up, where you are headed is at the top of the screen. If where you want to go is on the right of the screen; turn right, and so on.

 

If you are operating in a metric country -- like Canada -- you'll find switching to metric units helps a lot, particularly with speed. Not fun to get bagged for speeding while you are running down a cache.

 

And I prefer switching the compass reading from "Magnetic" to "True" -- but this wouldn't be a good idea unless you are using a compass that can be corrected for declination. The cheaper ones cannot

[+sbell111]

I use a GPS3+, rather than the eTrex, but I prefer 'North up' to 'Track up'. This allows me to easily use the map feature while driving to the cache area. (Once I get out of my car, I change screens.)

 

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.