Geocaching revisited

Hi all,
I did a search and found that this topic has not been addressed for a few years...like 4(?)
While surfing the Web I got interested in this hobby and just bought a GPS handheld unit (Garmin Rtrek HC on Ebay) and thought I would start a thread about Geocaching while camping. I joined Geocaching.com. It seems like a great way to have some fun while out in our TrailManors.
I noticed that Bill, one of our Moderators among others, was or is involved in this sport and thought there could be some interesting insight and feedback to this topic.
Anyone care to leave feedback? Good? Bad? Tips? GPS units? Pictures? Experiences?
Thanks,
Jerry

I actually bought my Tmanor to take on geocaching trips and to geoevents. Feel free to join our local geocaching forum down here in Louisiana. It's www.nelageo.net

We have a section called "geocaching 101" just for the people starting out in the sport.

I go by the geonick of LSUFan.

Jerry,

Beth and I do a fair amount of geo-caching with the grandkids. We try to find a few everytime we're out. There are tons of them here on Cape Cod where we live and some lead you to some fabulous places that you simply wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

Happy hunting.

Phil

[Leslie & Nick]

I have an older Magellan handheld GPS. I tried GeoCaching a few times, but was unable to locate the hidden "stuff". This particular unit does not have WAAS (claimed accuracy within ~10 feet).

I would think that having a WAAS equipped GPS would allow for improved accuracy, thus a higher percentage of "finds". I'll have to try geocaching again, maybe with an improved handheld this time.

Nick

[Bill]

Bandits -

Oh, yes, we geocache! Our cross-country trips in the TM end up taking at least a day longer than they would if we didn't, because we stop every few miles and go hunt for one. And at home we go out at least twice a week. We use a Garmin GPSMap 60Cx, but I've concluded that it is a bit of overkill since we don't really use the mapping capability (which is expensive), and so color (also expensive) doesn't buy us anything. For entry level, I would think one of the black-and-white screen E-Trex series would be quite fine, but I haven't tried one.

Just as an experiment, we tried geocaching with our new Nuvi (car-type) GPS the other day. It is not intended for geocaching, and though it can be used for it, it is really poor and hard to use in this application.

Nick - does your older Magellen give you any indication of its current positioning-fix accuracy? Our Garmin does, and even with WAAS enabled, I don't think I've ever seen it as low as 10 feet. Usually more like 18-20 feet. It is important to realize that WAAS is still in kind of an experimental phase, and may or may not provide greater accuracy, depending on a lot of things. Next time we go out, I'll try to remember to turn off WAAS on a couple of our hunts, and see if things degrade.

After a bit (maybe quite a bit) of practice, finding a cache starts to become kind of intuitive. You look around, think "If I were hiding one here, where would I put it?", and can quite often spot it. Not always true, of course. In fact we have a guy in this area who uses this against me - he walks to a desired hiding spot, thinks "Where is a good place to hide it?" - and then hides it somewhere else nearby.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

After a bit (maybe quite a bit) of practice, finding a cache starts to become kind of intuitive. You look around, think "If I were hiding one here, where would I put it?", and can quite often spot it. Not always true, of course. In fact we have a guy in this area who uses this against me - he walks to a desired hiding spot, thinks "Where is a good place to hide it?" - and then hides it somewhere else nearby.

Bill

I need to add that when in searching for geocaches that 50 feet or less is considered accurate. The fun part of geocaching is in hunting for the hidden container. It's just like Bill said, you have to think about where it may be hid. Don't expect to use your gps and walk up to exactly where the cache is. You will get different satellite readings at different times, and so did the person placing the cache with their gps unit. I advise everyone to get to the stated gps cache coordinates and set this as your start point and then search in an ever widening circle from the start point. You may be 1 inch off or 50 feet off when you find it, but all that is considered accurate. Don't expect X to mark the spot. You will have to hunt.

BTW Bill, I hide caches similar to the person you were referring to. I sometimes even place a decoy false cache in the obvious spot(s) with a note to the searchers telling them that this isn't the right one.

[Leslie & Nick]

Originally Posted by Bill

Nick - does your older Magellen give you any indication of its current positioning-fix accuracy? Our Garmin does, and even with WAAS enabled, I don't think I've ever seen it as low as 10 feet. Usually more like 18-20 feet. It is important to realize that WAAS is still in kind of an experimental phase, and may or may not provide greater accuracy, depending on a lot of things. Next time we go out, I'll try to remember to turn off WAAS on a couple of our hunts, and see if things degrade. Bill

Don't believe my old Magellan reports on specific point accuracy, but I haven't played around with it in a while. I have to check. If I'm interpreting it correctly, Garmin's web site indicates WAAS accuracy of <3 meters - http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

I also have one of the Garmin nuvi models in the truck, but you're right it's not really made for finding your way in the woods. It's good for driving directions though - I really like that thing!! They have made tremendous improvements over the earlier models.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Leslie & Nick

If I'm interpreting it correctly, Garmin's web site indicates WAAS accuracy of <3 meters - http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

Yup. Garmin does say that. But bear in mind that Garmin's purpose is to sell you a Garmin, and I'm always leery of self-promotion. I feel that a cross-check from an independent source is always worthwhile. Yes, WAAS will eventually make 3 meter accuracy possible - but not necessarily now.

Take a look at
http://www.gpsinformation.net/waasgps.htm

or simply Google "waas gps" and run down through the returns.

Bill

[Bill]

As a followup to our discussion of WAAS, I rummaged around the web a bit and uncovered this site.

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/dgps.htm

I'm trying to chew through the material - some of it is pretty dense. Among the things that I have found are that
1. If your GPS receiver reports its own estimated accuracy, it is likely that the estimate is quite optimistic.
2. WAAS does not always help. Sitting in my house right now, my GPS is indicating 32 feet of accuracy (about 10 meters). Disabling WAAS actually improves this a bit, to 25 feet. If I go out in the back yard (clear view of the sky), the reading improves to 12 feet in both cases. Enabling WAAS didn't change things.
3. If your receiver has an ENABLE WAAS menu item, simply enabling it isn't enough to make WAAS work. (However, it does use more battery power!) Apparently you have to manually load something called an ALMANAC from one of the WAAS relay satellites (which are not the GPS satellites). I haven't downloaded the almanac, so this probably explains the results in the previous paragraph. And the almanac is different in different parts of the country - west coast vs east coast, for example.

Finally, you have to remember that if you are seeking a geocache, there are two limits on how close you will get. The first is the accuracy of your own receiver; the second is the accuracy of the receiver used by the guy who hid the cache. If his receiver had a 50 foot error at the moment he hid the cache, then even if your receiver is perfect and you can get exactly to the co-ordinates he posted, those co-ordinates are in error and you are still 50 feet from the cache.

I don't know if there is enough interest on this board to continue this discussion here. Should the geocachers move to PMs or emails?

Bill

[mjlaupp]

Bill & all,
I don't geocache but I do like to follow your discussion. Please keep it public.
Mike