Smart Phone GPS Tips?

[Catmobile89]

Hey there! I'm brand new to the geocaching world. So far I've only found one cache, not for lack of trying to find others... I've been using the geocaching app on my smartphone, and was wondering if anyone else has been having issues with the GPS on their phones? I feel like I may not be looking in the right place, and the waypoints seem to jump all over the place when I'm near the caches location. Should the cache be hidden exactly at the waypoints provided? or is it just in the general area?

 

I did a little research on what to start looking for as a newbie, so I've looked for medium sized caches and ones that seemed to be easily (and recently) found by other members, without any luck... Except for the first one I've found. Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated!

[+niraD]

How much does it jump, when it "jumps all over the place"?

 

My devices (smartphones and handheld GPS receivers) have all jumped around some. Under ideal conditions, consumer devices are accurate to about 3m (10ft), so jumping around by roughly that distance is normal. In situations with poor GPS reception (e.g., under heavy redwood tree cover, in narrow canyons), my devices have jumped around far more than that.

 

But under normal conditions, when my smartphones have been jumping around by larger distances, I have found that the GPS service has been disabled, and my device was using cell tower triangulation and/or wifi networks, which are much less accurate than GPS.

 

Anyway, here are some beginners tips that I've posted before. They apply whether you're using a smartphone or a handheld GPS receiver.

 

A common recommendation for beginners is to stick with small size, regular size, and large size caches. Until you're more experienced, avoid micro size caches, some of which are smaller than most beginners can imagine (sometimes called "nanos"). Save those for later, after you have some experience.

 

Also, stick with caches that have a difficulty rating of no more than 2 stars . Save the more difficult ones for later. You may also want to choose caches with easy terrain ratings. (The difficulty rating tells you how hard it is to find the cache once you get there. The terrain rating tells you how hard it is to get there.) And it is often best to start with traditional caches, which will be at the published coordinates. Multi-caches or mystery/puzzle caches or other cache types can require more work just to figure out where the container is located.

 

Under ideal conditions, a consumer GPSr will be accurate to about 3m (10ft). That applies both to your device, and to the cache owner’s device, so you may find the container 5-6m (16-20ft) from ground zero under ideal conditions. Under less than ideal conditions, both GPSr readings can be much less accurate. Once you get within that distance of ground zero, put your device away and look around for places where a container could be hidden.

 

Where would you hide something? Do you notice anything unusual? Is anything too new, too old, too organized (e.g., UPS: an Unnatural Pile of Sticks/Stones), too symmetrical, not quite the right color or shape, etc.? Don’t look only on the ground; the cache may be knee-level, waist-level, eye-level, or overhead. How might the container be secured in place? With magnets? With a hook? With string? With fishing line? With something else? Does anything move when you touch it? (Be careful when touching things though.)

 

Go ahead and read the cache's additional hints (if provided), and read the past logs and look at any photos in the cache's image gallery. They may help you understand what you're looking for, and how/where it may be hidden. It may also help to look at some of the cache containers available online. For example, check out the cache containers sold by Groundspeak. Also, take a look at the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread in the forums, and check out some geocaching videos on YouTube.

[+Ben0w]

All (as usual) great tips, but I would enhance the usual search radius to about 15 meters. So, when within ~15 meters of GZ I put away the device and start using my geocaching senses. Within the woods or other covered areas (city back courts, ...) signal could be even worse and generally depend on the cache owners skills, then maybe totally off.

 

Another thing is, only traditional caches usually are located at the given coordinates. Multis just start there and will have several stages leading to the final coordinates, mysteries provide some kind of puzzle to solve for obtaining the final. That confused me sometimes as a beginner.

 

Other tips (container size, difficulty/terrain level) are mentioned in previous post. Your geocaching senses have to be trained, young Jedi...

 

Good luck!

Edited August 16, 2016 by Ben0w