New to all this...help?

[+Teeger]

My wife actually mentioned she might be interested in this, and other than the GPS in the cars, we don't really know what we're doing.

 

I've read the 101 articles, which helped lay a foundation...

 

..but I'm wondering after reading as many threads here as I could, if we need a real hiking style GPS, should take the ones out of the cars, or, just use our phones?

 

She has an older iphone (4?), I have a Galaxy S5...and the ones in the cars are Garmins.

 

I understand that the GPS will just get us to the AREA, not the cache...and, I assume the one who HID the cash and left coordinates did not have a survey quality lock on the position to start with either, etc...so, the hider's coordinates are what their GPS said they were at in the first place...

 

...so if they were off by 10 meters, and I'm off by 10 meters....a 20 meter radius might be involved?

 

Is that what we're talking about?

 

What's a good option for getting as close as possible, given, I'm guessing, that the hard part, for us, will be finding our way to the general location from where ever we start from?

 

- Thanks!

[+T.D.M.22]

Well yes, combined error could result on 20, or 30, or even more of a search radius.

 

But most people will mention if the co-ords are off when they log a cache.

 

You won't be taken to the cache, you'll be taken to the co-ords. The hiders co-ords may be off, or someone may have even placed the cache in a slightly different location.

 

And with how small some of the caches are, expecting it to be perfect would require greater than military precision. When you get to GZ (ground zero) within about 10 meters or so put the GPS or your phone away and look for a cache. Think where you would hide it. Pay attention the the size, a cache can be as small as the eraser on a pencil. Obviously smaller and/or camo'd caches are harder to find.

 

For the reasons mentioned above, it won't make a huge difference what you use to find a cache. I've used an iPhone 3 when I started.

 

Most of all, don't give up. If you can't find a cache, leave and come back another day (it may not even be there) and log a DNF. This will alert the owner there may be a problem. Come back to the same cache, or go look for another one. Just don't give up on geocaching because you can't find a few.

[the3gmen]

I have had a handheld GARMIN GPS for about 7 years and it works great but I find myself caching with my Galaxy S5 more and more now. The accuracy is just about the same in my area. There are a couple of other things to keep in mind if you are going to use your phone to cache. First off the handheld GPS devices are MUCH more rugged than cellphones will be. Even if you have a fantastically sturdy case on your phone. One slip in the wood and your phone could be toast. Oh yeah, your phone is less happy about having water on it. A GPS will probably be more forgiving there to.

 

The second drawback to using a cellphone is battery life. Most handheld GPS devices use AA batteries so it is easy to carry spares in case they run down while you are out there. With these devices you can count on a good 6 hours of use with fresh batteries. The GPS chip in your phone will drain your battery very quickly. 2 to 3 hours wouldn't be suprising. Sure you can carry extra cellphone batteries or have one of those external usb battery packs but they are bulky.

 

Since you say that you are just starting out, using your phone would probably be the way to go at least until you find out if you really love caching and want to continue. Then you can look into a dedicated device.

 

Welcome to the hobby. I hope that you and your wife enjoy.

[+TriciaG]

The very first time we cached, we used a car GPS. I don't know about yours, but ours showed our current coordinates, but away from roads, we could not tell which direction we were heading or where we came from. We knew the target coordinates and had to just watch the ones on the GPS screen and guess which way to walk. On most of the caches we found that first time, this wasn't an issue. But I remember one of them took us over the river and through the woods, and we had no idea which direction we were supposed to go to get out of there. LOL!

 

Ah, memories...

 

If your car GPS is similar, it'll be an adventure. But you can use internet maps to get a general idea of the location before you head out. (This works well for caches hidden in lamp post skirts - not too much problem with cross-country trekking for those!) But if you get out into the bush a bit, it's better to use an app.

 

IMHO, of course. Welcome to the hobby!

 

EDIT after reading post above mine: the car GPS battery drained VERY quickly. We plugged it in between cache stops. On a cell phone, if you're on a path and have to go 500m (1500 feet), you can let your phone snooze while you walk that far, then fire it back up and let the GPS kick back in. That'll save battery life. I've not had my phone battery go dead while caching, but I do try to conserve its life and might plug it into the car when we get back to it between hikes.

Edited May 17, 2015 by TriciaG

[+JL_HSTRE]

From what I understand car GPS do not work very well for geocaching unless the cache is very close to a road.

 

I would start caching with your cellphone. Look for some easy caches (low Difficulty & Terrain rating; Small, Regular, or Large size) and see how accurate the phone is to where you find the cache. My first Droid smartphone was very good for caching; my later ones haven't seemed as good. Besides accuracy, this will give you a chance to see how much you really like caching and what kinds of caches you like finding. If you end up caching infrequently and mostly in urban areas there is not much of a need for a GPS unit. On the other hand, if you find you like long hikes in the woods to get caches then you will want a standalone non-car GPS unit (durability, weather & dirt resistance, battery life, accuracy).

[+Teeger]

Very helpful replies, and, I thank you for the warm welcome!

 

I downloaded the app from here for the Galaxy, and there are caches around here for us to try to find, at least as a starting point, etc.

 

I still have some catching up to do as far as what I do when I find stuff, or don't, but there seems, so far, to be a logic to it.

 

This sounds like a great community, and I am really happy I found you guys!

 

[+BCandMsKitty]

I think you've got some good advice, and points from the previous posters. You guys are premium members already? Good for you!

Hopefully you can start with your cell phone, but I have an ole Galaxy S2 which is useless. I use it all the time for getting maps with caches marked, but for hunting, it's terrible. There have been some advances since the S2, and I've head lots of people that use them and do OK.

Still, I'm of the school of thought that a dedicated GPSr is better for the reasons already stated above.

 

Welcome to the game, and more important that everything else ... have fun!

Oh yeah. I'm going to put in a plug for one of my pet peeves ... please Log your DNFs!, not just your finds

[+niraD]

You have received some good advice already, but I'll add my own welcome, and chime in a bit too:

 

..but I'm wondering after reading as many threads here as I could, if we need a real hiking style GPS, should take the ones out of the cars, or, just use our phones?

I have used hiking-style GPS receivers (currently an eXplorist 310) and Android phones (currently a Galaxy S running CacheSense). I find myself choosing one or the other not based on accuracy (they've all been accurate enough), but based on other features. I do most of my geocaching with my phone just because it's a lot more convenient. I choose my hiking-style GPS receiver when I need its extra battery life, durability, and/or waterproofness.

 

People have had success with driving-style GPS receivers. As I understand it, the key is to get it into its off-road mode, so it can navigate to the specific coordinates, rather than to the nearest street address.

 

...so if they were off by 10 meters, and I'm off by 10 meters....a 20 meter radius might be involved?

Generally, yes. Your device's Estimated Probable Error (EPE) and the cache owner's device's EPE combine, so your search radius needs to be larger.

 

But specifically, an EPE of 10m is rather large. Modern consumer devices can be accurate to about 3m. Older devices could be accurate to about 5m. But if the GPS reception is poor (thanks to tree cover, terrain, buildings, etc.), the device's EPE could be 10m or even 20m or more.

 

Also, the EPE is a statistical measurement, so you don't really just add it that way. An EPE of 10m plus another EPE of 10m don't produce a combined EPE of 20m, at least, not with the same probability of accuracy. For that example, a more accurate value for this example (EPE of 10m and another EPE of 10m) would be 10m * sqrt(2), or a little more than 14m.

[Spurges]

People have had success with driving-style GPS receivers. As I understand it, the key is to get it into its off-road mode, so it can navigate to the specific coordinates, rather than to the nearest street address.

 

When I started, I used my Garmin nuvi 2xx from the car. With it set to off-road mode, it did very well. I switched to a hiking-style GPSr for two reasons: 1) I got tired of changing the settings back and forth on the nuvi (driving vs. caching); and 2) Spare batteries - when the nuvi's battery died, that was it for the day (and you better hope you can find your way back to the car).

 

I never used a phone, same problem - you can't change the battery (well, not in my iPhone anyway). I currently use a Garmin eTrex 10 - low cost, and adequate for my caching style. I carry two spare sets of rechargeable batteries but I've been getting two or three 4-hour caching runs on a single charge, so far.

[+niraD]

I never used a phone, same problem - you can't change the battery (well, not in my iPhone anyway).

Even with phones that have replaceable batteries, a lot of people prefer external USB battery packs. I haven't bothered myself; when battery life is an issue, I just use my eXplorist.

[+Ben0w]

Things not mentioned yet:

* a car unit often activates at speeds > 5 km/h (besides trying to stick on a street). If you can't switch that off, it's rather useless. Believe me, I tried...(however, it sure looked funny trying to run fast enough in the woods to get a GPS fix).

* consider real offline maps, that work even when you loose cell coverage.

* there are smartphone apps designed for good outdoor use (offline maps, saving battery with switching off GPS when not used, offline logging, offline cache data and images, ...). I don't know the real offline capacity of the Groundspeak app. For iPhone I'd recommend "Looking4Cache Pro" (a Groundspeak certified third party app). I do all my caching management with that app and most of my outdoor activity (backupped by a cheap GPS receiver).

* whatever you use: get practise! Understand your equipment, the features AND the faults. Consumer grade GPS isn't exact.

* whatever you use: if in the wilderness, have a backup and an emergency plan.

 

Have fun!

[+Gill & Tony]

Welcome to the game and to the forums.

 

I started with a car GPS and it was terrible for finding caches I now have a Garmin Nuvi for the car, a Garmin hand held for finding caches and a Galaxy S3 doing nothing much. I have cached with the S3 and accuracy was on a par with the hand held, so I'm guessing that the S5 will be at least as good.

 

As others have said, please post DNF logs when you search and can't find as that helps both the cache owner (CO) and other searchers. Please don't log a DNF if you can't search, either because you can't get to GZ or because too many people are there. That can confuse things. If you want to log something like that, just use a Write Note log. (End of my pet rant).

 

Hope you enjoy the game, above all - have fun.

[+Eight leg]

When we first tried geocaching a few years back we had no GPS unit and no phone/tablet app. We just did our homework on line checking cache descriptions, hints and reading logs for clues from previous cachers. It was basic but it worked. Caches had to be fairly easy to find, have plenty of info/clues on their page but we enjoyed it.

 

After a few goes, we downloaded Groundspeaks app for android to my nexus 7 which helped a lot. Now we could do harder caches, multis and (try to do!) puzzles. The tablet gave us all the info, logs, etc and a gps unit in one but battery life was limited so for longer trips useage had to be rationed and a combination of app and common sense was used - paper OS maps can be utilised to with a little detective work (gets you close to GZ).

 

Eventually we treated ourselves to a Etrex 10. A basic but fully functional GPS which works well for Caching. Sometime a paper map will be useful with this unit but mostly common sense is enough. The unit has no map just a line from A (you) to B (the Cache) so you need to workout the best route yourself. Battery life is good and it's weather proof and shockproof (ours is living proof of that!)

 

Overall, a combination of GPS, common sense, cache description & hints and (sometimes) a paper map is needed. Co ordinates are not always accurate, caches are not always returned where they should be but where a previous cacher thinks they should be, caches may be offset on purpose with a explanation of this and where to go once at GZ. Some caches are clever and blend right in, others need a sequence of actions to get them and some are tiny and need very careful searching to be found!

 

We still occasionally cache without a GPS and just check general location on a map, use desciption & hint -it's fun, gets you thinking and encourages mapreading skills and lateral thinking! Try it.....

[+T.D.M.22]

From what I understand car GPS do not work very well for geocaching unless the cache is very close to a road.

 

 

Not exactly. What an automotive GPS does is navigates to an adress, not co-ords. So navigating to co-ords will only take you to the closest street location. You turn that feature off, and navigate to co-ords just like any other geocache.

[+colleda]

From what I understand car GPS do not work very well for geocaching unless the cache is very close to a road.

 

 

Not exactly. What an automotive GPS does is navigates to an adress, not co-ords. So navigating to co-ords will only take you to the closest street location. You turn that feature off, and navigate to co-ords just like any other geocache.

 

+1

For our first 6 months of caching we used the car Garmin Nuvi. It was fairly accurate, better than a phone at the time. We started off just loading coordinates but quickly went over to using GSAK. I then went to an Etrex 10 and Mrs C kept on with the Nuvi till she bought her own Etrex 20. We still use the Nuvi for navigating as close as we can get to GZ by car then its out with the Etrexs.

[+Teeger]

It sounds like we'll start with the phones and see how it goes.

 

[Pup Patrol]

It sounds like we'll start with the phones and see how it goes.

 

 

That's what I would do. If you already have a phone, why not?

 

Have you checked out the Groundspeak Apps? There's a free Intro app and there's a paid app available for iphones and androids. I would give the free one a whirl, to get started. If you decide that this is really something you want to continue with, you can look into buying the "full" app, and a gps, or just stick with the phones.

 

http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.book&id=12

 

B.