Manitoba Geocaching Association

[Lynda. L.]

In the last little while alot of us have been updating our co-ordinates so I was wondering if the satilites are doing the same thing they did to the CB radios in the late 70's .Things got so bad with skip ( jumbled radio waves ) that had us hearing places like Mexico and far off places that came in waves (clear to a fade )so you had to squelch it out ,but even that didn't help much .Could something like that be happening to our GPS receivers ?

[ruylopez]

I doubt it.

- Don't use an iPhone to take coordinate readings.
- Take readings on different days. Multiple readings several minutes apart on the same day aren't much better than a single reading.
- Use the average function if you have one, it tends to work really well.
- Take a look on Google Maps satellite view before publishing, if the green arrow does not look close to where the cache was hidden, the coords are probably wrong.

Just my two cents...

[TurdleEggs]

With the ever growing army of attributes I really think there should be one for “Hidden with a Smartphone”.

Accuracy took a funny turn. For a while there, each new generation of GPS had newer and better receivers, antennas and processors until sub 3m accuracy was getting common. Complaints of poor coordinates were becoming unusual. Then the iPhone came along. Suddenly coordinates got *way* worse but it seemed acceptable because you could blame your Smartphone. People have an emotional attachment to their iPhone and pointing out its limitations would be like mocking someone’s poor dumb dog. The rest of the community just rolled their eyes and accepted the iPhone people into their midst. The emergence of the Smartphone probably got a number of new people caching that might not have otherwise, and that’s a *very* good thing!

I hijacked this thread and if memory serves me, Lynda. L. has a proper GPS. If you are using an iPhone don’t take this as me making fun of you – I was making fun of *all* iPhone people

If you think your GPS is getting worse, batteries may come into it because a weak battery can impact performance. It’s also possible (but not all that probable) that your GPS is aging and not performing as well as it once did. Certainly all the things ruylopez said are true. I find just averaging a waypoint for a couple of minutes until the numbers don’t change and the accuracy gets to <5 m is often sufficient. If your GPS doesn’t “average” then tell you family you want a new one for your next birthday

[Lynda. L.]

Thanks ruylopez for the different days readings I always did the several minute thing . I always try to wait for a cloudless day to make my hides .The only thing I use my BB phone for is looking up the cache page when I get stumped at GZ.
TurtleEggs your right I have a proper GPSr which is about a good 2 years old .About the batteries I noticed that weak one are horrible to hide and find ,it makes searching harder. Found the smartphone comments amusing.Thanks for the info you guys .

[ertyu]

I think its pretty much all user error and not equipment error. I've noticed my iPhone is as accurate as my Garmin, but you have to know how to use them properly to get accurate co-ordinates out of either.