John Ross
SoCo
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Hey, I'm trying to find some locals who participate in geocaching for a story in my outdoors column. I think it looks fun -- especially as the super-fun outdoor season comes to a close.
If you or someone you know participates, send me a PM or email me at jross@columbusalive.com.
Thanks in advance.
th0m
Beechwold
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hey i've known of several people around her that do it, but i haven't done geocaching itself... i did XKCD meetup game, but there's sort of four to choose from in the area... anywho... lots of fun playing with gps's ... if you need a cheap gps, the guy that strapped a camera to his cat now has cheapo store-only gps devices (writes to sdcard or something) for like $40, and if you want to put the data into google earth or maps, i highly recommend the tool called gpsbabel.
let me know what you're up to with all that! here's a sailboat race i potted once up at alum creek: http://winningham.googlepages.com/Visio-race06analysis.pdf
vestanpance
Harrison West/at work OSU
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I know someone that does it a lot. I'll pass your info on to him.
th0m
Beechwold
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In theory you could with say google earth, google maps, a good compass, landmarks, a good stopwatch, knowing about how fast you walk on average, and generally bisecting an area through canvasing. You could also try a mariner's astrolabe or a sextant (i think you can rig up one with an cd) and a map of the stars but you'd run into the longitude problem, but then you have your stopwatch, hopefully still.
You might also be able to google how to read your cell phone's built in gps if it has it for E911 service. I know my basic java based phone has a demo map program that even without buying it shows the coordinates.
The problem is some of the jerks really sneak the things into nooks and crannies, but mostly I don't think they do, and they give landmark descriptions of where the cache is. The civilian gps is only really accurate without after-the-fact calculations to within a few feet, so yeah, you could still have a lot of fun without a gps. But having one that saves your trail is rather handy and neat.
Rockmastermike
The Bacon District
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misskitty wrote I wanna play ! that looks like fun you you have to have a GPS or can you map the cords out the old fashion way ?
It has been my experience (working, not geocaching) that you can get within a few meters of accuracy by very carefully using the UTM scales on USGS topo maps. (convert degrees to UTM is another trick you would need for that) However... this is really only useful if you are in an area that has enough landmark features to match what is on the map to where you are standing. (near the break in slope of that ridge, etc.)
In an urban setting you can measure from street intersections to the point in question once you've marked the point on your map. In an area like Highbanks Park it would probably work if the point was near a landscape feature. In an area with few hills and no roads... you would be stuck unless you had, as thom suggests, a sextant or something to find your location in relation to the point you're looking for.
Also, I prefer garmin or trimble GPS recievers. They work well. I've found some other brands have greater problems with multipath interference and other problems in urban areas.
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