Geocaching Australia

Just found this thread and wish I'd been here earlier. Great tips all.

1. I found some caches and have logged them on the geocaching.com site cos I found a way to do that, but couldnt find a way to do it on the .au site.....am I missing something here?
2. I created a user MODU in here and then couldnt log anything so I decided to try to log them in geocaching.com but unfortunately I had to set up a new user and MODU was taken so I used MODU_au. Now I have two users registered with different names, I dont suppose I can make them one ?

PS imagine how much fun this will be when I get a GPS!!

rhinogeo wrote:We're not all crazy

I just post teapots.

On the rare occasion I might have something intelligent to say. I think the last time was mid 2005.

What year are we now?

Team Piggy wrote:Piggy Helpful Hint 1: Turn GPS "ON".

Piggy Helpful Hint 2: Have batteries in it...

Piggy Helpful hint 3: Beer is your friend. So is Mud & truffles.

Beer may be good, but red wine is best.

Hi all,

The partner and I (along with the two dogs)are going to head off this weekend on our first Geocaching trek this weekend. (and incorporating some book crossing)

I have a quick question on Location Format for the GPS.

I've removed the dust and just setting it all back up and wondered what is the better "Location Format" to use.
eg: UTM UPS

Many Thanks

Mr Muck

Madam_Muck wrote:Hi all,

The partner and I (along with the two dogs)are going to head off this weekend on our first Geocaching trek this weekend. (and incorporating some book crossing)

I have a quick question on Location Format for the GPS.

I've removed the dust and just setting it all back up and wondered what is the better "Location Format" to use.
eg: UTM UPS

Many Thanks

Mr Muck

The default coordinate format used with geocaching is Latitude/Longitude (dd mm.mmm) with the datum set to WGS84. Note that the coordinates are usually shown as "decimal minutes" (mm.mmm) as opposed to degrees, minutes and seconds.

Check out the Wiki for some good information, even with regards to coordinates.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your weekend (toohey forest perhaps )

mm

THANKS!

Hmmm -

Getting around that time again when I have to come up with something worth reading.

Think Dammit...

think of something intelligent to say...











Nah. Not gonna happen.

Maybe next year.

All co-ords are made up of two bearings, in Australia that works out to South and East bearings, I have had some success using the following technique., I haven't seen it mentioned so I thought this would be an appropriate place to present it.

I have noticed with some tricky multi's or puzzles that it is possible to work out the South or the East co-ord without any trouble but to have trouble with the other usually on the last couple or even few numbers.

I have got lucky a couple of times just going to near the co-ords and walking into the area until the known good co-ord lines up on the satelite screen and using what you believe to be purposly high or low on the other co-ord so you only have to walk one way.

Rivers / cliffs / trees / highways etc tend to get in the road with this technique so a google or paper map look at the area helps.

Use a compass to take the South or East bearing of the unknown co-ord and follow that direction to walk to the cache.

As said I have got lucky with this a few times and it does work, If you don't find anything in the first several hundred meters give it up. I have had to walk up to a kilometer using this method and it can take quite a while to search interesting places along the way. It's a great way to get rid of some of those frustrating caches though.
TTFN

My best advices to new cachers:

When finding:

Allow your GPS to 'settle' & remember that co-ordinates may be out by a few metres or more.

Before hiding:

Although it's not always feasible, try and find a number of caches by different cachers before you plan on hiding your own, See how others have done it and how good / bad they may be compared to others

When Hiding:

Let your GPS settle & average if possible with your unit. Try getting readings over a few visits and average them. Accurate location is the single most common problem I've found with caches. If it's hard to get a good reading or average, consider hints so it can still be found.

thank you all for your valuable knowledge, still researching what this geocaching is all about and this thread answers many questions and provides some great links.
Looking forward to my first find.

Team Stargazer wrote:
Well look no further!
Sit back, relax and enjoy the following presentation ...

Posting And You...

Oooh! That was good, I might steal that for some other forums that I follow.


Cut & paste is my friend...

I'm new to Geocaching..2 weeks. Having fun, but my best hint is to turn off your car headlights before you go looking for a cache! I have discovered that batteries don't work well if you leave them on! Thank goodness for my mobile phone....and the fact that I was just off the freeway!

My best tip is to take the coords of the car if you're heading into the bushes at night. I learnt this the hard way too...