Provision for UTM co-ords when cache found

[poorPDOP]

I'm a flat earth kind of guy and am wondering if a provision can be made for entering UTM co-ords when logging a found cache.
Geodetic co-ords are fine since this is the 'native' mathimatical system, however they are a pain to deal with, i.e they are curved lines on a (plane) map.

[Richary]

Just guessing here, you are caching off maps using the supplied UTM coords instead of a GPS? And I am guessing you need to post found coordinates if the location is off and you want to post a correction? (as I can't see why you would need to otherwise)

Not being part of the development team so can't comment on whether it is easy/possible for them, but UTM to WGS84 conversions (as used by geocaching) are at http://www.environment.gov.au/erin/tool ... o-gda.html

Though you will then need to convert decimal degrees to minutes.decimal but that's easy.

[Lucy]

Why do you need to enter coordinates when logging a find? Unless it is a moveable or lopcationless, there shouldn't be a need, and both of those are rare types.

[poorPDOP]

Just guessing here, you are caching off maps using the supplied UTM coords instead of a GPS? And I am guessing you need to post found coordinates if the location is off and you want to post a correction? (as I can't see why you would need to otherwise)

Not being part of the development team so can't comment on whether it is easy/possible for them, but UTM to WGS84 conversions (as used by geocaching) are at http://www.environment.gov.au/erin/tool ... o-gda.html

Though you will then need to convert decimal degrees to minutes.decimal but that's easy.

Unless I've missed a proceedure somewhere, I don't understand the need for conversion since the GPS unit will do the transformation for you. As long as the operator states the working datum, i.e Lats & Longs or GDA94 or AGD66, etc the GPS unit will do the conversion. I am not sure of the format of the downloaded caches since it is a seamless operation, maybe it is in the native Geodetic co-ords. Pardon me for being a little confused but the GPS units are great little number crunchers.

[CraigRat]

At the moment we have no plans to convert from/to UTM

Geocaching internationally typically only uses WGS84 Degrees Decimal Minutes, and we don't really plan on changing that at our end, it's easier for us to work with.

I'll have a look and see if there's any advantages to us also supporting UTM and if there is it may be added one day.

[blossom*]

I'm a flat earth kind of guy and am wondering if a provision can be made for entering UTM co-ords when logging a found cache.
Geodetic co-ords are fine since this is the 'native' mathimatical system, however they are a pain to deal with, i.e they are curved lines on a (plane) map.

But why do you want to enter the co-ordinates for your Found log? You would normally just use the GC or GCA code to pull up the cache listing and then you can write your log. Maybe if you explained exactly what you are trying to do? (And note that the GC caches do have the UTM co-ords listed on the page as well, just in case you want to plot them on a topo map)

[poorPDOP]

Why do you need to enter coordinates when logging a find? Unless it is a moveable or lopcationless, there shouldn't be a need, and both of those are rare types.

My first attemp to reply didn't seem to appear, so I'll try again.

I may have been a little misleading with my first post. I did not enter UTM co-ords into my GPS unit, I downloaded the cache directly from the website into the unit. UTM is the prefered datum to work in. If I get lost (heaven forbid) I can rely upon the Melway, VicRoads Country Directory or a NATMAP 1:25K (or 1:100K) map, since these are UTM projections.

[poorPDOP]

At the moment we have no plans to convert from/to UTM

Geocaching internationally typically only uses WGS84 Degrees Decimal Minutes, and we don't really plan on changing that at our end, it's easier for us to work with.

I'll have a look and see if there's any advantages to us also supporting UTM and if there is it may be added one day.

Thanks for the reply CraigRat;
I can see your point of view in dealing with an homogenous Datum, and there is proberbly no reason to change. The question arose when I logged my first cache and there was a provision to supply Lats & Longs when I had my GPS set to UTM. Since I had found the cache there is no need of what I had as co-ords, since I had confirmed the Lats & Longs were correct. I just needed to state that I had found the cache and the method used.
The other option was to set my datum back to WGS84 and the GPS unit would have converted it (I hope I haven't tried it yet).

[poorPDOP]

Following up on the theme of this thread.
I was out caching today with my O550 and discovered a tile displaying Lats & Longs for the dashboard while the datum setting for the GPSr was UTM.
No need to navigate thru the menus to change the GPSr datum to display Lats & Longs. This is an added feature I didn't expect.

[PesceVerde]

UTM is quite versatile for maps etc.
but for Geocaching, I find that using the geocaching standard of Lat&Longs in datumWGS84, and Degrees and Decimal Minutes (ie: S27° 59.999' E152° 59.999'), works very well in most situations.

If the cache is in unfamiliar territory, I usually check the 'lay of the land', or nearby street names, on Google Maps or Earth or whatever before heading out.