Re: GPS accuracy and a site to generate a map of findings

DJW <ddwr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My friend brought over their hand held Garmin GPS unit. Offhand not
sure of model but if it matters I can find that out. We were in a

It does matter some. Newer units are better than older units, expensive
units are better than cheaper units.

northern USA location and had large trees around us. It seemed to see
three to six satellites that kept changing. The coordinates came up but
the Plus and minus would be between 18 to 25 ft. Does that mean that we

Trees... lots of them? That can be bad, but still "18 to 25" is typical
of an older GPS receiver.

were not actually getting very good accuracy as to where we were

Depends on your standards. If you are trying to dig with a shovel to
uncover a lunchbox filled with cash, you need a commercial grade GPS.
For automotive purposes, 18 feet should be good enough. If you are trying
to drop a bomb down the smokestack of a factory, there are probably visual
guides in addition to the GPS direction getting close enough for the
visuals to be worthwhile.

My newer Garmin GPSMap60cs typically shows 6-8 feet.

standing. I thought that I heard that the government purposely made
them just a couple of feet off for security purposes in case a evil
person wanted to send a cruse missile off and out lol.

That was about 150 feet of wandering, and has been gone for a few years.

Also is there a free site on the web where I could put in the
coordinates we got and be able to see and or print out a map.

http://www.google.com/maps put in coordinates with latitude,longitude.
In the US, the first value might be between 20 and 40, the second value
between -70 and -130, like my area, 38.8,-122.5
You can see decent photos by clicking the "hybrid" button in the upper
right. You can zoom in far enough to see houses and cars, but not enough
to identify what kind of car you are looking at. some areas of the country
have better images than others.

If the accuracy really was like 20 feet off was it just our location.
How do those people who look for buried treasure ever find it in those
setup treasure hunt games?

You need some visual cues. Five years after I left a pile of rocks in the
desert, someone else was able to find it. He seems to be off by a few feet
from where I was, but I think that was my error, trying to use a
directional arrow instead of looking at the text display screen.
He didn't know that my rocks were there until he found them.

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=8914
Picture #5 shows his "spot" and my rocks.

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5
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