"Assume VK" means that the cache is located somewhere in the 100km by 100km area indicated by "VK" in the map shown below. VK is a sub-zone of UTM Zone 15T . UTM zones divide the globe longitudinally into 60 sectors each of width 6 degrees beginning at 180°W. Thus zone 1 runs from 180°W up to 174 W°, zone 2 from 174°W up to 168°W, and so on until zone 60 from 174° E up to 180° E, which brigs us back to 180 W. Our Zone 15 is from 96°W to 90°W.
UTM zones are usually further divided latitudinally every 8 degrees beginning at 80° S. The ten zones below the equator are labelled C,D,E,F,G,H,J,K,L and M, from south to north. From the equator north the labels are N,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W and X. (Zone X is extended to 84°N). The polar caps use A and B at the south and Y and Z at the north. Labels O and I are unused to prevent confusion with the digits 0 and 1. Our Zone T runs from 40°N up to 48°N; that's where VK is, in Zone 15 T.
The given UTM coordinates for this cache are indicated in the upper left hand corner, viz. UTM: 15T E 480139 N 4926336. Note the 15T. The E 480139 is known as the "easting" which indicates how far to the east in the 15T zone the location is. It's relative to the central meridian of the zone which is always given the value 500,000. Thus it's actually 500,000 - 480139 = 19,861 meters west of the central 93° W meridian.
The N 4926336 is the "northing" and tells how many meters north the location is from the equator. Recall that by definition a meter is one 10-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole. Considering that we're almost halfway there, the number makes sense.
To simplify the rather lengthy UTM: 15T E 480139 N 4926336, we can make some assumptions. Considering that most of the caches around here will be of the form UTM: 15T E 4xxxxx N 49yyyyy anyway, one can assume the 100 km by 100 km square region and call it VK and denote coordinates in this region simply by VK xxxxx yyyyy. So the given coordinates for this cache is given simply by VK 80139 26336. (Why VK? As in ViKing? How this coding works to prevent nearby conflicts will be pursued in a later cache. )
ABBREVIATIONS: The notation can be abbreviated to indicate larger regions :
- VK08 represents the 10km by 10km region with coordinates VK0xxxx8yyyy,
- VK1216 represents the 1km by 1km region with coordinates VK12xxx16yyy,
- VK345342 represents the 100m by 100m region with coordinates VK345xx342yy,
- VK67897941 represents the 10m by 10m region with coordinates VK6789x7941y.
Certify your answer in the form VKxxxxxyyyyy and you will be given the lat/lon form of the coordinates and a hint on the hide.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
The first 10 puzzle solvers are:
1. sparkyfry
2. Ms Sunshine
3. Fistful of Nachos
4. ctc128
5. salsman
6. Essap
7. foundinthewild
8. rickrich
9. OleSeeker
10. Bigrock95