Being a land surveyor by
profession, this idea seemed a natural thing to set up
relating to our use of GPS for caching. The "Perfect Point" is
for testing our GPS handhelds against a point whose
coordinates were obtained by a recent survey that was
projected from Florida Department of Transportation
sub-centimeter GPS monuments. The Lat/Long of the point is
accurate to within a fraction of an inch! The point is located
at the S&S convenience store at the NE corner of Turner
Road and US HIghway 90. It is the front, right corner of the
concrete planter on the far right in front of the store (see
picture).
How to Get Your Smiley: Go to the point and let your GPSr
average for a few minutes. While waiting, find the container and
sign the log sheet (bring a pen, please!) To log the cache please
list your GPS make/model, how far you missed the point and your EPE
(accuracy) if your unit gives this. Don't be alarmed if you don't
get right on the lat/long. The nature of our caching coordinates
(DD-MM.MMM) having built-in rounding errors that may put you a few
feet of before you even begin.
We'll start with our own report: Our Magellan Meridian Platinum
did well, showing us 2-5 feet off with an EPE of 16'-20'.....Our
new Explorist 600 did not fair as well, with 9 feet as its closest
reading and an EPE of 10'-15'
For a scientific approach you may want to try GPS mission
planning software. Some hard-core GPS users may already have
tried this. You can download some free mission planning software at
www.trimble.com/planningsoftware.html.
This cache was placed by a member of the
Northeast Florida Geocachers
Association