| With the advent of Smart Phones and Geocaching apps, beginners who don't have GPSrs
are trying their had at it using their phone. Opinions vary on how
well these phones can get you to the cache coordinates. One comment I hear a lot is
"It depends on which phone and which app you have." One acquaintance says
his phone can be off as much as a quarter mile. which makes it
useless for guiding you to a cache. Others say their phone gets them as
close as their GPSr. If the one you have doesn't get you within a
reasonable distance of the cache it will be a real handicap and may
discourage you before you learn the game. Given this scatter in
performance, if you're going to begin caching using your iPhone I suggest
the following: On the cache description page, below the Hints there are links to satellite maps. I suggest you use the Google one to start with. The 'Geocaching.com - Google Map' is cluttered and may be confusing for a beginner, so I would use the simple Google Maps link.
Once on the map page Zoom in as far as
it will go. You'll get something like the view below.
Click the printer symbol in the upper right
of the screen to print a copy of the
map and carry it with you. Of course you can also go to this map on your phone. I don't have a smart phone but my guess would be those tiny screens won't provide enough resolution to see where the cache is. If it does, use it. These satellite views won't help if the cache is under tree cover, otherwise they can work quite well. There's a local cacher who owns neither a smart phone nor a GPSr. He does quite well using these satellite maps. |
