[Az-Geocaching] UTM/NAD 27 coordinates!

[Scott Nicol]

Howdy,

I see there were some slight changes made to the geocaching.com cache pages. 
Appears to be just a font change or two, the removal of the 'caches found' 
noted by each team name in the logs and also they are now including UTM 
coordinates under the DD.MM.MMM coordinates.

I have always been under the impression that the UTM coordinates and the 
DD.MM.MMM coordinates are not exactly the same. In other words, if you put 
the coords to a waypoint (cache) using DD.MM.MMM in your GPS, changed your 
GPS to UTM/NAD27 and go to the waypoint, it would put you a bit off the 
mark. Not sure if this is true or not, as I havent experimented with it. If 
so, I would guess the coords would have had to be originally determined 
using UTM for it to be correct.

I would love to be able to use UTM coords as standard for my geocaching. I 
have used UTM and metric measurements for years in ballooning competitions. 
It is also the standards for international measurements. So, I always 
figured that geocaching.com would just use UTM anyways as it is very much an 
international hobby. I would guess that is why UTM was added. When I am out 
ballooning, I always use UTM and metric measurements. It is very simple to 
understand and very easy to get use to using.

Also, 7.5 minute topo maps use UTM coords as the main 'grid' system on the 
maps. It makes it very simple to literally pinpoint a location on a topo 
map. The UTM grid on a 7.5' topo is a 1000 meter grid. I actually take all 
my 7.5' topo's and grid them by drawing faint lines and forming a 'checker 
board' on the map. I then have 1000x1000 meter boxes. Next, I have a tool 
that I can overlay on a given box and break that down into tenth. I have 
become very good at that and can literally take say a street intersection on 
the map, figure out the coordinates, plug those coordinates into my GPS and 
drive to that location and find my coords to be within 30' of the center of 
the intersection. If anyone is interested in learning how to do this, I 
would be happy to show you. It is the easiest grid to use on a standard 7.5' 
topo map. I would assume that many of the jeepers on here and outdoor 
enthusiasts use topo maps often.

It is difficult to pinpoint an exact cache location using the DD.MM.MMM 
coords on a topo map as there really isnt a 'grid' on a topo for that 
coordinate system (there is, but, spaced very far apart... I beleive only 
every 30 minutes). On the more difficult wilderness caches, where you need 
to really look at a topo map to figure out your route (Bronco Butte Cache as 
an example), using the UTM grid on the map would allow me to be very 
accurate in determining where the cache is locatated on the topo map. Thus, 
allowing me to much more accurately determine my route I will take to the 
cache.

I am curious to know if azgeocaching.com will consider providing their team 
specific data in the UTM format.

Scott
Team Ropingthewind



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