Took the GPS plunge

“I have not yet picked up a map CD. I'm going to go with Maptech. Both bacpac and another E-acquaintance highly recommend it. Still playing with the little stuff.”

“why do they use a barometric altimiter. With 4 satelites couldnt you calculate altitude? Barometric altimiters are only truley accurate if you know the sealevel barometric pressure, ie can talk to a weather station. Seems to me like using triangulation for altitude would be more accurate.”

“They are great. Not a excuse to not know how to read a map and use a compass but they are great. The ones I used in the military were really nice and the ones out now just as nice.”

“I tried to use GPS triangulation for altitude for the little hill where I live, but it was a hundred feet too high. I plugged in the elevation from the topo instead.”

“thanks MtSteve, I downloaded easy gps.”

“I love that program. I have a bunch of folders, Old caches, New caches, My caches, mountain way-points, etc...Now if I'm going caching I can just load the cache way-points or just the mountain routes. ...that way I don't have to scroll through a couple hundred way-points to find what I want.”

“It's also neat to be able to edit the way-points to what I want. It's easier for me to locate Skippy then GC2B83.”

“Back from my canal hike. Guess what? The undetailed map that comes with the unit has the Delaware River and Route 32 off by a lot of yards. I plotted waypoints for a few spots along the way. The route I walked was on the wrong side of Route 32, and I was clear across the river on a bridge before it showed me at mid stream. Doh!

I think I have most of the basic functions down, Now to buy a map and have some real fun. This will take awhile.”

“ok ok im young but i am so behind on the GPS stuff out there....how accurate are some of the newer ones...how about setting waypoints how much does that help while hiking in mountainous areas??”

“Did you get lost yet?”

“I have had my gps for over four years. It is accurate to about 10 feet. If you preset waypoints you can get the bearing and distance from your current location.”

“you preset the waypoints from what though??? what if i were to go off trail and find a super cool spot to make camp or scenery could i save that while im there???”

“Yes, I preset waypoints from a map.”

“hmm well dang ...so i guess i should go get one then...sounds pretty cool...whats a good one that aint gonna break me”

“Kinda depends on how easily you break :-)

Both Garmin and Magellan have units that can display maps and hook up to your computer for around $200.00+.. Garmin has a really nice one that has a color screen and all kinds of goodies for around $450.00, I believe.”

“i'm trying to teach my kids the basics of mapreading. has anybody come across a good site?”

“The map displays on a gps are over rated. Garmin etrex should be all you need.”

“and don't tell me to google.
i don't wanna look through lots of crap”

“Go to usgs.gov”

“bacpac...thanks”

“thanx again
very sweet of you to do the search for me
(no sarcasm either)”

“wanna help me with my compuper question now? :)”

“my kids saw me looking at a geocaching site, and they wanna try. i don't want to invest in a gps, so how do i manage to translate those coordinates?”

“I've gone thru 3 GPS's, until my present Garmin. Mine is old, so I don't have the electronic maps. I ALWAYS carry storm proofed topo maps & compass in addition. The UTM digits match up eASILY to a grided topo map. Remember the military owns the sats. The military CONTROLS how accurate they are. So the military WILL throw the stats off when we are in conflict or fearfull of any attack. The numbers are variable. They are always good for hiking/ bushwacking but less accurate in times of our country's needs. The military version is a mega-lot more costly & is very accurate.”

“The geocaching website uses a format in degrees and minutes.

N 35 30.000 W 92 30.000

The first numbers signify a latitude of thirty-five degrees thirty minutes. Latitude is the North South line (Think of the Jimmy Buffett song). There are 60 minutes between each degree (duh) so the North/South position shown is exactly half way between 35 degrees and 36 degrees latitude.

Longitude is the East/West line. The point that these two lines intesect is the location.

Next lesson on alternative map datums and formats.”

“Lines of latitude run east and west on the map, but latitude is the measure of north and south. Longitude lines run north and south, but longitude is the measure of east and west.

So, if you want to find the latitude of a spot, you look for the closest line running east or west and work up from there. Vice-Veras for the longitude.

In UTM, you read east and north for our neck of the woods. The coordinates are arrayed differently, but the resulting grid squares are in metric measures.”

“Used the GPS on the way to work this morning. Funny, but all the roads in this neck of the woods are in their correct spots. Don't know how the Delaware River and Route 32 were displaced to the east. It's the wrong tectonic direction!”

“my brain is boggled”

“"The map displays on a gps are over rated. Garmin etrex should be all you need."
Miss Anne Thrope
08:42:54 PM
03/28/04

Finally, there is something bacpac and I agree upon.”

“First thing you should do Helinka is work on map reading. GPS will not be much help if you can't read maps.

Coordinates are how you find a position on a map. There are two methods: geographical coordinates expressed in latitude and longitude, and UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator).

UTM was devised by the military because within grid zones, it is more precise. And with metric measure, they can more precisely target artillery with UTM.

Geographical coordinates are more universally accepted. When you look at a globe, you see lines running east and west and north and south. These are the lines of latitude (east-west lines) and longitude (north-south lines).

If you want to find the coordinates for the city where you live, you move up the lines of latitude until you find your city and that will tell you the line of latitude, expressed as something like 40 degrees north.

Then you find the lines of longitude and find the closest one to your city. This is expressed as something like 76 degrees west.

But work with a lesson plan and some maps awhile until you get familiar with it. Once you understand geographical coordinates, you can set your GPS for that and work from that. Some people prefer to work with UTM coordinates. Let that system go for now and work with geographical.”

“Actually chili, bacpac has been immensely helpful on this thread and I appreciate his advice.”

“why do i try to read this when i should be sleeping?”

“The smartest thing I did was to download easy gps and buy a connector cord. I download all the geocaching coordinates keep them in files and load up information depending on what area I want to geocache in.

It has been a real timesaver.”

“thanks for the help. i will try to decipher it later. i have no problems reading a map and have done some orienteering, but i can't seem to figure out how to transfer coordinates to a map.
better learn this quick or i'll have to 'fess up to the kids that i actually don't know everything!”

“Perhaps the kids will teach you.”

“I think I know where the confusion is.

Coordinate format.

Geocaching.com uses Degrees Minutes. Your map is probably degrees, minutes, seconds. Or it may use any of a dozen formats including Universal Transfer Mercator (UTM).

Compare Degrees minutes (dd mm.mm) with Degrees minutes seconds (dd mm ss). In my earlier example the location would be the same, because I over simplified the coordinates.

N 35 30.000 W 92 30.000 is the same as:

N 35 30 00 W 92 30 00

However...

N 35 30.100 (dd mm.mm)does not equal N 35 30 10 (dd mm ss).

The difference is that there are sixty seconds in a minute so 30.100 minutes = 30 minutes 6 seconds. Six seconds is one tenth of a minute. (0.1 x 60 = 6)

N 35 30.1 (dd mm.mm) = N 35 30 6 (dd mm ss)


Map format and map datum can get confusing, but fortunately your GPS will convert to any as long as you enter the coordinates in the same format and datum. Rule of thumb is to use the format and datum as your map when entering coordinates.”

“I got my GPS mounted on the dashboard next to my spit cup. That GPS sucker came in handy when I lost the rag I wuz using for a gas cap - it fit right in the hole. Anyway, I kin take my GPS from the F350 and put it on my ATV. I set me some waypoints to the still. That works better than leavin' a trail of Slim Jims. I think the possums or the kids ate 'em up. Well, back to Google to do some geneology research. Is it a bad thing when your family tree don't split?”

“The good thing about easy GPS is that it will change the format of the coordiantes for you.”

“My unit will let you change the coordinate system to any of the three, so you can use it on any kind of map.

For now I'm using geographical, but will be changing over to UTM eventually.

However, one can use one method and convert to another using the Garmin eTrex Vista.”

“Militiaboy, what are the coordinates for yer still?”

“This better not be no trick question. I use UTM. Yoo Tee Em, you got em.”

“My friend Cooter told me GPS stands for going perfectly straight. Is that right? I don't trust him ever since he had that porta potty fall off his porch and hit him in the head.”

“Okay, UTM. Fire away. What are the coordinates?”

“Dont even thunk about it! I gots my twelve year old daughter and her 4 month old baby sittin' next to it with a itchy trigger finger.”

“Gotcha, well, I had to try. I'm not going to ask who the baby's daddy is. I have a hunch I know the answer.”

“I picked up the Legend at Walmart for $162. Can't wait for it to get here so I can play with it. Of course I'm cutting it close for it making it here for a trip. Nothing worse than sitting on the porch in the morning waiting for gear to come so you can leave for the trail.

I've heard you can only use Garmin's topo program with the Etrex. Is this correct? I had just enough to get the gps but can't fork out the money for the $116 program. 8(”

“For downloading maps to a Garmin GPS you are I think stuck with Garmin Mapsource software but if all you want to download are waypoints etc. then there are other software packages that can be used.”

“I have the National Geographic Mapping software and it is my understanding it will download to a Garmin.

However, my etrex wont handle it.

That being said, I only use my gps for waypoint identification. I still rely upon the old map and compass for navigation.”

“Thanks. I'll never give up the good old paper map and compass and of course I know I have to take those even with the gps. I have become really interested in the UTM mapping sense reading about it in Backpacker Mag. They have a link to a site you can download and print off the clear overlays for navigating. Looks really cool and acurate also.”