We keep a GPS reciever on our fire truck to help land helocopters. Until today, I have never used it to map a route.

I set a waypoint at my house and went walking. Used the tracback feature to "find" my way back. I can see a real use while boating also.

Question is...What do you use GPS for?

1) Offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico
2) Hunting in National Forest

GPS use is only limited by YOUR imagination.  It was used to pinpoint where to drill to rescue the PA miners!!  Yeee Haaaa!

What do I use it for?  Have one mounted in the chopper for air navigation.  Have one I hook to my laptop.  Often take it in the chopper as it is actually BETTER than the mounted one!!  We can punch in an address and land in a fella's back yard.  Have done so numerous times.  Ask Campy about that.  Wish I had an air navigation database for the laptop.  May pony up for that sometime.


I use the laptop/GPS to locate addresses for HVAC service, map distances to obstructions downrange of where I shoot and all kinds of navigation while traveling.  Neat to plot routes, milage and travel times.  I am kind of a fanatic about knowing where I am and how long to the next turn or destination.  I even pre-plan fuel stops with the thing!

I do not have a handheld but would like to.  Can't believe anybody would hike the backcountry without one these days.

Hunting
Fishing
If you know a few people with a GPS you can play tag with them, if you have nothing to do on a Sat. afternoon, anything goes 100sq miles, give them Lat. Long. and have them get there by waypoints and 4 wheel drive, looser buys the brew.

A few airline pilots I know use them because they feel that a handheld GPS is more reliable! Now lets try to get the pilots armed.

Everything related to travel.  Honestly, A GPS is the greatest thing since sliced bread...As soon as my wife saw what it did for us in Atlanta one evening about three years ago, she had to have one of her own.  You may get lost but you will always know where you are...

I'm into the geocaching hobby. See [url]www.geocaching.com[/url]

It's like hunting for buried treasure. Check the above site for all the GPS information you'd ever want.

The Garmin eTrex can be had for $99 and it works fine for a beginners unit. The eTrex Vista has all the goodies including a compass. It's well over 3 bills though. The Legend is the mid price unit that I use. I like it but the WAAS (Pronounced "was") feature is worthless where I live. If you buy an eTrex be sure to upgrade it with the latest firmware off the Garmin site. That helped me a lot. Added a few features that I never use though. Like Fish Finder.  

I use it for boating. With the removal of selective availability by the govt, accuracy of high end GPS units are now within one meter. I use a Northstar DGPS unit (962XD) on my boat. It is super accurate. I have all the good dive sites plotted on my GPS and it's deadly accurate with outstanding repeatability.

I also have the route from the inlet to the marina plotted (buoy to buoy) that way, when in heavy for or on a moonless night, I can get back to the Marina using my GPS and radar. The accuracy is incredible.

I plan on buying a handheld WAAS unit for use when backpacking....

love the damn things! Hunting, fishing, Geocaching, whatever.

I use GPS in aircraft navigation almost exclusively. VORs and NDBs are fine when flying IFR, but if you can get a "GPS Direct" flight - ahh.. it's great stuff.  [:D]

I use mine mostly when flying. 1 little GPS and a handheld radio takes the place of a whole NAV/COM stack. I still fly with known landmarks in sight (IFR- I follow roads [;)]) in case it goes out, but it hasn't failed me yet.

Every jump I make at work is spotted with GPS.
We tell the pilot where we want to exit and punches it in and flies us there. Not quite as simple as that, aand only as the good as the pilot flying the jumprun.
BP

Dude, I may have swamped you a few times...[}:)]
She's in Freeport (Al Grovers Hi and Dry Marina). She's a 35 Viking Sportfish named "Margin Call." I'll be looking out for you.....

We use a GPS at work to update base maps, map sample locations, and overlay geophysical survey grids on a base map. It works great with a geo-referenced digital photo and GIS system which allows you to overlay your work on a photo.

I'm an avid backpacker.  GPS is helpful on many levels when you're miles away from the nearest road.  I use a Garmin Venture.  

I've also recently started geocaching.  It's a lot of fun finding 'hidden treasures' out in the woods.  [:)]

I forgot to add for the people reading this who don't use the GPS; If you plan on using a GPSr to keep you from getting lost in the woods it's a good idea to carry a decent compass at the same time.  Also, the GPS doesn't do you any good if you don't have maps of the surrounding area.  

I recently heard a story of a group of hikers who got lost in the woods.  They called for help with a cell phone and gave their exact lat. and lon. to the operator.  They had a GPS reciever but didn't turn it on until they got lost and didn't have a map to find their way out.

My trooper friend uses the gps in the cruiser to find us fishing holes LOL.

i have a little ETREX and love it. i use it for hiking and backpacking in the desert, and in the mountains of AZ. im a gem and mineral collector and sometimes when i find spots that have potential, but i dont have time to dig ill cache it in the memory and return later. i also use it when my girl comes with me hiking. she likes to find a nice spot and meditate while i explore the area we are in. i usually cache her position in the memory and it makes it allot easier to find her again because she is usually wrapped in my GI poncho liner and comoflauged.
wish i had one of these when i was a grunt. we had larger GPS units then...but only one per platoon,,,or at best one per squad. i think every grunt should have one with all the rally points of a patrol and the obj cached in the memory.

I was using a Garmin model 12. Thinking about getting into the geocaching thing. Looks like a good excuse to get out and do some hiking.

Dark Helmet.... damn what a crappy LZ!

I have the E-trex Venture..and found it to be a great tool. Initially I used it to gauge my speed on my jetskis. Then the waypoints and go tos took over. I can see this being invaluble for a myriad of reasons. I'm just now learning to use it for marking my favorite fishin' holes here in the Gulf [:D]

For all those waiting on SHTF..this is all you baby. For $100..you'll be set for whatever the future holds.

Great "space age" tool,
[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

I just used mine to land a medical helicopter..sweetest thing I've ever seen to see one coming in perfectly on my Longtitude reading! The lack of landmark in the area, and difficulty in finding the LZ we had, it would have been extremely difficult to guide it to us any other way. Lucky I'm issued one, as the other guys don't. I also use it to map out routes off road, when traveling distances to see what I have coming up, and someday hopefully to hook up somehow to a laptop and topo program. Lotta fun, but lotta stuff to use with it too, and it really goes through batteries. I don't want to carry 3 AA's per day, so I mostly leave it as somewhat a mobile unit.

I prefer to just cruise and booze (NJ, Cape Cod, Nantucket, etc..), as well as scuba dive a lot of the wrecks...Not much of a fisherman. My brother is the big shark/tuna fanatic. If you're into shark/tuna let me know. My brother is always looking for somebody to go with. If you want to cruise and booze, we'll have to hook up before summers end....

DON'T BET YOUR LIFE ON THEM!

I had one fail last year in a potentially lethal situation.  Not sure if it was a software problem or if the batteries froze.  

Always carry a compass and a good map!

I'm with barrel nut.
Good tool but don't bet your life on it.
Topo and compass skills are still 1st line.
Kinda like a laser on a pistol.  Hope you have fresh batteries when the SHTF.  If not. I hope you remember front sight press fire.

I use a GPS to find my hunting partner after he kills an elk and is so excited he doesn't know where he is ! No kidding , it took him 2 hours to calm down enough just to speak coherently !

I've been thinking about picking up one.  Anyone have any recommendations on good (read: cheap) online stores for this?

TIA,
Rocko

You could try [url]www.rei.com[/url].  I looked around for quite a while looking for the best deal.  It's a pretty competative market, but almost everyone has similar prices.  There's an REI store down the street from me and I calculated that with shipping & handling, etc... I'd end up spending less at a local shop.  Most stores that cater to campers, hikers, fishers, and hunters, will also carry at least low end GPS which is probably all that most people need anyway.  I think the going rate for the basic eTrex is about $110.  You can always find used models on ebay, but I never thought the savings justified the risk of getting a faulty unit.

Yeah, most of the places I've seen so far are within $10 of eachother, even comparing online vs. brick & mortar.   Oh well, guess my best bet is to wait for a sale at a local place.  

One more question - I see many of the higher end ones offer expandable memory, but the memory cards I've seen for them all appear to be proprietary and thus super expensive.  Are there any that take compact flash or smartmedia cards?  Seems silly for them not to use this as it is dirt cheap right now...

Rocko

Deer Hunting.  I map my path a few days before when I go to clean off a stand, and use it that morning to be back to my stand in the dark.    

I work in the ag industry and we use GPS to map field boundaries and take soil samples. We use a small computer and a Trimble unit on our four-wheelers.

I use mine for backcountry hiking, and lately I've been using the hell out of it on my mountain bike.  I have a Garmin 12XL - get the handlebar mount and you've got speed, mileage, and track right in front of you...plus it makes it easier to find the car when you're done, if you're really in the sticks.

[url]www.campsilos.org/mod4/students/farmtreka.shtml[/url]

Speaking of agricultural uses, these units allow precise mapping of farms into databases that produce fertilizer and chemical savings and increased yields.

I'm considering a Garmin MAP 76S and have found a price of $379 at [url]www.gpsnow.com/gmmap76s.htm[/url].  Typically it is  $400-$449.   It has altimeter and compass features, as well as 24mb of map memory.  It seemed to be the most versatile and powerful hand-held, having some features that boaters would use (audible alarms) along with rate of descent that might have aviation use along with hiking.  

Anyone have one of these?

I've not seen any expandable memory for GPS that isn't proprietary technology.  You're right that it's silly from the consumer prospective, but they make more money that way.

A GPS is an inappropriate tool to rely on in a SHTF situation.

The goverment can restrict its use with the flip of a switch. You don't think they'll do it in a shit-hits-the-fan situation? They'll make you beg them to turn it off for civilians because they'll say that they're being used by terrorists.

My GPS recieves WAAS correction transmisions.  The government can re-restrict the accuracy if they want, but I'll still be within 300 feet of my lon. lat. readout.  The only thing they could do is turn off the satelites and the WAAS correction system.  If they turn off the satelites, they essentially blind themselves.  If they turn off the correction, no biggie; I walk another 30 seconds.

The govt may indeed reinstitute selective availability, but Differential GPS correction will negate that. For the first time since i can remember, govt beaurocracy and inefficiency will actually benefit us in this case.

For those that don't know, heres a little background. When the govt first allowed civilian use of its GPS satellites, they did so with the understanding that they would introduce an inherent error in the civilian GPS system. They called it selective availability. GPS satellites are capable of triangulating  to within one meter but, for civilian use,  the govt introduced an inherent error that would only allow accuracy to within 100 meters (not one meter). The purpose of which was to discourage potential enemies and/or terrorists from using our GPS system against us. In order to get the one meter accuracy you had to have a military GPS receiver that was able to 'filter out' the inherent error introduced by the govt.

Now, the US Coast Guard, which used GPS as an aide to navigation on all its vessels, did not have access to the military GPS receivers and therefore was unable to receive GPS signals with the one meter accuracy. Numerous attempts by the USCG to obtain the military GPS units met with futility form the military. So, the USCG took it upon itself to spend millions of dollars and erect towers throughout the US. These towers were built on known locations and their GPS coordinates were precisely measured. These towers would then, in turn, receive the signals from the GPS satellites, compare the accuracy to the towers own known position and, if there was any difference in the known location of the tower vs. what the satellites told them, they would broadcast the difference out to the civilian and Coast Guard GPS receivers. This is known as 'Differential GPS' and, any civilian GPS unit capable of receiving the differential signal, would now have accuracy within one meter thanks to the corrected signal from the USCG towers. Ridiculous, isn't it? One branch of the gov't (the military) spends billions introducing error into the system while another branch of the govt (USCG) has to spend billions more ino order to reverse/defeat what the military did. What a waste of money, time and effort...

So, even if the govt degrades the signal again we will still have accuracy to within one meter thanks to the CG.....

With the AN/PSN-11 PLGR you have +/- 6.75 m accuracy if it displays an accuracy of less than 10 m, in order for you to get better than that accuracy you need to go the differential route or with some of the error correcting systems used by survey.  Even the military GPSS (GPS survey set) uses differential GPS in order to obtain accuracy less than the +/- 6.75 m that the P(Y) provides.  The USCG could get the crypto to allow them to use the P (Y) without any problem, it is available to all government agencies, and allied nations.   Prior to the turning off a SA by presidential order, many in the military warned that terrorist would use the more accurate GPS as a mechanism for guided an improvised cruise missile to hit targets.  At that time we thought that meant small airplanes like a Cessna, etc.  However it seems they were thinking on a much grander scale.  As most indications show, at least one 9-11 terrorist had bought a GPS, and more than likely used the steering cues to fly a plan into a target.