GPS Tips

Irish Pennant · 08-17-2005, 09:28 PM

1) Look on your topo map for the datum used and set your GPS to the same datum
2) Dont park your rig at the end of the road, stop about 50 yards shy and set your waypoint there.
3) dont navigate to an intersection (Road or Creek) navigate 100 yards to one side of the intersection. When you hit the main feature then you can follow along the creek or road to the intersection. When you hit the intersection look at your map to confirm your location.
4)If you mark a kill in the woods then string up flagging tape for 50 yards in 4 directions (N.E.W.S.). Its easier to return to the critter when you have a bigger target.
5) The UTM grid lines on a 1:24000 map are 1000 meters or roughly 1/2 mile. When using the UTM setting on your GPS, the last 3 digits will be your position within that 1000 meter grid. The 2 preceeding digits are the grid line number and that number can be found on the boarder of the topo map. If the last 5 digits read 56427. Look on the boarder of your map for 56 and 57, 427 will fall about halfways between them. 427 is also 427 meters from the 56 grid line.
1 Meter=3.28 Feet
1000 Meters=.621 or 5/8 of a mile
804.88 Meters= 1/2 Mile

sandman · 08-18-2005, 06:06 AM

Thats great advice

nwsoftball · 08-19-2005, 10:08 AM

I have better advise!

Tie your GPS to your body. An unattached GPS can be lost. If your GPS is lost, where are you?

I donated a brand new Rino 120 and an old Eagle Explorer to the desert over the last two weekends. The Rino came unscrewed from the nut that holds it to the belt clip. The Explorer was in the cargo pocket of my pants and fell out. I've carried it there while hunting for 5 years and never lost it. The cost of my antelope hunt last week was a bit higher than expected!

Irish Pennant · 08-19-2005, 10:26 AM

I'm sorry that you had such misfortune, I hope that you achieved what you went out there for.

If your GPS is lost, where are you?

Carry Topo Maps of the area that you are in and know where you are at on them. Also carry a compass. There's more to land navigation than just a GPS.

skein · 08-19-2005, 10:37 AM

Maybe you (or someone) can help me with this:

I was scouting and diligently marked waypoints in my Garmin, i.e. N42 28.842 W120 11.664 but when I try to find those coordinates on TerraServer I am quite a ways off. As in an unacceptable distance off. I've tried converting the datum but not sure I'm doing the math correctly, or even if that's what I need to do.

My hope was to scout and mark waypoints, then use TerraServer to look at and print topos of those locations. It's not working. :whazzup:

Anyone else having this problem? Anyone have a solution?

Skein

earlybird007 · 08-19-2005, 10:47 AM

I bought the All Topo 6 disc set 2 years ago.

I have the whole state topo maps at any scale I want, and very good quality maps too...

Rick

Irish Pennant · 08-19-2005, 11:11 AM

Sorry I cant help with terraserver, I don't use it. I did go to their website and I noticed in their longitude box that a -sign was in front of the position, -122.382. Personally, the only time that I use Lat Log is when I'm using a chart for water nav. On land, I use UTM. Its much more precise and easier to use.

ColdSteel · 08-19-2005, 11:17 AM

Hey Skien try this and I think it should work.

Your numbers are in ddd/mm.mmm and you need to convert it to ddd.ddddd format for terraserver. To do this take the mm.mmm part of your number and divide by 60 then round to 5 digits. So for the first number N42/28.842 use 28.842/60= .48070 and your new number is 42.48070. The other part of it is W120/11.664. This comes out to W120.19440.

When you enter this into terraserver its Long -120.19440 and lat 42.48070. Hope this is what you needed. I got this info here: [url=http://www.calsign.com/mining/GPSconvert.htm]http://www.calsign.com/mining/GPSconvert.htm[/url

Well I tried this and it doesn't seem to be working right. You shuold try using USAphotomaps. It's a free program that pulls its maps from terraserver and is a bit easier to use I think.

skein · 08-19-2005, 11:52 AM

Thanks for the replies and tips, guys, but I'm like you, I can't get it to work.

I'll look at the other site and see if it comes in closer.

Skein

Myles · 08-19-2005, 12:46 PM

The maps are all hand drawn and inaccurate, when on terra server switch from topo to photo and look at the difference where the roads are. Don't get confused by it, just realize that it's just the way it is and keep it in mind when outdoors.

Myles

skein · 08-19-2005, 03:00 PM

Coldsteel,

Thanks for the USAPhotoMaps tip. That's a neat little program and I went right to my locations. Zoom in, out, scroll, flip to topo, anything you want is right there.

Cool, cool, cool.

Skein