Re: Dumbing Down GPS, Lat/Long Getting Lost

First off - John, great discussion starter and thread.

I've noticed the same things over the years.

First started out teaching navigation in my science classes and GPS was
the new wave. Machines then only had bread crumb trails and you had to
manually enter lat/lon waypoints. My aircraft charts and topo maps were
always nearby.

Used SA to introduce the concept of error in calculation. Been almost
10 years since that was turned off. Most users today wouldn't know what
to do if the circular error ballooned to 100 ft.

Thought my GPS III was the best thing since sliced bread. Had maps of
the basic roads, I could transfer my lat/lon waypoints from the maps,
and customizable displays.

Played with a street pilot and liked the larger screen as my eyes get
older. But, I can't change the displays. Don't want the little pointer
telling me I'm off course. Rather have the speed, direction, and
distance to go in the window. Also aggravating for it to route me on a
2 lane road at 55 when the interstate is 3 miles north and I requested
fastest route.

Now, unless you keep an updated map set in the box, you get off route
errors. Bypass put around town and opened recently. Machine doesn't
know it exists. I'm on the new road, old road now a frontage road for a
residential area. The silly box keeps telling me "off route - make a U
turn as soon as possible". Yeah, right.

Someone mentioned search and rescue with the Kimm and mountain
climbers. A basic GPS with lat/lon may have helped in both events. If
you get a cell tower, keep reading off the numbers. Hopefully it would
give the searchers a better location than "I think i'm off the gravel
road about 2 miles up route 21." or "I came down the north face and
slipped down an unexpected snow ridge."

Got a Bendix KLX-100 NAV/COM/GPS. The beacon feature comes up on 121.5
with the alert tone and then digitized voice giving the lat/lon if a
valid GPS signal is present. It's dinosaur technology today (8 channel
receiver and a small housing brick in size) but that beacon feature
alone could save lives.

I could live with having to do an "Easter Egg" maneuver (press 3 buttons
at once) to get access to the lat/lon data. But let me get it.

Until then, I'll keep searching for the perfect GPS that gives me a
decent map set, ability to enter my waypoints my way, customizable
display, ability to be used in pocket, in car, or on my airline tray
table, and have decent battery life. (I don't want much, do I?)

MAH
.