Iraq Gps Maps

[jimg02]

Hi All,

 

My Son just got activated to Iraq. I was going to buy him a GPS with street mapping, but I can not seem to find anyonw that has a map of that area. Garmin has the middle East, but it excludes Iraq. The base map only shows 2 major roads and the Tigris River.

 

Any help or suggestions would be fantastic.

 

Jim, a concerned Father

[+Langner91]

Jim, I can't help you, and for that I am sorry.

 

But, I do want to say that I appreciate the sacrifices your family is making for me and for my family.

 

Tell your son that our thoughts and prayers are with him and his fellow soldiers.

 

Corey

[+Silly Look]

Dear Jim:

 

I spent some time in the middle east and Somalia in the early 90's and one of the things I found out was when you get deployed, everything is available. I would not be surprised if there were some really great bootleg topo type software copies in the stores over there. If not, then the military should have something available.

 

My thoughts are with you and your family.

 

Silly Look

[+Langner91]

I just googled "Iraq GPS" and there are some interesting sites listed.

 

This first one may give you some clues.

 

I know I saw a GPS unit on eBay with Iraq maps, but I can't find it nor the seller now.

[+Jeep_Dog]

I used a Garmin Legend over there that I bought from folks leaving, and it had the Iraq maps loaded in it. In fact, it even had waddis and some other really nifty terrain features loaded in. Unfortunately, I gave the unit to someone when I rotated out to help them in their endeavors.... I'm hoping to run into that battle-worn GPSr when I'm headed back for a second year (yippee).

 

At any rate, give me a few days to ask around and see if anyone knows where those maps came from. I've got a friend who has a Legend with those maps loaded into memory, but he won't be back from a trip until the end of the month. I'll bookmark this thread so that I can send you a private message if I find the maps.

 

You may also want to ask Garmin on their website. Knowing that company, they may very well provide the maps for free once they understand why you want the maps.

[+Faith the Aquariaqueen]

Just want to share my gratitude to you and your family......

[+Sputnik 57]

My son-in-law got back from a year in Tekrit last March. He said that the GPSrs the army supplies were excellent, and the maps were good. It might be nice to have a personal spare however. Be sure to send him care packages with lots of AA batteries.

 

I'll add my prayers for his safe return.

[+Greymane]

Hats off to you son (and you for raising a fine patriot).

 

I have always found my Pocket PC very handy (especially at sea) and now I use it for caching (and other GPS functions) as well. There are many GPS options depending on the type PPC you get (Bluetooth, CF card, etc.). This may be an option for you. It would not only give him the GPS function, but let him play games, compose email, store addresses & pictures, etc.

 

Maptech sells street maps of the major cities for the Pocket PC. They are the only ones I know of off hand. (Nothing like having a hand full of maps!)

 

You may also want to look into something like an Aquapac (around $25) which will keep the water and dust out of the PDA (and you can even use the PPC right through the bag, no need to take it out).

 

This is certainly pricier than just a GPS, but serves a lot of other purposes as well.

 

Fair winds and following seas to you son.

[+Alan2]

Good luck and God speed to you son.

 

Does anyone know if the satellites are (or were) blocked or signals offset for non-military GPS equipment in the war zone?

[+reveritt]

Best wishes and sincere thanks to you and your son.

 

I'm not surprised that GPS maps of Iraq are not available to the civilian market right now, as they would likely find their way to the insurgents.

[+Jeep_Dog]

Does anyone know if the satellites are (or were) blocked or signals offset for non-military GPS equipment in the war zone?

Sure, I know. No, they are not blocked or offset currently. The signals seemed to be "offset" in the first few weeks during the first Iraq rotation, but after the first month or so civilian units worked fine.

 

Give me a couple of months, and I'll give you current ground truth (again).

[ArmyCrayzee]

Best of luck to your son over there. I just returned and I bought the software available in the previous link. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's only a 8GB download so it was easy to get and all of my separation pay made up for it in two mohths. Garmin's stuff is $500 and they have very little for Iraq.

[Alpha1145]

Visit http://www.gmap.com.mx/ir/

 

They have detailed maps of Iraq for Garmin GPS units and very detailed street-level maps of the major cities. The total size of the map data is about 10.5MB and so your GPS unit must have at least that much memory in order to load all 4 of the map sets.

 

The maps are expensive ($350). I bought them as we had to convoy north from Kuwait to northern Iraq. I am happy to report that these maps were extremely accurate and we used them as a backup navigation system to our blue-force tracker systems.

 

SSG J. McGregor

B 1-148 FA