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Unexpected Uses for GPS


Woodstramp

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I'd be interested in how you folks have found unexpected, non-caching related, uses for your GPS units.

 

Personally, I came to caching while researching online about a handheld that I bought for fishing, hunting and hiking. Since that time I've found that I use a GPS for a good bit more and that I use it way more than I would have ever thought. Examples:

 

I'm a history buff, whether it's US, World or family history. Handhelds are great for marking this kind of stuff. I catalog and digitize family pics and include location notes with corresponding pics. That way, future family members can see who was in the pic, but can also see where....and find these places. Guess you call it backwards geocoding. An example here: My kids have never been to the family farm where thier grandmother was born. I find it on something like Acmemapper or Google Earth and now they can just drive to the farm one day just using the pic and notes. They recall me talking about a great swimming hole in Texas, they will be able to take thier kids there too one day.

 

Also, I know the counties around here like the back of my hand, but I still use a Nuvi car unit just about every day. It's not that I don't know the area, it's that these road routing units are great for time management while doing every day commutes. For instance....I am on the way to work...forgot I need an auto part, hammer or whatever....just do a Goto to work...estimated ETA....Nuvi tells me I can get to work with 30 minutes to spare....add an auto parts dealer or Lowes in as a via and goof off time at that store can easily be seen. I am rarely late for work.

 

Another observation. I can't remember how many (non-GPS using) folks have told me that using these things will make your brain lazy and make you forget how to even get around without one. Mentioned earlier that I know my areas like the back of my hand. I'd say that GPS has made me even more situationally aware that before.

 

Would like to hear other unintended uses you may have found.

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I'd be interested in how you folks have found unexpected, non-caching related, uses for your GPS units.

 

Personally, I came to caching while researching online about a handheld that I bought for fishing, hunting and hiking. Since that time I've found that I use a GPS for a good bit more and that I use it way more than I would have ever thought. Examples:

 

I'm a history buff, whether it's US, World or family history. Handhelds are great for marking this kind of stuff. I catalog and digitize family pics and include location notes with corresponding pics. That way, future family members can see who was in the pic, but can also see where....and find these places. Guess you call it backwards geocoding. An example here: My kids have never been to the family farm where thier grandmother was born. I find it on something like Acmemapper or Google Earth and now they can just drive to the farm one day just using the pic and notes. They recall me talking about a great swimming hole in Texas, they will be able to take thier kids there too one day.

 

Also, I know the counties around here like the back of my hand, but I still use a Nuvi car unit just about every day. It's not that I don't know the area, it's that these road routing units are great for time management while doing every day commutes. For instance....I am on the way to work...forgot I need an auto part, hammer or whatever....just do a Goto to work...estimated ETA....Nuvi tells me I can get to work with 30 minutes to spare....add an auto parts dealer or Lowes in as a via and goof off time at that store can easily be seen. I am rarely late for work.

 

Another observation. I can't remember how many (non-GPS using) folks have told me that using these things will make your brain lazy and make you forget how to even get around without one. Mentioned earlier that I know my areas like the back of my hand. I'd say that GPS has made me even more situationally aware that before.

 

Would like to hear other unintended uses you may have found.

 

I fly from time to time and use it on the plane. I fly on board military aircraft (as a retiree, I have the benefit of catching military hops world-wide) and they don't have the "air show" the airlines have...so I hold up my GPSr to the window and track the flight. Very, very, very interesting! I get the same use on trains and buses. Very fun!

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I belong to the POI factory website and have put together several POI files, my favorite being mom and pop family restaurants which I use my handheld to mark as we travel. My wife and her sister do genealogy so when she wants to find a certain cemetery I go to the USGS website and get the coordinates for the cemeteries and load them in the car GPS, it's a real time saver.

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I'd be interested in how you folks have found unexpected, non-caching related, uses for your GPS units.

 

Personally, I came to caching while researching online about a handheld that I bought for fishing, hunting and hiking. Since that time I've found that I use a GPS for a good bit more and that I use it way more than I would have ever thought. Examples:

 

I'm a history buff, whether it's US, World or family history. Handhelds are great for marking this kind of stuff. I catalog and digitize family pics and include location notes with corresponding pics. That way, future family members can see who was in the pic, but can also see where....and find these places. Guess you call it backwards geocoding. An example here: My kids have never been to the family farm where thier grandmother was born. I find it on something like Acmemapper or Google Earth and now they can just drive to the farm one day just using the pic and notes. They recall me talking about a great swimming hole in Texas, they will be able to take thier kids there too one day.

 

Also, I know the counties around here like the back of my hand, but I still use a Nuvi car unit just about every day. It's not that I don't know the area, it's that these road routing units are great for time management while doing every day commutes. For instance....I am on the way to work...forgot I need an auto part, hammer or whatever....just do a Goto to work...estimated ETA....Nuvi tells me I can get to work with 30 minutes to spare....add an auto parts dealer or Lowes in as a via and goof off time at that store can easily be seen. I am rarely late for work.

 

Another observation. I can't remember how many (non-GPS using) folks have told me that using these things will make your brain lazy and make you forget how to even get around without one. Mentioned earlier that I know my areas like the back of my hand. I'd say that GPS has made me even more situationally aware that before.

 

Would like to hear other unintended uses you may have found.

 

I fly from time to time and use it on the plane. I fly on board military aircraft (as a retiree, I have the benefit of catching military hops world-wide) and they don't have the "air show" the airlines have...so I hold up my GPSr to the window and track the flight. Very, very, very interesting! I get the same use on trains and buses. Very fun!

I like to do the same thing on cruise ships. Making sure the captain isn't lost.

Edited by yorelken
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When I am building I forget in which store I have seen the finishing material and what was the price. For example tiles, doors, bathrooms etc. What I do now I stick a yellow note on the part with the price and take a photo. Later when I decide which part I want to buy I let the gps navigate to the photo. very efficient tool for making the right decision with minimum effort.

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I use my hand held Garmins with my GIS work, among other things. I've found ways to convert CAD and GIS shapefile data (for example) such as property tax parcels and proposed construction site and utility info, and load for roughly positioning oneself in the field. Loading parcel data has helped greatly in the discovery of property monuments in the field saving time for our surveyors. I could go on with the numerous engineering applications this has helped us with!

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One of my friends worked installing windmills somewhere in central Kansas - the airplane warning lights are all synchronized, and they did it with the PPS output of a GPS puck on each windmill.

Since you brought that one up..

This isn't a personal use, but that of a friend of mine who makes (very large) telescopes and tracking/positioning systems. They also use a puck to grab GPS timebase data for their positioning systems.

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This past summer we used our GPSr's to locate several patented mining claims. It was a good exercise in two ways: 1. we got a lot accomplished that we would not have been able to do without a GPS and 2. You tend to get a lot of exercise covering several square miles on foot at between 9,000 to 12,000 feet in elevation.

I suppose one could call this 'benchmarking' but the purpose was to locate land belonging to my late father and pass that information on to his heirs.

I spent around $150 on official survey records dating back to the early 1880's and around 20 hours online, researching. It amazed me how much information is on the web!

I'd have to admit that finding a stone sticking out of the ground, in the middle of the woods, placed there in 1894 with writing etched in the stone and still legible is infinitely more rewarding than any geocache I have ever found ... or logged a DNF for.

Cheers,

PandA Inc

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This past summer we used our GPSr's to locate several patented mining claims. It was a good exercise in two ways: 1. we got a lot accomplished that we would not have been able to do without a GPS and 2. You tend to get a lot of exercise covering several square miles on foot at between 9,000 to 12,000 feet in elevation.

I suppose one could call this 'benchmarking' but the purpose was to locate land belonging to my late father and pass that information on to his heirs.

I spent around $150 on official survey records dating back to the early 1880's and around 20 hours online, researching. It amazed me how much information is on the web!

I'd have to admit that finding a stone sticking out of the ground, in the middle of the woods, placed there in 1894 with writing etched in the stone and still legible is infinitely more rewarding than any geocache I have ever found ... or logged a DNF for.

Cheers,

PandA Inc

 

"infinitely more rewarding" is a very appropriate description of finding the rock !

 

Here's a couple of examples dating back even BEFORE "the game" of Geocaching was invented, and some of which were done in the days of "SA".

 

Finding irrigation ditch headgates whose locations were determined from old legal descriptions and "hand plotted" on paper topo maps and then coordinates determined by measuring distances from UTM lines....before computer mapping software.

 

Another one......Finding one mining claim "Pin" and then plotting the other corners/pins by using the distances and directions from the old historical Claim plat and using Expert GPS's ability to accurately project waypoints. The coordinates for the last point were accurate enough to enter in the GPS and "walk"(climb) right to the pin.....at 10,000 ft + elevation. By being able to do this, it proved that the BLM's "Public/Private Land Ownership" overlay was incorrect (only by several hundred feet !(half the width of the claim)).......

Getting the BLM to admit the error and "Eat Crow"........PRICELESS !!!

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I have also found that using a gpsr I have actually become better at navigating around in the woods. I always have a compass with me to confirm my gps compass, now I use it as I'm hiking. Before I was too afraid to get off the trail, or simply bushwhack, even in a small area.

 

Now that I am apt to wander around I've taken the trouble to become familier with using a map and compass.

 

I also use a garmin system to track my doggies and now have a place where they can run around without bothering anyone. They love it!

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We also use them for offroad racing. You can prerun the course and mark all the hazards and plot your course. Some of the race vehicles have 2 installed. The co-rider watches the gps while racing and tells the driver where to go and of any hazards. Also, if you happen to have an issue and need assistance, radio your coordinates to the chase crew and they will come.

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Not something I've done, but there are little GPS receivers for R/C aircraft that can transmit realtime telemetry to the R/C transmitter or a special receiver, so if you crash your plane somewhere out of site (say a corn field) you can navigate to it using a handheld GPS/smartphone. :)

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As a tanget to a cache hunt....

 

We were looking for a cache in a part of Georgia I'd never been to, and of course, it was pitch black dark out. My wife forgot that our truck is not a 4x4, and got us stuck, in the woods, next to a cemetery that dates back to the late 1700's. Her dad has a 4x4, and lives about an hour or so away. (We were out on one of our random cache runs, so I'm not entirely sure how far from home we are. I call her dad, and the only positional reference I can give him is our GPS coord, which he then punches into google earth, and figures out where we are. The wife, 2 kids and myself, then make the alomst 2 mile hike out to a real road, and await his arrival. he shows up at about 2 AM, and we ate breakfast on the way home.

 

Later!

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I have used mine to plan some of my fishing trips, it has a solunar table as an added feature. I originally bought to mark places for fishing and hunting and then got into geocaching. The first time that I marked a spot and went back to it via gps I was with seven guys on a fishing trip and we were over 300 miles from home and it took us right to the "spot" we were fishing the year before, there were a lot of skeptics about the gps but after that 3 of the guys bought them after the trip.

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Actually, for me it was just this....geocaching.

 

Several of my 4WD buddies with GPSrs moved away so I decided that it was time for me to get one for 4WD sightseeing and exploring. Then I started reading the Delorme forum to learn a few things about when I came across the term geocaching, of which I was unfamiliar. I consequently Googled it and then decided to see what it was for myself. :rolleyes:

Edited by Team CowboyPapa
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