What Else Do You Use Your Gps For?

2k · June 4, 2004

Other then Geocaching what else do you use your gps for?

Fishing, hunting, biking, camping, crop circles, etc.....

June 4, 2004

A group of local geocachers gets together for breakfast once in a while. They send the coordinates for the restaurant by email. The GPSr is the only means possible for anyone to find the spot.

June 4, 2004

I am in the Army and prefer to use my GPS versus the one the government provides me.

June 4, 2004

Last December I used my geko to waypoint Christmas trees at a large tree farm in the Sierras. My wife and kids and I made our annual tree-killing pilgrimage in search of the perfect Christmas tree. The tree farm is huge, acres and acres. In past years we had found trees that we liked but wanted to keep looking. Then we had trouble re-finding the tree that we liked best. With the GPSr, we just followed the waypoint back to our tree.

2k · June 4, 2004

I am in the Army and prefer to use my GPS versus the one the government provides me

Really, that interesting.

Not to get off topic, but could you tell us why?

June 4, 2004

Have you seen what the Army currently uses? Its as big as a 1980s cell phone and very hard to program waypoints. The primary navigation screen only shows your location in the Military Grid Reference System, your elevation, and your speed. It has no compass, no bearing or heading, and definately no maps. Even though the Army's GPS can be accurate to 1 meter (10 digit Grid Coordinate), I am only interested in 6 digit grid coordinates (within 100 meters). As a crewman in a M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank we don't need pinpoint locations to get the job done. So......my GPS is much more user friendly, I can upload maps of the training area to it, I can use it to update the tanks PosNav system, and it is more than accurate enough for me.

The Army is suppose to field the next generation of GPS recievers this year so maybe we'll see a lot of improvements. Now that I think about it, a private is more likely to lose anything thats not the size of thier head.

June 4, 2004

I use mine for work, being a fireman I use it for giving cords to helicopters to land at to pick up patients, my location or the location on a wildland fire that I need a water drop or assistance.

June 5, 2004

Thought this topic came up before and after a quick search I found it and ... I started it and did not remember. <_<

Uses: Genealogy, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Backpacking to name a few.

Previous thread

June 5, 2004

Instead of going to McDonald's and getting an adult? Happy Meal with a pedometer, my g/f and I use mine for just that. Tells us how far we've gone, current walking speed, top speed, average speed. Just doesn't tell me how many calories we've worked off.

June 5, 2004

A group of local geocachers gets together for breakfast once in a while. They send the coordinates for the restaurant by email. The GPSr is the only means possible for anyone to find the spot.

Well you can just plot the cooridenants into a map site like mapquest and itll come up with a map of where its at...

I will be using mine for hunting this fall. Walk in a day before. then walk in before sunrise and just follow my path i took the day before. So i dont need a flash light or making lots a noise looking for something.

and plotting turn offs on long road trips is killer. expecially if you are horrid with directions.

aj

2.4k · June 5, 2004

You mean there's something OTHER than geocaching to use a GPS for? <_<

3.1k · June 5, 2004

I use mine to mark scuba diving locations.

June 5, 2004

I use a GPS to mark the locations of archaeological sites and finds within a national forest I work at. One of the nice things about working for the govt. is having access to all kinds of GIS applications, data files particular to the area we're working in, etc. I wish I could have this kind of stuff at home!

2.3k · June 5, 2004

Since the speedometer in my truck doesn't work, sometimes I use it to see how fast I'm going. My daughter in law followed me on a trip and said I was going eighty the whole way, and I thought I was going slow...oops!

June 5, 2004

I am mapping the old abandoned roads in the area for the use of our 4x4 club

3.5k · June 5, 2004

Sometimes I pick my teeth with that little nubbin' thing on the back of my Legend.

At the very least, it keeps people from borrowing my GPS.

Bret

June 5, 2004

Well mostly I use mine for what I got it for...finding my way around a strange are when travelling for work. found Geocaching as I was looking at various websites and have done more of my caching on business trips than at home <_< .

wrlwnd

1.2k · June 5, 2004

I have all McDonalds in the world as waypoints, so I know where to pick up more McToys to trade with <_<

No, okay, seriously, can you use a GPS to something else than geocaching? I didn't know about it. I have heard rumours that people sometimes use it when they drive between two places. Not caches. PLACES! Strange thing... :lol:

June 5, 2004

Since the speedometer in my truck doesn't work, sometimes I use it to see how fast I'm going. My daughter in law followed me on a trip and said I was going eighty the whole way, and I thought I was going slow...oops!

About the same for me. I never got the speedo in my Jeep recalibrated when I put the big tires on so I use it to make sure I'm going somewhere in the vicinity of a legal speed while on the highway <_<

Edited June 5, 2004 by clan_Barron

June 5, 2004

some driving, biking, camping, and sailing

2k · June 5, 2004

GeoFD,

Wow, talk about putting your gps to good use.

June 5, 2004

I like to take mine up in a glider when I fly, and just leave it on stuck in a side pocket. When I get back I plot the track with expertGPS to show where I flew. Pretty neat.

I primarily use it for hiking and exploring. It is also very useful for mountain biking. Sometimes it finds use when driving. But hiking and exploring are the big ones. Caching is actually a lower priority for me than that other stuff, and I will fit it in if I feel like it. A couple weeks ago I took a weekend camping/hiking trip, and planned to hit a ton of caches near my destination. I forgot to look them up and print them out, oh well. I still got to enjoy the mountains, which is the whole reason I went out there.

June 5, 2004

I use mine to map the location of all the bushes and trees on my lawn so I can prove to the police that someone has been moving them at night.

June 5, 2004

I use mine for moose hunting. It's saved my butt more than once - I take the waypoint of the vehicle before I hike into the bush (and of course, I bring LOTS of spare batteries!)

5.6k · June 5, 2004

I use mine while climbing. Locating camp in a white out is a life saver. Stashing extra gear and locating later is good. Finding the trail out is also nice. Even navigating the roads in to the trailhead works.

June 5, 2004

As a cop, I also use mine to list the Lat/Lon on traffic crash reports we submit to the State of Ohio.

June 5, 2004

When I bought mine, I really didn't have much idea what I was going to use it for. I bought it because I wanted it, even though I wasn't aware that I had any practical use for it. I like to think I'm usually more rational than this, but very often, I'm not — especially when it comes to buying neat gadgets that I really don't need.

I think I first realized a practical use for it when, one day, I had a difficult time finding my car in a parking lot. It's a parking lot with which I am very familiar, and I don't usually have this problem; but on this occasion, I had become rather confused about just where, in this parking lot, I had left my car.

My GPS was on, at the time., and after a while, I realized that if I looked at the track, I could probably figure out where my car was. It worked, and within minutes, my car and I were happily reunited.

Since then, I've tried to make a habit, whenever I park my car anywhere that there is any question at all about my ability to find it again, to set a waypoint on my GPS so that I can easily find my way back.

Being a type II diabetic, it's important for me to get a fair amount of light exercise. Alas, I have been quite lax about this, lately, but when I do anything about it, what I do is to go for a long walk. My GPS gives me a way of knowing how long a walk I've had. When my life is otherwise in better shape than it currently is, I try to make a point of walking at least a mile each day.

1.4k · June 5, 2004

Mine come in handy to use to give landing coordinates to Life Flight helicopter pilots at the scene of a bad traffic accidents. Not only does my Magellan give me and my children a lot of fun while geocaching, but it can also be used to help save a life. GPS has really changed the world... for the better!

2.1k · June 5, 2004

Some of our other uses:

set waypoints to meet family members while traveling

get waypoints for free camp sites from a friend and set our own

find nearest freeway exits and services (Garmin R&R maps)

track desert and other dirt road travels

look for the road less traveled (on Garmin maps)

compare the speed of Washington State ferry boats to those of Costa Rica (22 mph v. 7.5 mph)

land development:

waypoint property corners,

environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA) borders,

building locations,

locate buffer zone approximate edges from ESHA's

locate proposed development for approximation mapping

waypoint photo locations

waypoint photo point distances and elevations for computer modeling

June 5, 2004

We use ours to confuse friends into thinking we have a huge cell phone, at least by today's standards. Just happened a couple of days ago...The Legend was sitting on the counter in the kitchen, and a visiting friend picked it up. He asked, 'Uh, where are the numbers? This cell phone is huge!'

After asking if he was serious, I explained what it was and why we have it. I seriously wonder about the guy...he's in the Army, and I guess I had high hopes for him.

Other than that, we really only use the GPSr for geocaching (and taking up counter space). It's still so new to us that we haven't come up with any other uses yet!

Paula :unsure:

June 6, 2004

I originaly bought mine for work. I'm a firefighter in Southern Cal and was stationed up in the mountain area. I used it all the time for helicopter operations (medivacs) fire mapping and hiking. I soon found out about geocaching and in no time I was out finding metal and plastic containers.

June 6, 2004

I use mine for business. It is great for determining ETA's while taking a trip so I know if I have time for a break, how long I can spend on gas stops and so on.

1.1k · June 6, 2004

My GPSr has a vibrate feature. Needless to say I experience more "Arriving at destination" moments than the average cacher. :unsure:

June 6, 2004

What model is that?

June 6, 2004

To find the boat ramps in dense fog at night.

June 6, 2004

My job takes me to about 10 locations throughout the day. The routing capabilities of my GPS V will give me turn by turn directions for the ones I don't know how to get to.

Also the routing capability will take you right to a cache if it's close to a road. If not it will sometimes take you to a street on the wrong side of a cache that would require a "nasty" hike uphill or across a swamp. It's best to switch to "off road mode" when you get close then drive around some. Before I got the GPS V it was a pain to find the location to some caches with maps.

Mick

Edited June 6, 2004 by MickUpi

1.5k · June 6, 2004

You mean there's something OTHER than geocaching to use a GPS for?

You mean there is something other than Geocaching?

June 6, 2004

When on the Jet skis... marking beaches, launches and backtracking on large bodies of water.

When on the Quads... marking camp, points of interest and mapping trails.

June 6, 2004

I use mine at work to find the small towns in Iowa and Nebraska that I have to go to do my job.

June 30, 2004

Ok, i'm new to Geocaching, but I've had my Venture for awhile now and found something fun to do with it (besides Geocache). I took mine up with me on a snowboard trip and used it to compete with my brother for top speed going downhill. I'm just a slightly less than average boarder and clocked myself at 42 mph top speed. No spedometer on the board - makes the GPS that much more handy.

Also, I concur with that other military fellow. I'm in the Army and I'd use my civilian GPS over the military GPS unit all the time. In fact, my Commander was issued a civilian GPS when the unit deployed to Iraq.

Bryan

POLARBZ

1.5k · June 30, 2004

Other then Geocaching what else do you use your gps for?

Fishing, hunting, biking, camping, crop circles, etc.....

I've always used mine (an etrex vista) to display saved tracks with USA PhotoMaps. I've even driven around town, trying to "spell things" with my saved tracklog. Kind of like an etch-a-sketch. *laugh* I saw a few sites where people really do that stuff, so of course I had to try.

Another interesting thing I've found recently, is using my saved tracks when I go on bike rides... save the track, plop it into GPS Visualizer, and you get to see the path you travelled - along with the various speeds you were going at that point in time.

I saved one of my recent bike rides in my Image Dump photo album at Webshots. Neat stuff.

Can't really say that I've done anything useful with my GPSr. It's just an expensive toy for me, really.

2.1k · June 30, 2004

A group of local geocachers gets together for breakfast once in a while. They send the coordinates for the restaurant by email. The GPSr is the only means possible for anyone to find the spot.

not so - when I put the waypoints in my mapping software the flag shows up on the given street and in most cases so does the restaraunt.

2.1k · June 30, 2004

I use mine for work, being a fireman I use it for giving cords to helicopters to land at to pick up patients, my location or the location on a wildland fire that I need a water drop or assistance.

now THAT really is neat!

8.9k · June 30, 2004

Hmmm...

It appears that the Geneology was never expanded out. I use it to waypoint grave sites of direct ancestors. I have waypointed the locations of my grandparents and will be doing my great-grandparents as I do some driving around in Illinois.

1.8k · June 30, 2004

Gee, all I ever use it for is to lead me to addresses in unfamiliar areas.

Guess I need a more exciting life.

June 30, 2004

Military - where my tent is.... where the food is... where the pooper is.... not necessarily in that order of priority

Diving - where the good spots are

Hiking - How much further now... (SE Ontario res, check out Frontenac Park, Frontenac Challenge)

Model Railways - Where nifty things are I wish to incorperate into my model Railway

Business Travel - where the hotel is

Looking Cool - I am a Clerk / Sergeant Major... I have a brief case AND a pace stick... When I talk about trains, Star Trek and Starwars the GPS just adds to my cool factor.... away ladies - away, for the love of God, I am a married man!

2k · June 30, 2004

I originally wanted a GPS to navigating the maze of mining road while four wheeling. But I have found it is really handy when traveling in a strange city or even finding an unfamiliar street at home.

June 30, 2004

Use for marking fishing areas while ice fishing-

Marking spots on lakes - fishing, or low water markers- bouy's, no wake, etc-

marking the landing on larger lakes-

marking roads in unfamiliar areas

marking trails for the ATV, and Jeeps - marking the obstacles to avoid, water holes, etc.

finding things while traveling in unknown cities, or finding my way out of these

unknown cities.

testing speedo on everything I own

Probably more I cant think of right now

June 30, 2004

Testing speedo on everything you own? Don't think I have seen a speedo on a GPS before.

June 30, 2004

Sorry -

thats Speedometer . . .

What Else Do You Use Your Gps For?

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