Do you rely on GPS?

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I use it but never rely on it. Several years ago I had a meeting at the head office in Houston. The GPS took me to a gas station, not even a station from the same oil company. Turns out the office building used to be on the same site but they built a new campus a few miles down the road. I guess it pays to keep these things updated.
 
Currently, only if I am going to a far off city.
Even then, I look it up online, get the general directions and then print them off.
I have had too many times where Google messes up and sends me in the wrong direction.

Post SHTF, I have three different compasses (one USGI) and one built into my watch (solar charging).

I have a DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer on the book shelf for my state.
The wife wants USGS 1:24,000 of our area and the immediate surrounding areas (i.e. adjacent maps).
 
I had Apple Maps give me the wrong directions to a gun shop 2 weeks ago. First it told me to turn left, then turn right as I was in the left turn lane. If I had gone straight I could have turned left into the parking lot.

Do you think Big Tech is against us?
 
I seldom travel to a city anymore so I don't need GPS for that. I live in a fairly remote area and travel to very remote areas, many areas dont have "roads" or even trails. GPS helps me to track my route so I can find my way home, especially in the dark or snowstorm. I also use GPS to mark my set locations while trapping. I use GPS on my jet boat to mark the channels and shallow sand bars.
 
I have a 1995 GPS set up but I haven’t been able to get it to work properly in years. I think they changed the satellites.
I am fortunate that if I had been somewhere once, I never have ask again.
Matter of fact, I have the GPS turned off on my phone, except when I need it.
Worked against me when I lost my phone last week. Really thought about going back to a dumb phone, if it was permanently lost.
 
Arcticdude said:
I seldom travel to a city anymore so I don't need GPS for that.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I can't get to my daughter's house or my son's house without going through Atlanta. Going around is like an hour and a half detour. When my daughter was at Vanderbilt in Nashville we had to go through Atlanta to get there too. It's a friggin nightmare.
 
I will only need it when traveling now, but it is an amazing tool. And it’s free. I trust googles version 100%. She told me to turn behind a shopping plaza once. I thought, ok she lost it and ignored her. That cost me 30 extra minutes in traffic. Now I listen to her to get around live updates to slow traffic, wrecks, even where police have speed traps. I can say from personal experience that apples version sucks comparatively. I tried it first and it’s years behind googles. GPS is just a tool, a really good thing to learn and use, but always keeping an awareness of where you are is a good idea. You never know when the system could go down, or even just loose signal for a time. Never become too dependent in any one thing.
 
I use the GPS on my phone for trips into unknown areas. I use a Garmin Rino radio/GPS for outdoor activities. You have to embrace technology.

Now with saying that, every person should be familiar with always knowing where North is and how to read a map. Always know your basics first because you just might have to fall back on them.
 
MOS0231 said:
The wife wants USGS 1:24,000 of our area and the immediate surrounding areas (i.e. adjacent maps).
Click to expand...


Smart wife, I have USGS maps of my area. I have the map that I live in(center map), and then all of the maps that adjoin the central map. That gives you a lot of ground to study for defensive purposes. Where to block roads, assign observation posts, etc.

If you dont want to pay for printed maps then at least download the PDF versions of the maps. Then you can print what you need. Just have a lot of printer ink on standby.
 
I have the latest Garmin RV770 in my 4x4, it has all the HEMA maps of country backroads, trails, and all the camping spots and other useful info. Best part though is it alerts me to fixed speed traps and redlight camera locations. If you are a luddite living up in the boonies and never go anywhere then you don't need them but I like to travel and explore so I find them very useful.

My older brother was very anti-gps, anti-toll roads and all that stuff. He'd cut off his nose to spite his face. It wasn't until 2015 he actually got his first computer and connected to the web, then he was all excited and telling me stuff the rest of us had been through a decade before. Typical of him, a closed mind and when it opened briefly he would imagine that he was the first to discover a thing.
 
MaterielGeneral said:
Now with saying that, every person should be familiar with always knowing where North is and how to read a map.
Click to expand...

I have observed that people who didn't grow up with maps and street directories simply wont use them, they rely totally on the gPS. Even when using it to go somewhere unfamiliar I will always check the path across the map first just to get a feel where I'm going. Old habits die hard, but they also pay off.
 
Over the years a few people have died because they didnt understand how to setup their GPS. Theres a setting for Shortest Route and one for Fastest Route. If your using Shortest Route the GPS could try taking you over a mountain pass on an un-maintained dirt road. People who don't have any sense would blindly follow the GPS and eventually get stuck. Another reason to never own a 2 wheel drive vehicle and to not carry tire chains, shovel and an emergency kit.
This may not be an issue in the flat lands back east.
 
I don´t use a GPS. Depending on which kind of disaster strikes, GPS will be down after a few seconds to a few days.
 
over here its generally referred to as "Sat Nav" and its on all smartphones, my phone is a basic model and dosent have it, I probably wouldnt use it anyway, I prefer paper maps.
 
I prefer paper maps too. I use topo maps and Forest Service and BLM maps. But a paper map can't guide me home after dark or during a snow storm. Or save my route on a shallow rocky river. Not all of the US is connected by maintained paved roads.
If GPS disappeared tomorrow we'd all be fine.
 
I only use them as aides TO map / road atlas and compass, NEVER instead OF.
 
Some of you that don't understand what GPS can do simply can't comprehend what we are talking about. Paper maps can't tell me where recently closed roads and traffic jams are and the fastest way to get around them to avoid traffic. Google Maps (and it pains me to have to use Google anything) will give real time traffic information and suggest detours to save time. On nearly every trip up to North Carolina to see my daughter there will be a severe traffic jam or two or three and Google maps will warn me of it and tell me how to get around it. Coming back last week there was a 10 mile long logjam on I-85 at Gaffney with the southbound lanes at a complete standstill. I was able to drive around it before I got into the traffic jam.
This is what part of that stretch looks like RIGHT NOW on Google Maps:
LUL75kT.png
 
DrHenley said:
Some of you that don't understand what GPS can do simply can't comprehend what we are talking about. Paper maps can't tell me where recently closed roads and traffic jams are and the fastest way to get around them to avoid traffic. Google Maps (and it pains me to have to use Google anything) will give real time traffic information and suggest detours to save time. On nearly every trip up to North Carolina to see my daughter there will be a severe traffic jam or two or three and Google maps will warn me of it and tell me how to get around it. Coming back last week there was a 10 mile long logjam on I-85 at Gaffney with the southbound lanes at a complete standstill. I was able to drive around it before I got into the traffic jam.
This is what part of that stretch looks like RIGHT NOW on Google Maps:
LUL75kT.png
Click to expand...

THATS why GPS is a useful AID not a replacement for maps.
 
DrHenley said:
Unfortunately I can't get to my daughter's house or my son's house without going through Atlanta. Going around is like an hour and a half detour. When my daughter was at Vanderbilt in Nashville we had to go through Atlanta to get there too. It's a friggin nightmare.
Click to expand...
Last time i was in Atlanta i got lost in 5 oclock traffic, the roads and signs down there are horrible!!
 
I would never completely depend on GPS for driving around on the road system. In Alaska I had a GPS chart plotter in my jet boat. Many Alaskan rivers are fed by glacier and have zero visibility due to the silt, and the depth finder wouldn't work. Some rivers can be a mile or two wide and only a half inch deep in places. Its vital to map a channel going up or down river so you can find your way back after traveling a hundred miles or so without getting hung up on a sand bar. I'd still run up on a sand bar occasionally anyway due to shifting sand and silt, so I'd carry a parachute with me to drop off the stern. It would fill up with water and drag the boat off the sand bar, most of the time. GPS is a great tool. For me I seldom use it to find an address or a town.
 
Proud Prepper said:
What about after SHTF?

Please move your GPS posts from vaccine thread to this one.
Click to expand...

in regard to GPS - it's 100% controllable by the US gooberment - might not get to the actual SHTF kick-off before the US military goes coded >>> any attack on the US and friendlies will attempt to use active GPS for pinpoint target accuracy and navigation >> WW2 Pearl Harbor attack the Japs were listening to Sunday morning hula music heading in from the sea ....

wouldn't count on anything like GPS 100% - even in a domestic scuffle an administration like Biden's might find it advantageous to cut the civilian GPS along with communications & internet ....
 
Illini Warrior said:
in regard to GPS - it's 100% controllable by the US gooberment - might not get to the actual SHTF kick-off before the US military goes coded >>> any attack on the US and friendlies will attempt to use active GPS for pinpoint target accuracy and navigation >> WW2 Pearl Harbor attack the Japs were listening to Sunday morning hula music heading in from the sea ....

wouldn't count on anything like GPS 100% - even in a domestic scuffle an administration like Biden's might find it advantageous to cut the civilian GPS along with communications & internet ....
Click to expand...
Had not thought about that
 
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