68
votes
Accepted
How can I get a GPS location for this tree on a distant hillside?
There are a number of different ways to do this.
Method using GPS, compass and Google Earth.
Get the GPS coordinates of where you can see the tree from.
Take a bearing with a compass to the tree ...
- 69.3k
24
votes
Are there any GPS devices with no transmission capability?
All GPS navigators on the market work as you’ve described. Two way communication is very battery intensive and costs money, so it’s only included in PLB beacons or devices like Spot, not your average ...
- 2,997
22
votes
Accepted
Are there any GPS devices with no transmission capability?
You are probably best looking at older and cheaper models to achieve this lack of functionality. Therefore you should look for models that don't advertise bluetooth connectivity, app integration or ...
- 396
20
votes
Accepted
Can I record my route electronically when underground?
How would GPS trackers work when underground?
Poorly
I have no personal experience with Alltrails, but the GPS apps which I have used in the past mostly did not cope well with GPS reception being ...
- 13k
20
votes
Are there any GPS devices with no transmission capability?
Y'all are way overthinking this.
Get an old and/or cheap smart phone. Don't put a SIM card in it. Install some basic GPS app and then tell it to forget the WiFi network (and turn off WiFi). If you don'...
- 311
19
votes
Should I buy a GPS to calculate elevation gain/loss?
Vertical difference to summit: If you are just interested in reaching a minimum, it is often sufficient to compute the difference between the start and the summit, e.g. start at 1000m summit at 1800m ...
- 7,245
16
votes
Can I record my route electronically when underground?
Assisted GPS is different from inertial navigation. It uses ground stations to transmit GPS almanacs and ephemeris for faster GPS start-up. There are also wide-area augmentation services such as ...
- 4,712
13
votes
How can I get a GPS location for this tree on a distant hillside?
Take two compass bearings from two known GPS coordinates but different azimuths. Then just use the formula to calculate their intersection.
Aviation Formulary -- Great Circle Navigation Formulae -- ...
- 155
12
votes
Accepted
Is Gaia GPS inaccurate for distances?
GPS is simply not a good way to measure trail distance. This is because the raw GPS fixes have a lot of noise on them. If you take them literally, then you get a much longer distance than you ...
- 21.4k
12
votes
Accepted
When considering GPS battery life where are the best options?
From your three options, a Dedicated GPS unit is going to be your best bet.
Smart Phones barely last a day. If you're out of coverage, the phone will keep searching for network and battery will die ...
- 2,338
11
votes
Should I buy a GPS to calculate elevation gain/loss?
Should I buy a GPS?
Maybe (or rather probably yes), but you don't need one to estimate elevation gain or loss, and they may not be very accurate for this purpose. There are good reasons to buy a GPS;...
- 27.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there a mobile app to easily send a SMS message with coordinates?
I don't know what phone you have, but there appears to be a relatively simple Android app called "GPS Coordinates GPS Location" that claims to be able to text your coordinates without requiring a data ...
- 434
10
votes
How can I get a GPS location for this tree on a distant hillside?
First thing I would try is to see if I could pick the tree out on Google Earth.
https://earth.google.com/web/
In many locations, especially near mid-sized or larger towns and cities, even the tree ...
- 101
9
votes
Accepted
Geocaching: How important is having a dedicated GPS device instead of a smartphone?
In addition to the good advice Tullochgorum gave,
I have been Geocaching for a couple years, i did it for about a year with just my phone, later i bought a dedicated GPS device, used it for awhile ...
- 2,624
9
votes
Help me interface these two nautical devices
Garmin GPSMap 182C and Simrad TP32 share the same language (NMEA 0183), but they do not have enough in common to talk about.
The NMEA sentences that the 182C can transmit are GPRMC, GPGGA, GPGSA, ...
- 191
8
votes
Is Gaia GPS inaccurate for distances?
There are two main things that can go wrong with gps accuracy.
The first is the quality of the signal, which can be less than for a dedicated gps unit (less space for an antenna and other design ...
- 26.4k
7
votes
How can I get a GPS location for this tree on a distant hillside?
You’ve consistently maintained that you want to get the gps location of that tree, and you’ve said that the displayed view is the only one available and eliminated any method that uses a second line ...
- 71
7
votes
Can I record my route electronically when underground?
GPS and similar technologies do not work at all underground, they can be blocked fairly effectively by dense tree-cover or being deep in a valley, even with clear views of the sky. Any thickness of ...
- 10.4k
7
votes
Are there any GPS devices with no transmission capability?
Answering the updated question:
Get a device that uses an external memory - i.e. (micro) SD card for the maps.
You will never connect the device to a computer and may still have the actual maps on the ...
- 407
6
votes
GPS Altitude Anomalies
Having talked about this to a couple of people offline who have some experience with mapping, we have a working theory (though I'll not accept my own answer unless+until others confirm these ideas).
...
- 241
6
votes
Device with very accurate GPS location
Over a small area you may be able to do something. I don't know if you have a small area to deal with, and 10ft might be pushing it even then. Basically you fix the position of a known point by some ...
- 26.4k
6
votes
How can I get a GPS location for this tree on a distant hillside?
This technique allows you to find the coordinates of the tree from wherever you took your picture, with nothing but a GPS, compass, and topographical map.
From a position where you can see the tree ...
- 161
6
votes
Accepted
Any actions to take with GPS rollover?
Original answer below. Apparently I'm not the only one incensed by Garmin's behaviour. Garmin has a firmware update for the PN-60 series version 3.7 that was NOT present on their website last time I ...
6
votes
Where can I find resources to find user-contributed GPS tracks?
Different sites are strong in different parts of the world or for different activities, even if most aim to cover all activities. This is a list of such websites.
This is a community wiki effort. ...
5
votes
Device with very accurate GPS location
There are several ways to use GPS signals that would give you the desired accuracy.
You can use either DGPS or a SBAS (WAAS in the US) for an accuracy of meters.
For a centimeter level accuracy you ...
- 349
5
votes
When considering GPS battery life where are the best options?
Stretch target: 10 days of GPS between charging points with minimal additional weight
I'm planning some long on-trail thru-hikes where digital mapping would be much lighter and more practical. But I'...
- 11.7k
5
votes
Is Gaia GPS inaccurate for distances?
We have an article about this topic, since Gaia GPS users frequently ask - why GPS recording can be inaccurate.
The short answer is, as others have said, GPS isn't perfectly accurate. If you compare ...
- 151
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible