GPS

[Flemingovia]

Hand held GPS! I got a handheld GPS for geocacheing for my birthday.

I are excited!

[The Empire]

I can understand that, How does it work? How long does it last on one battery charge and what other fancy gadgets can you link it up with?

[Flemingovia]

Basically, you enter a latitude and longitude, and it will point you towards that point. There is more to it than that, but that is the gist. A GPS can get you to within about 10 feet of any point on earth.

GPS systems have given rise to two sports: Waymarking and geocaching. In waymarking people post on the net the lat/long of interesting sites, viewpoints, buildings etc, so that others can visit them.

In Geocaching people hide small treasure troves, and post the lat/long of the trove. The GPS will get you close, but you need to hunt - like a treasure hunt. there are often clues and stuff to solve too.

The battery on my GPS lasts about 30 hours, and it will link to my computer so that I can download waymarks and caches.

[The Empire]

Cool, I knew how the GPS network works and also know that civilian GPS recivers are limited to a certain number of satelites less than military GPS recivers who need far better accuracy.

Geocoaching sounds extremely fun, also, what map-systems are your GPS compatible with? I know that we in Sweden use nationalized map-grid systems paralell to international ones and that map-system is quite different.

[Flemingovia]

in the UK most Geocaches come with grid references for the Ordinance Survey maps. Civilian GPS systems are limited to 16 channels - I do not know how this compares with the military. Given the number of times they blow up their own side, I suspect they are less accurate that this (lol). The sport of geocaching arose once the military stopped scrambling some of their signals.

Geocaching is really fun, a good excuse for a walk in the country.

[The Empire]

I would say much of the "friendly fire" is due to crappy training when it comes to rapidly and correctly identify a target and that that training probably doesn't encompass "allied" vehicles or painting schemes...
Plus large concentrations ofd overconfident troops in relatively small areas.

I bet geocoaching sounds great and would like to try it someday

[Boring Newcomer]

I swapped a inexpensive digicam of mine against a old Garmin with a additional handle bar attachment but haven't tested it yet.

Internal batteries should last about 20 hours and I Also have some 12V adapter to power it from the motorcycle battery. OK, a handheld is surely only a lame substitute for a real navigation system with included maps. - OTOH: It might serve some purpose to avoid driving 3 circles through Amsterdam while searching for the youth hostel, or getting back on your way or to your tent during a motorbiking vacation, when you usually take the narrowest available road which offers the sharpest turns. - I fear any less than extremely sophisticated navi, designed for cars, might get mad there.

And sure careless hiking or exploring cities - safe whereever you park and let it lead you back sounds promising too. BTW, am I the only one who ever spend ages finding hir vehicle on a huge and crowded shopping mal's parking lot? - I rode something extremely unique but didn't realize that all the cars around it were higher...

Does anybody know where there is a free service providing coordinates of street adresses?