Keep your home address out of your GPS unit

by Scott Carmichael on

Have you ever considered what could happen if your vehicle is stolen, along with your GPS unit? A thief could tell the GPS unit to “go home”. If you are like most people, you’ll provide easy access to your home with the garage door opener in your vehicle.

Now, I’ll admit right away that this scenario does build heavily on some pretty healthy paranoia, but I’m of the opinion that “better safe than sorry” applies here.

When you program your home address into the GPS, program it without a house number, or better yet – set it to a couple of blocks away. You know where you live (I hope), and if you need the GPS to get you home every night, you need more help than a GPS unit can provide. Removing your home address is just one more way to help keep you, your family and your belongings safe.

Find the right destination with a GPS map update

by Scott Carmichael on

We’ve probably all been there once or twice – you get in your car, and try to enter your destination, only to find that your GPS unit does not know where you want to go.

In some cases, this could be as simple as a misspelled address, but in others, it means your GPS unit needs a new map database.

When you buy your unit, the maps are often at least a year old, but some units that have been on store shelves for a couple of years could try navigating you based on three or four year old maps.

In that period, new streets have been added, and map errors have been corrected. Thankfully, on most brand name GPS units, getting a new map is fairly easy, and quite affordable. The best place to start is your favorite electronics retailer or on the site of the GPS unit manufacturer.

For most units, the investment is quite modest – about $50 will get you the latest version (or one no more than 6 months old). Installing the map update varies from vendor to vendor. On Magellan GPS units, you order a physical SD card for the unit, on other brands you’ll usually need to download a large file and copy that from your PC to the device.

If you purchased your GPS unit within the last 30 days, contact the manufacturer to see whether you are eligible for a free map update, especially in those cases where your brand new GPS device comes with not so brand new maps.

First map to name America goes on display at Library of Congress

by Sean McLachlan on

Visitors to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., have a rare opportunity to see the first map that used the name “America” for the New World.

The Library has the only surviving copy of the famous Waldseemüller map, created in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer living in France. The map was a major departure from earlier maps in that it relied less on the received wisdom of Classical geographers like Ptolemy and more on reports by the many explorers of the time.

Waldseemüller studied reports by Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci and decided Columbus was wrong in thinking he had reached India. Waldseemüller favored Vespucci’s theory that the lands they were exploring on the other side of the Atlantic were actually part of a previously unknown continent. Waldseemüller rewarded Vespucci by naming the continent after him. America is the feminized Latin form of Vespucci’s first name. All other continents had Latin feminine names, so it fit.

The map is not only correct about the New World, but also portrays other parts of the globe far more accurately than other maps of the time. It’s a fine work of art too, with detailed depictions of terrain and portraits of Ptolemy and Vespucci.The map is on display as part of the exhibition “Exploring the Early Americas.”


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Know the limitations of GPS when hiking

by Kraig Becker on

There is no doubt that using a GPS has changed the way we travel. Adding one of the little devices to our cars allows us to navigate effortlessly to our destinations and has all but eliminated our need to carry road maps or stop off at the local gas station to ask for directions. That same technology can be of benefit when we leave the vehicle behind and hit a hiking trail as well, although hikers should be aware of the limitations of their devices, and be prepared to use their common sense and good judgment when employing such a device.

Hand held GPS units are very common and inexpensive these days. Most are small, light weight and battery operated, allowing them to be dropped into your backpack when you head out for the day. They generally offer such features as trail maps, suggested points of interest, and topographical data, all of which can be helpful for finding your way in the backcountry.

But unlike GPS devices in our cars, our hand held units don’t do “turn-by-turn” navigation while out in the wilderness, mostly because there are no clear cut roads or landmarks that can be used in the same fashion as when we are on the streets, and natural obstacles can abound. Hikers are instead provided with a general indication of where their destination is from their current position in an “as the crow flies” fashion, and they are forced to navigate to that destination themselves. When doing so, they’ll generally take advantage of the GPS’s built in electronic compass and topographical information to assist them, but more importantly, they’ll need to constantly survey the terrain, adjusting their course as needed, in order to reach their end point successfully.
Speaking of terrain, it can also have a direct impact on the performance of your GPS device while hiking. In order to find your location, you’ll need a clear view of the sky overhead, and that works fine when you’re in a wide open field. But many trekkers have found their hand held GPS can’t connect to the orbiting satellites when they are under a thick canopy of trees or deep in a canyon or gorge where the sky is obscured by the rock walls. It is important to know how your device will perform on the trails that you’ll be hiking so as to avoid a surprise that may leave you lost in the woods and without alternative methods of find your way.

The battery life of our hand held GPS units are also a cause for concern, as they can chew through a full charge in to time at all if you’re not careful. That means you’ll need to carry more batteries in your backpack, which hampers the portability of the device to a degree. And should you run out of juice while on the trail, then your expensive electronic toy becomes useless. Make sure it is fully charged before heading out, and that you’re aware of how long the batteries last under typical conditions. Also keep in mind that cold weather will have an impact on battery life as well, often reducing run times dramatically.

Most of this isn’t new information of course, and experienced hikers have learned that a GPS can be an invaluable tool. However, they’ve also learned not to become overly reliant on the devices, preferring instead to continue to use the time tested skills of reading maps and compasses to find their way. Those skills are enhanced however by being able to turn on the GPS, take some quick readings to find your bearings, plot your course on the map, and set out for your destination, returning to the GPS from time to time to ensure that you’re still on course and making adjustments as necessary.

Despite some of these drawbacks to the use of a hand held GPS, they can be quite a powerful addition to anyone’s mandatory gear list. They are an excellent navigational tool, as long as the person using it is familiar with both the strengths and limitations of such a device. Finding our way in the backcountry has never been so easy, and we’re definitely safer than ever while on the trail.