Not true
The gps gives you the accurate mileage that you have traveled.
If you plug in a way point and then say go to, then yes it will give you the distance from where you are to the point as the crow flies.
When you are done if you look at your tracks, they will be exactly the path that you have traveled.
Cheers,
JackL
GPS
A GPS will tell how far your boat went. Sometimes a a trip might measure 17 miles but if you have to traverse from side to side on the way down you could paddle 20 miles…
A GPS will let you know exactly how far you went BUT it must be left on the entire time.
My Map60
Gives me the miles I traveled on windy rivers, not from point A to B as the crow flies.
You evidently don’t have a Garmin
and you are giving out wrong info.
The Garmin hand helds give you your exact distance traveled whether you are going a half a mile per hour or five MPH.
Very few people here paddle their canoe/kayaks at 5MPH for a long distance, yet we all get accurate distance readings with our GPS units.
Cheers,
JackL
Old GPS or Old fart
Sorry if my point A to point B info was wrong. My GPS unit is about 10 years old and It seems to work that way. But then again it could be that I just don’t know how to make it keep an accurate running total over a crooked course.
Point A to Point B
Alternatively, you can just leave the unit turned on, and then it records the actual mileage, rather than using as-the-crow-flies measurements. That’s what the people I know do if they want to keep track of how far they paddled.
it’s true some GPS record always.
Some of the cheaper GPS systems will log your mileage as the above person mentions. They have no threshold limit and record each movement. But GPS has error as you sit still. Just watch as it plots you staggering around your stopping point. It will move west, then east or north/south randomly. This is because the Govn’t plays tricks with the non-commercial signal. So, if you turn it on and sit on the porch all day, it will say you walked a couple of miles by the end of the day. This is why the better units have a threshold value. You may wish to record the mileage you travelled without recording your stop at the restaurant for an hour. So, if your speed does not exceed the threshold, it will not record the random wanderings as you are stopped. So, you have to understand the limitations of the service. In cases where your progress might equal 0.5 MPH during the course of the day, and if you have a system without a threshold value, you will record significantly MORE miles than you will travel.
But, if you keep moving at a speed about 1 or greater, the actual milage will be very close to your actual travel.
And do not forget this awesome feature. If you round a bend and loose GPS signal, it records nothing. And then when it tries to figure out where you are again, it will frequently misjudge that. Perhaps it will come up with you being 2 miles away from your actual location. It keeps calculating and eventually corrects itself. That might happen in little increments or in one big jump. Now you just added about 4 miles into your track log that you did not travel. So it is a loose-loose situation.
Your best bet is to combine the above methods and average it out.
More misunderstanding…
– Last Updated: Aug-13-07 1:12 PM EST –
"This is because the Govn't plays tricks with the non-commercial signal."
It has nothing to do with "govmnt meddling". The days of govnmnt "de-tuning" of the GPS signal (except in war zones) have been over for several years. It's just the varying atmospheric conditions effecting the signal which the GPS unit uses to calculate your position. Some days, it is negligible, and some days it can be considerable. Either way - unless you spend a great deal of time sitting still, it won't amount to enough to matter, since most units have a degree of built-in averaging.
I use GPS extensively in my work. Even with the mentioned "wandering" the day-in/day-out average results are remarkably consistent.
As far as lost signal - GPS signal is relatively weak to begin with. If you carry your receiver on your body it needs to be carried high (a pouch attached to a shoulder strap works well). It works best if it can be set somewhere with an open view of the sky. In narrow canyons, you will receive signal from fewer satellites, but it takes a very deep or narrow canyon for that to become a problem with accuracy. I suppose (having never been there) that the Grand Canyon might be a good example in some parts - but in most rivers it shouldn't be a measurable problem. In my own area, I have to be hiking a canyon 300' deep and 50' wide to lose accuracy enough to matter.
My GPS
I just use my GPS (Garmin 60CSX or Garmin Venture CX). Works great. Gives me total distance paddled, current speed, average speed, average moving speed, time spent moving, time spent stopped and my favorite of all, how long it will take to reach your destination at your current speed.
I don’t go on the water without it.
GPS + Briansnat…
I think I’ve met you before. Perhaps, another GPS expert? Dare we utter the word here?
yup, everything you mentioned
Tomorrow morning I’m paddling down the Maryland/Delaware coast by canoe. I have to be at my takeout point in Bethany Beach before 10:00 a.m. After that, the lifeguards are out and it will be illegal to land.
You can bet I’ll be checking the GPS often to check my progress and projected landing time. I love my Garmin MAP76 CSX.
accuracy
I have a garmin legend C and it’s extremely accurate, the only time it has ever gotten “lost” was under heavy cover in a snow storm. It showed me 150mi from where I was, but the next fix put me back on course. That was on a snowshoe bushwack and my proximity alarm sounded no more than about 10’ from where someone else had marked the destination on his gps 6 months previous. It took us 10 hrs to go 5 miles that day so there was no “threshold” involved. Once I returned home and downloaded the track to my computer the log was exactly 725 m longer than his
Miles
I leave my clip board at home. each trip is different…GPS is Nice.but… who cares…
If yer going on a ling trip…(with The Current).
It will vary look at the Map…with twist and turns…Hmmmmm, Consider how fast yer goin.then Multiply… 3 mph.= X
and I get lost In thought and don’t worry…Thats why I Paddle… but after a while.10-15 miles doesn’t matter…
ken…