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GPS questions and stuff

scouthead

scouthead

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supposed to be working, but I was just sitting here wondering if I will have the blazer back together in time for spring exploration...

friends with jeeps and i had talked about building some off-road trailers - comes up occasionally. was curious about setting up basecamp and exploring surrounding areas... i dont currently have any kind of gps, but would it be possible to log your camp's position, and then set a perimeter/circumference around it with an alarm... for example:

"we are only going to 4 wheel as far away from camp as someone can still walk back in 6-7 hours should the vehicle break down and not get us back to camp???"

-lets say you are bouncing around on the trail and your gps starts beeping... and "oh, we are 13 miles from camp. better turn around and stay within our walk back to camp radius..."


what kind of fantastical gps toys and tools are out there for back country exploration these days???
 
I have the free Gaia. have used a couple times still learning about it
 
I love the layering it provides. Overlay your track on USGS maps or newer crowdsourced maps, plus show wildfire burn areas from past years.
 
Gaia is my go to. It’s taken some time to learn and the interface is slightly different between apple and android but I’ve used it on both.

You can’t set up an alarm based on a radius that I know of but you can set a waypoint where base camp is. From there you can zoom in/out on the map to set the size of the area you are comfortable hiking back. You can set the map to stay stationary and your position move on the map (vs your position centered and the map moves with you).

Here are some cool things you can do. You can be logged in on multiple devices. In my case I use and iPad in the truck. I also have it on my phone. You do need to download that area on each device but that will allow you to have the map without connection to the internet/off grid. If something happened in the truck or the iPad failed I have a backup on my phone and can still navigate.

I ended up going off my phone for everything last year at Blazer Bash when my plan of running a small chrome book in place of the iPad failed. Proved smart to have a backup.
 
One point to really understand. Not every tablet has a gps chipset to allow for navigation. With IPads only the 4g or 5g enabled units have a gps chipset in them. Wi-Fi only iPads lack the needed chipset necessary to get the job done.

I’ve got a Wi-Fi only ipad so it requires an external GPS receiver to get the location info and be used by Gaia.

I bought a stand-alone Bluetooth GPS receiver by Dual on Amazon. That requires an app to be loaded in the iPad to lock in on the data. You have to make sure you have the gps linked in that app before opening Gaia.

I actually prefer the external gps. I can set it on the very front of the dash and get a better signal. With the camper I’ve had issues with gps signal being blocked further in the cab. Next positive is power consumption. Constant gps uses a lot of power. I usually have to keep my phone plugged in if I’m using it to navigate. But the external gps keeps that load off the device.

If you are buying a tablet to navigate with pay attention to if it has gps built in or not. Android tablets are not as clear cut as the iPads are.

One other possibility is the the other device I picked up for my next trip. I bought a Garmin InReach mini. It’s another GPS receiver but it is a satellite communications device too. By linking through an app and the device i should be able to share the signal with at least the garmin map software. Not sure if it it will work with the Gaia software. I’ll report back once I figure it out.

The InReach will allow my family to keep track of my whereabouts off grid. Very similar to the GPSSpot device Larry has and uses for the desert trips. It allows the tracking but also scrambles local search and rescue if you hit the emergency button. One major difference with the garmin is the ability to actually text message through it. On the spot you just have a button that you press to send a pre-set message that you are on and it’s one-way. The garmin will receive texts too.

Depending on how the garmin app works for mapping it might be another option.

Both Garmin and Gaia have a subscription basis to keep in mind. You can use Gaia free but it limits you to only using the Gaia topo map layer. Which is fine off road but sucks when getting to the trailhead. There is a couple of levels where the top plan unlocks all map layers like usgs topo, National Geographic hybrid, road maps, satellite, national parks and a couple others. The lower level gives access to only a couple of layers.

Garmin has two plans that works out to something like $10 per month for constant monitoring. The other plan is $14 but allows you to stop/start a month at a time. Spot has a subscription too and it’s gone up every year over the last 4 years and it’s for the year and it can’t stop/pause if your aren’t traveling.
 
Random fact about the Spot: I know a guy who got stranded on the mountain snowmobiling alone. (not smart) He had a Spot buried in his bag but had not renewed the service. He spent the night in the snow and pushed the emergency button on the Spot. Got up in the morning and started walking and the Sherrif showed up. Spot had called the Sherrif anyway and relayed his location. He got stranded on a Sunday night 20 miles or so out, foot of fresh snow. May have saved his life, not a lot of Monday traffic out where he was.
 
HankScorpio said:
Random fact about the Spot: I know a guy who got stranded on the mountain snowmobiling alone. (not smart) He had a Spot buried in his bag but had not renewed the service. He spent the night in the snow and pushed the emergency button on the Spot. Got up in the morning and started walking and the Sherrif showed up. Spot had called the Sherrif anyway and relayed his location. He got stranded on a Sunday night 20 miles or so out, foot of fresh snow. May have saved his life, not a lot of Monday traffic out where he was.
Click to expand...
well thats awesome. did he backpay for the service??? i have friends that carry those when doing long bike rides.
 
external gps is interesting- wasn't aware that was something easily attainable.

i used to use a GPS trek or was it gps trekker on my phone, and you could set the frequency it would ping the satellites could REALLY drain the battery if it was constant. also, didnt always stay connected well when in the cab of the blazer, but worked fine in the buggy in the desert. i dont remember there being too many overlays and many maps... or many options with that app
 
My garmin InReach showed up today. More tech to figure out. So far it’s pretty cool and a little overwhelming to figure out. But I got it fired up and activated. Pretty simple at first but getting stuff lined up for the ability to text and share my map took a little more effort that the manual, website and app all gloss over.

I called my buddy that has an InReach walked me through it. I’ve got it set up and while talking to him on the phone I went outside and turned it on and was able to send my dad a text from the app through the InReach and up to the satellite and back to my dad. Worked good and took less than a minute to send and receive. I’ve got to get it in the truck and set up in it.
 
I have a Garmin overlander and an inreach mini paired with it .For 2 years they have worked great. Recording tacks. Plotting new routes and its easy to add gpx files to it.
 
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