Kevan Hyde`s GPS training exercises
Contents
1. Saving waypoints This involves marking several waypoints along a route and saving that route in your handheld GPS Exercise 2 Planning ahead This requires that you create waypoints from a map and enter them in your GPS unit before going out into the field You will use these points to create a route that you will then follow from start to finish Creating waypoints can be time consuming especially if you are doing so on the hood of your car You may want to do the necessary paperwork and enter waypoints before you make the drive to Eagle Island Exercise 3 TracBack Navigation This exercise puts into practical use the TracBack function designed to help you find your way back to your starting point The GPS unit logs the track you walk inserts waypoints at major turning points on your route and directs you from point to point Orienteering Courses Try out your new GPS navigation skills by walking through seven different courses that are already laid out on a map These courses are out in the north portion of the park and may involve crossing marshy areas irrigation ditches barbed wire fences and walking through tall grass Depending on the weather you will want to bring waterproof pants and boots 1 GPS settings A lot of frustration for new GPS users comes from the fact that they forget to tell their receiver that the actual task is finished and a new one will start So after every trip when you are back at your car or st2. turned automatic tracklog on your receiver will at fixed intervals or at special occasions save the position together with the time to its memory This can be valuable if at any moment during your trip you have to decide to go back exactly along the route that brought you to your actual position TRACBACK Among the best known GPS terms it is the navigation method that will bring you back to your point of departure along the same trail that you traveled to your actual position In order to be able to use this method you may need to copy the tracklog to one of the free track channels This is where you need your manual Often a saved track can only contain 250 points but be assured that your GPS receiver will do a wonderful job in choosing the points which best represent your traveled track WAYPOINT Probably one of the most used general GPS terms A waypoint is nothing more or less than a saved set of coordinates It does not have to represent a physical point on land Even at sea or in the air one can mark a waypoint Once saved in your GPS receiver you can turn back to exactly that set of co ordinates You can give waypoints meaningful names They can be created on the fly which means that you can register them at 130 km h on the road or even at 800 km h in a plane Your GPS will attribute it a number which you can change to any name you want once you have the time You can also manually enter a set of co ordinates that yo
3. 100 0 100 200 1 423 2 137 3 215 3 689 3 546 3 118 3 594 2 193 2 137 1 213 987 373 1 014 1 892 2 124 2 127 2 192 3 1 131 200 100 0 100 1 332 2 072 3 138 3 605 3 469 3 060 3 548 2 156 2 120 1 228 1 050 454 925 1 821 2 063 2 083 2 158 4 1 215 300 200 100 1 243 2 010 3 062 3 521 3 393 3 005 3 504 2 123 2 107 1 252 1 119 542 839 1 752 2 005 2 043 2 128 A 2 142 1 516 1 423 1 332 1 243 1 034 1 879 2 290 2 208 2 022 2 623 1 513 1 760 1 577 1 912 1 626 413 728 1 081 1 355 1 563 B 2 453 2 205 2 137 2 072 2 010 1 034 O 1 164 1 748 1 477 1 012 1 590 698 1 112 1 607 2 171 2 182 1 259 307 98 523 774 3 616 3 294 3 215 3 138 3 062 1 879 1 164 0 628 331 842 1 395 1 645 2 083 2 766 3 335 3 311 2 237 1 336 1 224 1 528 1 718 D 4 180 3 774 3 689 3 605 3 521 2 290 1 748 628 0 477 1 417 1 866 2 271 2 711 3 354 3 903 3 824 2 682 1 869 1 819 2 148 2 345 E 3 929 3 624 3 546 3 469 3 393 2 208 1 477 331 477 0 960 1 391 1 902 2 331 3 069 3 646 3 637 2 568 1 664 1 530 1 802 1 972 F 3 270 3 178 3 118 3 060 3 005 2 022 1 012 842 1 417 960 0 652 1 095 1 473 2 372 2 984 3 117 2 271 1 309 1 002 1 061 1 149 G 3 588 3 643 3 594 3 548 3 504 2 623 1 590 1 395 1 866 1 391 652 0 1 425 1 671 2 692 3 309 3 541 2 830 1 897 1 556 1 468 1 448 H 2 190 2 235 2 193 2 156 2 123 1 513 698 1 645 2 271 1 902 1 095 1 425 0 444 1 289 1 906 2 118 1 571 891 601 179 79 1 929 2 160 2 137 2 120 2 107 1 760 1 112 2 083 2 711 2 331 1 473 1 671 444 1 053 1 657 1 989 1 718 1 248 1 015 597 367 J 901 1 206 1 213
4. 23 22 493 W 2537 19 116 23 23 655 W 2537 40 116 23 24 818 W 2535 51 116 23741 721 W 2530 29 116 23 50 344 W 2527 49 116 24 05 953 W 2526 09 116 24 12 780 W 2525 02 116 2410 384 W 2526 25 116 24 01 718 W 2526 97 116 24 04 819 W 2528 77 116 23 46 820 W 2529 17 116 23 42 279 W 2529 73 116 23 29 412 W 2532 53 116 23 21 150 W 2534 56 116 23 20 831 W 2534 34 116 23 36 255 W 2528 49 416 23 47 742 W 2528 59 116 23 49 767 W 2526 95 116 23 47 318 W 2529 07 116 23 46 164 W 2529 59 24 NAD 83 UTM East x Coordinate in Meters 549312 82 549219 44 549193 20 549167 07 549140 93 548762 34 548571 12 548221 23 548067 57 548122 17 548317 75 548249 66 548651 43 548753 74 549040 76 549225 46 549231 19 548884 91 548628 84 548584 22 548639 89 548666 26 83 UTM North y Coordinate in Meters 4837423 98 4837704 62 4837720 08 4837735 74 4837751 37 4837775 17 4837524 93 4837585 90 4837700 23 4837565 95 4837348 67 4837162 51 4837328 36 4837239 88 4837384 00 4837421 66 4837613 26 4837745 77 4837598 30 4837498 29 4837381 55 4837309 53 Point to Point Distances feet Base 1 2 3 4 A B D E F G H K L M N 0 972 1 050 1 131 1 215 2 142 2 453 3 616 4 180 3 929 3 270 3 588 2 190 1 929 901 286 677 1 757 2 313 2 400 2 209 2 152 1 972 0 100 200 300 1 516 2 205 3 294 3 774 3 624 3 178 3 643 2 235 2 160 1 206 931 303 1 104 1 967 2 189 2 176 2 230 2 1 050
5. Compass Page Once a waypoint is selected this page points you toward that waypoint and will indicate your distance from it Finding the Coordinates of a point using the UTM grid and a scale You can use any scale to work this problem I find that a clear 6 ruler measuring in millimeters is usually inexpensive and available First notice that the grid numbers increase as you travel north or east Now measure the width easting and height northing of the grid lines surrounding your desired point There is an example point between the E 548 800 and E 548 900 gridlines and between the N 4 837 300 and N 4 837 400 gridlines on the far east tip of the lake Taking the measurements I get an overall northing of 24 millimeters and an overall easting of 24 millimeters between gridlines 205 mm 24 Measure the distance from grid line with the lower value to point you are locating Do this parallel to the grid lines I get 13 millimeters in the east west direction and 20 5 millimeters in the north south direction Now we set up a ratio to figure out what the distance is from the grid lines that correspond to the measurements you just took The UTM grid lines measure in meters and are spaced at 100 meter intervals 13mm 222 24 mm 100 m So the values we are looking for are _13 x 100 54 2 meters east west 24 and 20 5 x 100 85 4 meters north south 24 Now add these values to the coordinate of the
6. lower grid you measured from East grid value 548 800 meters 54 2 meters 548 854 2 meters North grid value 4 837 300 meters 85 4 meters 4 837 385 4 meters Enter these values into your GPS unit and go find the point Your values may be slightly different than mine depending on the scale you use and how accurately you measure the points As long as you are within 10 meters or so it won t matter much due to the accuracy of the hand held GPS units Exercise 3 As a final exercise before moving on to the orienteering courses you will be using the TracBack function of your GPS You have noticed that as you walk your unit plots a bread crumb trail of your course on the map screen Your unit stores these bread crumb points and can use them to plot a route for you to use in re tracing your steps If you follow a trail that fades away or becomes a dead end the TracBack function becomes very useful for finding your way back Confidently returning to your car after shopping downtown is an ideal application for TracBack This function can be lifesaving for hunters caught out at dark or turned around after tracking game The walk begins from your car only this time within the parking lot In this exercise you really only need to mark two waypoints one at your car if you have not already done so during previous exercises and one at the point of turnaround where you begin to back track Once you have marked your car as a
7. would like to show them on a map on your desktop computer in which case you better clear them later Before downloading them to the desktop PC set the GPS datum to WGS84 Delete unnecessary routes They only occupy precious memory Disable NMEA output when you want to download waypoints or tracks from your GPS receiver to the mapping software on your desktop computer Exercise For this first exercise you will be walking on an established trail and marking several waypoints along the way At the end of this exercise you will be able to view your whole route of travel and all the waypoints you punched in this can be seen on the map screen Before you get started you need to realize one thing about waypoints and routes A route is just a series of waypoints linked by straight lines Not all paths taken are straight The path that you will take is made of both gradual and sharp turns as well as straight sections as it makes its way around the lake Understand that the more waypoints you log in your handheld GPS the easier it will be for you to see your route when you are finished Imagine a long gradual turn which will be the first thing you will encounter on your walk that looks like so If you only plot points where the two arrows on the trail are shown your GPS will show your route as being a straight line of travel shown by the dotted line in between the points But you couldn t have traveled that way or you would have wa
8. 1 228 1 252 1 577 1 607 2 766 3 354 3 069 2 372 2 692 1 289 1 053 0 618 979 1 295 1 523 1 542 1 314 1 251 K 286 931 987 1 050 1 119 1 912 2 171 3 335 3 903 3 646 2 984 3 309 1 906 1 657 618 0 630 1 543 2 039 2 116 1 923 1 869 L 677 303 373 454 542 1 626 2 182 3 311 3 824 3 637 3 117 3 541 2 118 1 989 979 630 0 1 215 1 974 2 153 2 082 2 103 M 1 757 1 104 1 014 925 839 413 1 259 2 237 2 682 2 568 2 271 2 830 1 571 1 718 1 295 1 543 1 215 0 969 1 278 1 442 1 603 N 2 313 1 967 1 892 1 821 1 752 728 307 1 336 1 869 1 664 1 309 1 897 891 1 248 1 523 2 039 1 974 969 0 360 714 957 2 400 2 189 2 124 2 063 2 005 1 081 98 1 224 1 819 1 530 1 002 1 556 601 1 015 1 542 2 116 2 153 1 278 360 0 425 676 2 209 2 176 2 127 2 083 2 043 1 355 523 1 528 2 148 1 802 1 061 1 468 179 597 1 314 1 923 2 082 1 442 714 425 0 252 2 152 2 230 2 192 2 158 2 128 1 563 774 1 718 2 345 1 972 1 149 1 448 79 367 1 251 1 869 2 103 1 603 957 676 252 0 25 GPS TERMS You will encounter the following GPS terms when you practice with your GPS receiver You need a clear understanding of these terms if you want to follow the GPS Exercises and orienteering courses TRACK This indicates the direction in which you move Sometimes this is called HEADING For navigation on land this is OK but a boat or a plane can travel in another direction than the direction in which it is headed due to wind or current TRACKLOG This is the electronic equivalent of the famous bread crumb trail If you
9. Basic GPS Exercises Designed for Idaho Mountain Search amp Rescue An Eagle Scout Project by Kevan Hyde Troop 61 Meridian ID Basic GPS Exercises When you first unpack your new GPS receiver and its manual you could easily find yourself overwhelmed Without some friendly help it is difficult to know where to start You will need to get outside and actually use the navigation features Since each GPS unit has different menu systems this project cannot address how to set up operate your unit i e which buttons to push to mark a waypoint change datum etc so bring your user manual You will want to be familiar with common GPS terms see page 10 and you will need to know how to set your GPS unit to the proper datum and coordinate system before you start This project was designed to provide the experience you need to learn basic GPS navigation You can walk through three simple exercises out in the open fields of Eagle Island State Park and by the time you are finished you will know how to use the most important and basic GPS functions These exercises are on established trails surrounding the lake in the park All you will need for these exercises is your GPS receiver and user manual the maps provided of Eagle Island State Park and a ruler that measures in millimeters ideally a 6 clear plastic model All courses and exercises are in the NAD 83 datum using either Latitude Longitude or UTM coordinates Exercise
10. MOB Man Over Board your GPS receiver will continue to guide you according that request even if in the meantime you have turned it off and on again If after the walk you will use your receiver linked to a pocketPC with street routing software to guide you back home your receiver will warn you every 30 or 60 seconds that you are far off course if you did not tell it to stop navigating your walk Reset the TripComputer or whatever it is called on your receiver It is the screen where you can read how far you traveled what was your maximum speed and your average speed etc since the last reset Note the values that you want to remember in your paper notebook and clean up the memory Speeds of a walk mixed with speeds of a car trip do not make sense Clear the Track Log In case you want to keep the logged track save it to one of the free tracks WARNING If you just finished a complex trip and your GPS receiver registered 1000 or more track points and for you every detail in the log is important then you should save your track log to your desktop computer instead of saving it to a free track The reason is that a saved track often is limited to about 250 points so you could loose some detail of your trip Clear all unneeded waypoints Maybe you registered a lot of waypoints during your trip in order to facilitate your return in case of trouble or whatsoever Now that you are safe at your base you don t need them anymore Or maybe you
11. arting point you should clean up the system and prepare it for another adventure So let s look at what needs to be done Before every new trip Take spare batteries and your GPS manual or at least the quick reference guide with you Clear the track log if you did not do so yet Set track record method to Auto unless you have a very special reason to choose another setting Set the GPS datum to WGS84 This or NAD 84 will provide the data closest to the maps that we will be using If you are using a topographic map then set the GPS datum to the same datum as the map If others in your party are using a compass you may want to set GPS North to Magnetic North so you can share readings If you are really a perfectionist clear the track log again just before you start walking During the time that you put on your walking boots checked your spare batteries compass map and water supply and your GPS receiver was warming up on the roof of your car trying to find out where you took it this time it already registered track points but the first ones will not be of a high accuracy level Before leaving your car behind record its location as a waypoint and name it Car During the trip Check battery power now and then and save waypoints at remarkable locations such as cross roads bridges etc GPS settings continued After each trip Stop Navigating If you were navigating a route or a track or activated a GOTO ora
12. d Coordinates page any number of courses can be made All it requires is choosing which point to go to next 13 Bearing and Distance Mixing up bearing and distance with coordinates will make a course more difficult as would switching between Latitude Longitude and UTM coordinates Your GPS unit will calculate the bearing and distance when you choose a waypoint and go to another waypoint The bearing and distance is displayed on the Compass Page The table Point to Point Distances in Feet is included with the orienteering course maps This project was not only designed for the use of GPS units but compasses as well Test your pacing skills at the starting markers evenly spaced at 100 feet Not all points are listed with bearings but your GPS unit will supply you with them if you ask it to 21 Point Name BASE All Points and Coordinates NAD 83 Latitude 43 41 17 496 N 43 41 26 614 N 43 41 27 122 N 43 41 27 635 N 43 41 28 148 N 43 41 29 009 N 43 41 20 944 N 43 41 23 002 N 43 41 26 744 N 43 41 22 378 N 43 41 15 290 N 43 41 09 272 N 43 41 14 553 N 43 41 11 661 N 43 41 16 264 N 43 41 17 441 N 43 41 23 650 N 43 41 28 028 N 43 41 23 308 N 43 41 20 077 N 43 41 16 280 N 43 41 13 939 N Grid angle 0 25 Mag Dec 15 E NAD 83 Longitude Elevation 116 23 17 247 W 2536 20 116 23 21 326 W 2536 58 116
13. d point This is great on open water or in the air but on land it is often not the best method BEARING Once told to which point you want to travel your GPS will continuously calculate in which direction that point is situated seen from your actual position That direction is the bearing If you navigate along a route the bearing will be the direction to the NEXT waypoint in the route If you can not travel in a straight line to the waypoint the bearing will fluctuate all the time TURN Indicates the difference between the direction you should travel in BEARING and the direction in which you are actually traveling TRACK An indication of 28L means that you should modify your actual direction of travel with 28 to the left if you wish to ever reach your point In principle when you have the reading of TURN on your navigation page you don t need the readings of those other two GPS terms BEARING and TRACK but most people prefer reading these two Lat Long measuring system by degrees minutes seconds UTM coordinate system using meters 27 Acknowledgements Andreas van Hooijdonk in Belgium andreas gps practice and fun com and the website http www gps practice and fun com for allowing me to use portions of his text and his ideas for some of the exercises that I utilized in this project His website is one of the best for beginners and intermediate GPS users alike recommend it Jeff Lee Mike Dress and Be
14. ger trail Go right again After passing the volleyball courts on your left you will enter the parking lot and head for your car CAGAN Now at your car you can view the waypoints you logged in your unit and see F exactly where you traveled from point to point Use your manual to create a route from these points Name the route Ex1 Exercise 2 This exercise is about creating waypoints from a map entering them into your GPS as a route and then navigating along that route in the field You will need the grid map UTM or Latitude Longitude Copies of these maps follow this exercise of the lake and the area around it a plastic metric ruler and your handheld GPS To keep these exercises interesting try plotting this trip around the lake in a counter clockwise direction As you begin you should still be at the northwest corner of the parking lot where you left off The time consuming part of this exercise will not be the walking as in Exercise 1 but the amount of time you spend at your car or home entering your route While you are entering waypoints into your GPS you will not need satellite readings Setting your receiver in Simulation Mode may save up to 50 of battery power Refer to your manual for instructions on how to do this Study the map in detail drawing out your proposed route on the map Look for turns in the trail and geographic features that are interesting or important such as river crossings diver
15. ging trails etc These turns and features will become the waypoints you save into your GPS receiver As for naming these waypoints once you have more than one route logged on your GPS distinguish between each one by naming the points Al A2 etc for one route B1 B2 B3 etc for another route and so on with each different route As you determine the coordinates of points along your route a potential waypoint will rarely fall on an existing gridline To calculate the actual coordinates use your measuring device to set up a ratio of the distance between gridlines and the distance between the point you want and the nearest gridline The following page gives examples of how to do this It is important to enter enough waypoints into your receiver so that if followed from point to point it will looks similar to the path you want to walk You now need to create a route from your waypoints Name the new route Ex2 Refer to your manual on how create a route from existing waypoints Now that the hard work is done you can navigate along the route you created fairly quickly Remember to take your GPS unit out of Simulation Mode Activate the route and choose your first waypoint Begin traveling towards that point Once reached choose the next point of the route To follow your route from point to point you can either watch your position on the map screen or display the distance and bearing to the next waypoint using the
16. lked through the lake Instead make waypoints like this Exercise continued In the end it looks like a finished connect the dot picture where several short lines linked together show a curve in the path and the actual route that you took This way if you need to back track at all you can follow your route from waypoint to waypoint exactly where you have been Start off at the northwest corner of the main parking lot Once your GPS has a sufficient lock on enough satellites begin your walk on the dirt path This trail will take you all the way around the lake in a clockwise direction You will begin on the gradual turn bending around the west side of the lake off to your right Mark waypoints every 20 to 30 feet as you walk or where the trail makes a major turn or changes in direction This requires you to stop each time you mark and name another point As for giving waypoints names just name them by a simple numbering system for example 001 for point 1 002 003 etc which your GPS may already do automatically Use the map provided on this page to help guide you around the lake You will come to three major intersections along the trail during your walk Do not stray to the right or the left but continue straight at the first intersection You will then be separated from the lake for a while until you reach the next intersection Turn right to continue around the lake Finally you will cross a small bridge and meet up with a lar
17. lle Craige at the Bureau of Land Management for donating their own time on two different Saturdays and the use of their expensive and highly accurate equipment for determining the exact coordinates of points Additionally Mr Lee built all the maps included in this document BLM also donated much or the rebar needed for the markers I can t thank them enough Bernt sen company Donated and engraved survey markers that were installed for the orienteering courses Their willingness to join this effort was especially encouraging Gary Shelly Park Manager for Eagle Island State Park for his enthusiasm toward this project and allowing the construction to be done at Eagle Island State Park Jerry Newland President of IMSARU for his patience when the project went way overboard the planned time of completion and subsidizing a portion of the project costs Nathan Bentley State GIS Coordinator for his inspiration for suggesting Eagle Island and ultimately getting this project back on track Mike Keyes Assistant Scoutmaster Troop 61 and Eagle Project Mentor for mentoring this project and keeping me on task Basic GPS Exercises was designed for the Idaho Mountain Search amp Rescue as aid to beginning GPS instruction This document was completed in November 2005 as an Eagle Scout Project for Kevan Hyde a member of Troop 61 in Meridian Idaho Contact Kevan at 208 922 1766 28
18. n other words it guides you You do not have to navigate back by yourself As TracBack is a navigation mode you can use the Compass or Highway Page which will point you in the direction you need to travel to follow the route 11 Orienteering Courses This is separate from the three beginner exercises so if you feel that you know how to use all your GPS functions well enough and you have practiced using them before you may want to start with the courses If you have gone through all the exercises now comes the fun part navigating to and from hidden points out in the field trying to find each one along the way You will need the list of all 22 points and their coordinates either UTM or Latitude Longitude whichever one you prefer to use and the maps of the courses you want to tackle All of these points out in the field are two foot pieces of rebar driven almost completely into the ground with 1 1 2 inch diameter aluminum caps attached at the top each with a different letter punched into the head The starting points are numbered There are seven maps each one with a different course outlined Base Marker Test your GPS accuracy See how accurately you can locate the Base marker in the horse and trailer parking You know your unit is set correctly when it directs you within ten feet or so of the marker To start off you will need to drive out of the main parking lot and head east on the dirt road This will turn sharply to the left a
19. nd on the right hand side as you are traveling north is the horse and trailer parking It is a big dirt lot where the pase marker is located Once you have parked in this lot follow the road by foot continuing north until you reach the river Go off to the left and look for the four starting points on your left again Use the maps and your GPS to help you find them i Use the maps of the individual courses and the All Points and Coordinates page to choose a course enter waypoints and use your GPS to guide you to each point in that course As you will be passing through the large field to your left south of the road depending on how wet it is you may want to wear rain pants and waterproof boots Take course 1 for example The points within this course are 1 4 M and L You can start and end on whichever of the four starting points you want Say you start on 4 and you choose to go to M first then L and back to 3 Plug in the coordinates of M and let your GPS guide you there Now plug in L and do the same Finally plug in 3 and see if you make it to the right marker Courses 1 through 3 are relatively easy course 4 and 5 are considered medium difficulty and courses 6 and 7 are listed as hard Courses 5 6 and 7 do not start and finish at the starting points 1 4 You are not limited to the seven courses that have been lined out As you can see from the All Points an
20. u found on a map This way you can plan ahead a trip or a walk with as much detail as you like Waypoints are very powerful navigation aids and for really critical operations it should be considered important to not only store their co ordinates in your GPS receiver but also in your paper notebook After all a highly sophisticated device as a GPS receiver could stop functioning correctly for a lot of reasons ROUTE A route is a series of two or more waypoints To create a route you have to tell your GPS to reserve some place in its memory for a new route and then you indicate which waypoints will form the route You enter them in the order in which you want to travel them but you can easily navigate them in reverse order You can add waypoints and delete others but once saved the order in which your GPS will guide you along the waypoints is fixed ROUTE LEG is the straight line between two adjacent waypoints in a route 26 GOTO is also among the best known GPS terms and probably the most used navigation method with a GPS receiver because it is easily understood and executed If you tell your companion that you will GOTO waypoint X it will calculate the direction and distance from your actual location to the set of co ordinates represented by the indicated waypoint Your GPS receiver is unable to know what obstacles hazards or whatever if any there are between you and waypoint X so it will guide you in a straight line to the indicate
21. waypoint start walking east across the lot about 180 feet or so Turn off to the right and head south following the curve of the lot back around to the left going north Then turn right heading east once more for a short time and bend to the right again going south until you get to the end of the lot where it becomes the road dirt off to the left and paved off to the right See the map on the following page Here is where you mark your second waypoint At this point save the route you just took as Ex3 starting at your car and ending where you are now select to navigate that route in reverse and wind your way back through the parking lot to your car following the route just saved Why not just walk back and try to follow the Track Log line on the map page If you have time try following the Track Log line It can be done but it is not as easy as having the unit show you which direction to proceed and how far to go You can only retrace your steps by maneuvering the You are Here point on the map page along the route in reverse order which can be tricky When you use TracBack your GPS calculates where your route makes a turn Most likely your unit may have an audible alarm that will beep when you approach these turns TracBack is much more useful than just following the Track Log line from point to point because it navigates you from one turn to another and knows where you want to be not only where you are at the time I
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