Guys;
There has been many good remarks and Ideas on here, thanks to all.
I have taught many classes on how to operate your GPS, now before someone comes up with some what if question, just to stump me, save it for your class at school, please.
You must have a position in the GPS marked, BEFORE you leave camp or the vehicle.
Once in the field, you must establish a point of reference so the GPS knows where you are at , I call it a way point, maybe that is the wrong term, but to put it bluntly, the GPS has to know where you are at, to know where to go, to get to your truck, camp, etc.
For some reason, people don't get the where am I part of the whole system.
Tricks I use to keep from going to the truck location I had yesterday!
When I mark a way point, especially, truck, I do this
Example-- tk 03 am
What that means
tk = truck
03 = the days date
am = morning
in place of (am) you can use the following-
a = morning
n = noon
pm = evening
or knock truck down to v = vehicle, and then put the time
v03173 = vehicle, 3rd day of the month, 1730 or 5:30pm
v27210 = vehicle, 27th day of the month, 2100 or 9
m
vo1830 = vehicle, 1st day of the month, 08:30 or 8:30 am
OR
you could errase the waypoints you no longer use.
An other very important point, is to set your GPS to the map you are using, ie, I use topo's and you need, for example, and I know it sometimes changes, but I set to NAD27conus
North American Datum contiental united states
I also use UTM, Universal Tranverse Mercado, probably screwed that up, but you got the idea.
Now, you CAN set your GPS to UTM, or Lat Long and go back and forth and NOT screw up anything, It's just a different language to the GPS.
I like UTM because it is very easy to place yourself on the topo map, just over and up , very simple, once you understand a few principals.
I would be glad to help any of you that need help, not to show off, but to help other sportsman like my self.
You guys on MM have helped me a bunch on many different subjects, let me give back a little, 12 years experence.
Steve Cheuvront