GPS for Land Navigation - Part 1

An overview of the Global Positioning System, and how to use handheld GPS units in the field for land navigation, with other navaids. Covers ...

GPS for Land Navigation - Part 2

An overview of the Global Positioning System, and how to use handheld GPS units in the field for land navigation, with other navaids. Covers ...

NYC's Costly New GPS Units Erroneously Show Sanitation, Fire Trucks In New ...

22.02.12

The Bloomberg administration has spent millions of dollars installing custom-designed GPS tracking units in fire and sanitation trucks over the past several years, but the system is rife with malfunctions, according to audits by city Comptroller John Liu . The GPS system has repeatedly shown fire trucks and sanitation trucks to be in the middle of New York Harbor or sinking in Long Island Sound, when in fact they were still safely on land. The city has spent as much as $56,000 for a single unit in a sanitation truck, and will continue to spend money on what Liu calls "wasted on technology that falls short of what’s promised, raising questions about the oversight of expensive outside consultants."

According to Liu, the automated vehicle-location projects are "a classic case of what not to do—build a complex new system when simple, already available consumer-oriented devices could do the job at a fraction of the cost." Fire trucks, for instance, are already tracked by computer-aided dispatch systems. And even when the new GPS units work correctly, the locations are time-delayed, which isn't much use when you're operating a speeding truck in an emergency. The city spent $7.3 million to have the units developed and installed on fire trucks.

Source: Gothamist

GPS Land Navigation News

Outdoors news, 11/20: Public Access Atlas goes mobile

Lincoln Journal Star - Feb 22, 2012

The navigation page also has links that allow state-owned lands and open fields and waters access sites to be viewed in Google Earth. Those sites soon will be available on GPS units. *OPEN FIELDS GETS MORE CONTRACTS: Open Fields and Waters, ...

First-ever Mobile Hiking App for Santa Monica Mountains Released

iPhone News Tracker - Feb 22, 2012

Thanks to the pre-integrated connection between Google Maps and iPhone (R) internal navigation software, reaching your destination is a walk in the park. At key points in the terrain, the authors recorded waypoints on the interactive maps with a GPS ...

First-ever Mobile Hiking App for Santa Monica Mountains Released

prMac (press release) - Feb 22, 2012

Security and Defense: In a jam over precision munitions

Jerusalem Post - Feb 22, 2012

Over the years, GPS has become an integral part of civilian life and not just of the military. It is used by ships to navigate at sea, by cars to travel by land and by the civil aviation industry as well. Most cellular phones come with GPS chips and ...

Moorestown family donates land to Boy Scouts

phillyBurbs.com - Feb 22, 2012

Along the way, youngsters will be able to sharpen their skills in land navigation using maps, compasses and even a GPS, in addition to working on forestry, conservation, hiking and other aspects of Scouting. Scouts who visit the Halgas Scout ...