GPS or good old maps?

Just courious , but what will you do when they turn off the GPS satellites.. Don't think it can happen? I've had it done before about 15 years ago. The government can turn them off any time they want.. Especially if there is a threat from another government, like now. Then what will you do? Just sit there and wait for it to go back on ? Or buy a map and call the people about the load? Jee we do that now and saved allof that money.

 

They system had several different codes, and the satellites also have the ability to black out any area they desire. There a many levels of GPS codes, some are made to be harder to jam, while others are kept separate so that civilians will have a dedicated channel to use during wartime, and its against international law to interfere with it. So the military and civilian signals are not the same.

I was actually flying a plane when the solar flair of december 2006 happened, and the GPS just crapped out. That is the first time the system has been disabled unintentionally. The government issues what are called "NOTAMS" which announced when GPS will be down, so that civilian aircraft will not be caught off guard. In fact, they have a dedicated NOTAM called a GPS notam, and I have seen them issued when satellites go down for maintenance.

That said, the GPS will get you where you want to go, it might not go the fastest route, but it will get you there. Thats what its for, to fall back on. And they learn...my rand mcnally times my shortcuts and learned from it, started automatically sending me on the route I wanted...

I was never late for a load due to navigation... and the GPS took me the wrong way only once. Once. That was because my moron student decided he should drive onto a dirt road in Missouri near where US-60 and I-55 intersect... the GPS doesnt know local ordinances and this idiot from the city... like only taken cabs, had a license and never drove... this idiot drives over a 10 ton bridge that has a massive "Slow to 15mph" sign... at like 50-55! Then hes like "What?" and he says he even saw the sign. Some people...
So it wasnt even the GPS, it was a moron of a student. People from the big cities, like super big cities... should be banned from touching anything mechanical... they can barely use a friggin microwave! Im not kidding! They have attention spans so short, they just drop what they are doing and think they can just go find something to keep them interested, drop that and move on... no sense of "cause and effect", like they literally do not believe their actions have reactions....
I would much rather have a crack addict following a GPS... than someone from the big city coming anywhere near my truck. They drive like they just took LSD or something, totally out of whack.

Like Im on I-24 somewhere in Tennessee, and thanks to bozo, we wont make the fuel stop before his time is out. So... we pull into this place just short of Jackson TN, and its got THREE truck stops. You know what he does? Pulls into the closed CAR gas station... Im screaming at him "You cant go in there!" and he tries to pull into the car pumps! Luckily I must have yelled loud enough, because he listened for once! He tells me, LIKE HES PROUD OF IT..."You know Dave? What Im gonna remember about you? You cant go in there! Im gonna remember that Dave! Youve said it so much!"... And the dude had a masters degree!

No GPS is as bad at navigation as someone from the big city. I have 10 times more faith in my GPS than I have in anybody from big cities... Good grief!

 

All GPS can and will be shut down if the US is threatened. As the enemy can use our GPS to send missiles on our signal. And it needs to be a tool not a desision maker.

 

Yep, when there's a war on American soil and/or a large scale terrorist attack, the only thing I'm gonna be concerned about is that my GPS got turned off.

No one on here is saying to throw your maps out the window, it's just silly not to let a GPS unit assist you tho.

 

We ain't the only ones with satellites. There is over 1000 of them up there. Not all missile systems rely on satellite communication.

 

If they shut down the gps satellites because we are under enemy attack, finding the location of my receiver will be the least of my worries!

 

Years ago, before the GPS satellites were put up there, we had missiles aimed at us from Russia. They did not use gps then and do not need to use them now.

 

I wonder how many can't read and understand maps because GPS does it all for them.Back when I started I didn't even think about purchasing a GPS,I forced myself to learn how to read maps.

 

Thought his was a thread about getting to places easier--needs a warning to put on my tin foil hat before entering

 

NO kidding!

I bought my first GPS last year, and not because I needed it; I pretty much have one built into my brain. It's a handy tool, useful for general routing, but in town is verified by the atlas and google maps. Mainly I use it for IFTA tracking, ETA's, and letting you know when your cross street is getting close. If you are using without verification, you're asking for trouble. PERIOD!

And after having a RM, then switching to Garmin; I'll tell you that the Garmin is far more intuitive to use, as well as faster on routing and recalcs. It is literally a night and day difference.

The main advantage of a map is the ability to see more of your route at once; it's hard to beat the rapid change in detail your eyes are capable of that no digital display can currently match. I'm way into tech, farther than most of any age, but there's no denying the advantage of a physical map in many instances.

One of our former posters put it this way: "GPS is a tool, and if you use it as a brain, you're a tool, too!" Or something close to that, anyways...