Bill Straka, One of our GPS and hiking enthusiasts talks about his favorite book on how to navigate and use GPS in the backcountry. ===================================================================== Subject: A GPS book for backcountry users Given that the copyright date is 1997 and the second printing was Dec 1997, I don't know how I overlooked Michael Ferguson's book, GPS Land Navigation (Glassford Publishing, Boise, Idaho). The cover bills it as "A complete guidebook for backcountry users of the NAVSTAR satellite system. Overall, it is the best backcountry and general user book on GPS I have seen. It necessarily condenses a lot of map and coordinate system stuff but to my non-geographic eye does it very well. He does a really good job of discussing the place of various types of navigation aids for the backcountry navigator (compass, altimeter, map reading aids, as well as GPS). His discussion of how GPS works is excellent for the non-technical type. The real bonus is his 3 tables of coordinates of interesting points - highest point of all states and most counties in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), all the state capitol buildings, and a major portion of the intersections between Interstates (and some US numbered highways with the Interstates). His receiver comparison table is, of course, out of date (hey, any such table would be out of date before it ever reached the printing press), but his list of useful parameters to compare and the explanation of them is potentially useful to new users. Then there is his wonderful little section titled "If Your Receiver Breaks Down" which includes a table of sunrise/sunset azimuths and solar noon time (standard) for the central meridian of the time zones (for 1998, it does vary with the year) - small enough to copy and laminate to stick in your pocket along with your map. He does talk about interfacing receivers and computers, digital maps, DGPS, etc., but only very briefly. Overall, this is the book I would currently recommend to people who want to learn more about using their GPS. And some of us "authorities" can learn or brush up on a few things in it, too. -- Bill
Link to "GPS LAND NAVIGATION" at Amazon BookSeller>Click here