Being lost. Its an awful feeling, starting as slight confusion, working through dread, anger and finally determination to figure out where you are and get to where you need to be. If only you had something that could tell you where you were, where you need to go, and provide you with some hot coffee. Except for the coffee, GPS is that something.

Over the last two decades, the U.S. Department of Defense spent $12 billion (that’s billion, with a “B”) to place a series of satellites in orbit over the earth to provide the military with a precise location and navigation system. That same $12 billion satellite system, coupled with an inexpensive handheld receiver, now provides the average person with a simple, reliable method to get to a tree stand in the dark, return precisely to a hot spot on a lake and navigate on roads and highways. This is truly one of the high-tech wonders of our time.

The Global Positioning Satellite system works when 24 satellites in geosynchronous orbit send out signals that are received by a GPS unit. The units themselves do not transmit anything, they just receive the low-power signals from the satellites and compare the tiny difference in time from when the signal is transmitted and when it is received. Signals from at least three satellites are necessary to fix a position, and the more signals that are compared the faster and more accurate the location fix.

Until May, 2000, the Defense department inserted random errors into the signals received by civilians that limited accuracy to within 100 meters. That has been removed, and standard signals are now accurate to within 30 feet. Many new GPS models now include WAAS, Wide Area Augmentation System, which improves accuracy to within 10 feet. (Accuracy is amazing – you can see a lane change reflected on the tracking line as you travel down a highway, or the altitude measurement change by three feet as you move from sitting on the ground to a standing position.)

The GPS units can give you some basic information: position on the earth (displayed on a map or by coordinates), local or universal time, sunrise, sunset and moon phase for any location, or even work as an alarm clock. The units can also tell your current position, speed, direction of travel, distance traveled, distance left to go, elapsed time and estimated arrival time.

But there are many different models and brands. Without any experience, determining which model to buy and how much money to spend can be confusing, particularly if you are like me and don’t even know what questions to ask.

The makers of the Magellan series of GPS receivers provided Whitetails Unlimited Magazine a trio of units for testing and evaluation; the SporTrak, a basic, lower cost unit; a SporTrak Pro, a mid-cost unit, and a Meridian Gold, from near the top of their product line. Retail prices for the three ranged from $150 to $450, with lower prices available at some outlets. They also sent copies of two mapping software programs, allowing detailed maps to be loaded into the units for specific needs. We tested the units for several months during the fall and winter, in the woods, on large and small lakes and on the ocean, for hunting, fishing, canoeing, traveling and other outdoor uses, and all I can say is, “I gotta get me one of these!”

Keep in mind that this is not so much a product review on these models as it is an evaluation of GPS generally. In fact, all of these models have already been updated, with color screens and other features, but the basic information of how they work and what they can do for you is still accurate.

Let me explain up front that I am a gadget freak, but I’m also frugal (OK, I’m cheap). I’ve looked at GPS units for a long time, and always thought that, for me, they were a solution in search of a problem. I am proficient with a map and compass, wear a watch and generally pay attention when I’m out in the woods. I’ve never been seriously lost, although I’ve been very confused a time or two, but never enough to shell out more money for another electronic device. I am now a believer.

Early versions of GPS provided your location, in latitude and longitude, which you then had to locate on a paper map. GPS units sold now have a map installed, and your location is displayed graphically on the small screen. You can zoom in or out on the map, displaying as little as 100 feet or as much as 1700 miles (showing whole continents). The installed map is pretty good, showing cities, towns, highways and major roads, lakes, rivers and streams, but not city streets or county roads.

Learning to use the units can be both easy and difficult, if that makes any sense. I sat on the couch with the instruction manual and was totally confused and frustrated. The next day, I took my son and a couple of his buddies to some land where his friend’s dad bow hunts, and turned them loose. With only very basic instructions these three 13-year olds were off into the woods, returning less than an hour later with a detailed plotting of every hunting stand, including height above ground, major geographical feature (stream, hills, property boundaries), distance between stands, distance traveled and top speed that they traveled.

The key, I learned, is that for many features you need to be moving. Most functions are fairly intuitive, and as you walk and watch the display you can see how they work. Using the manual to answer specific questions I quickly worked my way through the different screens. As I used the unit I discovered other features, returned to the manuals with specific question and gradually learned what GPS can do.

You do not need an advanced degree to learn how to use these units, but you do need some patience. The best way to master these devices is to just use them.

One thing I learned right away is that these units can eat up a lot of batteries. They run on two standard AAs, with a claimed life of up to 14 hours of constant use. That means that a long road trip, a full day in the woods or if you leave the unit turned on overnight you will pretty much use a set of batteries. Also, if you use the backlight screen a lot at night the battery life will be reduced. There is an accessory cable to plug into a car cigarette lighter, which works well, and they can run on rechargeable batteries. However you power the unit, always have several sets of replacement batteries readily available.

Waypoints are the Key

The key to making GPS useful are “waypoints.” A waypoint is simply a point you indicate and then save in the GPS unit. They can be set as you are actually at the location or programmed in ahead of time. The waypoints can be named or numbered and given a symbol, and the unit can then use the waypoints for calculations.

Last deer season my son and I were hunting on a piece of land for the first time, and arrived too late to properly scout the area. Before sunrise of opening day I placed a waypoint where we parked the car, set the GPS to track our movements and followed the landowner into the woods. Following a trail, we arrived at a stand and I set another waypoint. As we moved to different stands I placed additional waypoints. By ourselves early the next morning we had no problem navigating into position in complete darkness.

Waypoints can also be programmed in ahead of time. If you know where you are going, if you can determine latitude and longitude of your destination, or if you use accessory map software you can place the waypoint before you leave home. I will place a waypoint at (or as close as I can estimate) my driving destination, and the GPS can then continuously calculate distance remaining to destination, estimated time of arrival, speed, miles traveled,  elapsed time, bearing, heading, and several different compass displays, on different types of screens in your choice of digital or analog displays. You can even set the unit to make a sound when you reach your destination. Screens you do not use can be turned off, if desired.

There are a number of features that may or may not be useful to you, but are impressive nonetheless. These will vary among manufactures and specific models. There is an additional menu of items to select from.

I found several things to be very useful, including the sun and moon rising and setting calculator, which will give you the correct times and moon phase for any location on earth, for any date. Planning a trip in Alaska nine months from now? Put in the location and date and the information appears.

There is also a function that will calculate peak hunting and fishing times, also for any location and date.

One compass screen shows an analog compass and your travel azimuth, as well as speed and distance traveled. You can also get a screen with a digital readout of bearing, heading, speed and distance traveled. A third screen can give you this same digital information, but with a graphic depiction of a road, and your deviation from the most direct route to your destination.

A different screen provides information for ground travel (Federal regulations prohibit using GPS units any time on commercial aircraft) with an analog speedometer and digital displays of heading, distance, elapsed time, time of arrival and trip odometer.

There is a screen that will show you how many of the 24 GPS satellites are above the horizon, which ones your unit is receiving a signal from, and the strength of the signal. Reception is best outside, with a clear view of the sky. Reception is more difficult indoors, in a car or outdoors if there is thick tree cover or other obstacles blocking your view of the sky. If you don’t have good signals you can move to a better location. You need at least three satellites for the unit to work properly. A large, easy to read indicator of battery power is also on this screen.

To fully utilize these devices you will need the accessory map software. This will allow you connect the GPS unit to a computer and then load detailed maps from a compact disk into the GPS unit. Cost of the software and connecting cable is in the $50 – $100 range.

Magellan has two different map CDs. If you will use GPS in your car you will want to get the software that has detailed street information. You can enter a street address (or multiple locations), set the waypoint, define the edges of the map and then load it into the GPS unit. You can store multiple maps of different areas. In addition, the maps include icons for restaurants, gas stations, marinas, parks and other items of interest.

The other map CD has detailed topographic maps, invaluable if you are going very far into the woods.

Each GPS unit has a memory limit for these maps, but I found that even with the smallest amount of memory fairly large maps can be accommodated. The most expensive unit required the purchase and installation of an accessory memory chip before maps can be loaded into it. Be sure to check on the memory capacity before purchasing a GPS

The three units I used are rugged, reliable and waterproof. One was soaked by rain in a backpack, one sat in a puddle in the bottom of a canoe for several hours and one fell into the ocean (it floats). All stood up to extensive use in a wide variety of climates and conditions.

For me, GPS started out as a tool of convenience: interesting to have around, fun to play with and while it made my life easier in some areas, I could live without it just fine. The more I used it the more valuable it became.

The real value came during a wilderness canoe trip, when on the last morning we awoke to an incredibly thick fog. Visibility was 20 feet at the most, but we had to paddle out to start our trip home. We had an easy 30-minute paddle to the last portage, and then an hour’s paddle back to civilization. The problem was, these easy legs included trips across the mouths of several bays and it is very easy to move off course in a canoe without visual references. Hugging the shoreline to avoid getting lost in the fog would add hours to our trip out. Fortunately, I had placed waypoints at the ends of the portages, and while paddling in I left the GPS on so our route was recorded.  We simply retraced our route, with the bow paddler squinting into the fog looking for rocks and the stern paddler looking down at the GPS to deep us on course.

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