Honestly, looking at features and looking at a map is about what I do now, but without the compass
. Thanks for the quick tutorial, I'll be giving it a shot to see if what I get from a compass and topo is the same ballpark as the GPS coords.
What I was really interested in is what KingSlug was talking about. When there are no features, how do you know where you are--or what if all the features look the same? The only reference is sun/moon/stars. That's what I want to learn. I'll look in to the links, thanks
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I only have experience referencing general geography to lat/lon coords. Turning minutes/seconds/tenths to distance on the ground, I haven't yet since I haven't got a GPS receiver...but it'll be interesting to try Dave's & Martin's instructions in a couple weeks.
1 nm = 1 arcminute anywhere on the surface of the Earth. So, if your measuring equipment is reading in minutes.decimals, a tenth is 600 feet, a hundredth is 60 feet, and a thousandth is 6 feet.
That also means that if you're using DMS (what I am used to), one second is 100 feet, and a tenth is 10 feet, which is the most accuracy I would reasonably expect from at least four birds and P code. More reasonably, with the C/A code, I'd look for fifty feet around me, which IMHO is not accurate enough if you're trying to figure out which of two or three nearby turns is the right one--so it's back to the maps, and the GPS remains a coarse positioning tool.
Unless, of course, the C/A code is still turned up to the accuracy of the P code, since I don't have a decoder in my back pocket for the P(Y) code. Then, I'd look for ten feet or so. Bronze USGS markers are a great resource, the trick is finding them. Best luck is to find the markers in less-developed areas...we tried finding quite a few back when they first turned off S/A, markers in more urban areas had usually been long gone. We found ours on the outskirts of town, one was in a ditch covered by an old hubcap, another was in an open space, etc...then you can test the accuracy of your unit with a given number of birds and see how well you can trust the precision listed on the unit.
I've just never tried turning all that stuff in to boots on the ground measurements...
-Sean
*edit* At some point in the future, would some of you Denver guys be willing/interested to meet up somewhere in the backcountry with a couple maps and measuring devices and helping a relative navigation noob like me learn how to do this?