# GPS Failure and a lesson folks.



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Ok so we all love gadgets especially the electronic kind but not only you need power to get them going you also need knowhow and they can fail and leave you stranded .Back in my days my father made sure I knew where the Sun came out or the direction of where we were going while driving even how to read a paper map with a compass was a daily lesson. This story is very common now days someone goes out into the woods and never comes out, to be found by an old hunter and his dog with nothing more than a compass and pipe. Take a look. A big lesson here folks.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/family-spends-freezing-night-car-gps-directions-leave/story?id=44137192


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## dademoss (Aug 6, 2011)

Never leave home without your pipe  My dog was pretty bad at directions.

Every car has a set of maps and a compass, and a 3 day bag.

Often I found home by "Go south to the river and turn right/left", depending on where I was.


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

So reliant upon technology are we, that we can no longer function as human beings, thinking for ourselves and solving our problems with our thoughts and minds. 

I use GPS as a tool and I am faster than the computer.


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

I just watched the video. That f*ck*r is wearing a blue braid on his Army uniform and a Staff Sergeant. Two strikes out for his man card. Infantry and NCO's are extensively taught land navigation, terrain association and dead reckoning. 

What a sap!


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## Mortblanc (Apr 20, 2013)

That is not a story about a GPS failure.

It is a story about a completely unprepared fool driving through one of the worst remote areas of the lower 48 at the worst time of year, which anyone with a freeking brain would look at and turn around.

The GPS knew right where it and the car it was in was, it was the half wit behind the wheel that needs replacement.


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## headhunter (Nov 21, 2008)

my wife loves her GPS for garage sales. My 1st and only one was a Garmin 12. I thought it was cool. BUT, when the trail I was on went under a leaf cover up popped a little note"no satellite coverage". When the shorthair and I went along the edge of a swamp chasing grouse, it really was worthless. I guess fishing with the son-in-law it keeps his boat in one position or enables him to find a special "hole". I'm forced to recognize it has some uses.
Back when the military was keeping GPS accuracy a secret there was a TV program on building a bridge across the Chesapeake . The first bridge was built with towers and surveying equipment, the second bridge was built with GPS. The engineer was asked how accurate it was he replied 1/4".


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## backlash (Nov 11, 2008)

Read a story about rental cars with GPS sending tourists in Rio through the ghetto.
The tourist were shot.
I use GPS to show me where someplace is but I never follow the directions.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/28/tourists-using-google-maps-to-get-to-rio-landmark-enter-favela-get-shot.html


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

i have a garmin 55..in which i rarely rely on it completely.on account i sometimes know of a lil longer/better route.or i simply feel like going a diff route..i aint the smartest whip in a 50 mile radius..but i do know,to stay out of state parks n all,during the winter.and yes,i'll gladly go a extra 50/300 miles during the winter,just to avoid getting snowed in,and/or stranded...


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

I use Magellan by Trimble Navigation. Trimble was the first successful commercial GPS to enter the public sector. Before that, Trimble was used by the military for Desert Storm.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

I love my GPS. Punch in the address of where I want to go and off we go. Wife likes it a whole bunch better then when I'd hold the map across the steering wheel to read it while I'll driving with my knee. She has no sense of adventure.

There is one feature I wish they'd add. GPS is a telling me to "Turn Right"

_"No I ain't turning right"_ I'm cutting across the county roads to take a short cut, or to avoid that part of town I ain't going though with only 5 loaded.

GPS recomputes, "Turn Right".
_
"No I told you I ain't going that way."_

"Turn Right"

_"NO! I told you three times!"_

"Make a U-turn as soon as possible"

_"NO! NO! NO! I'm going this way!"_

What's the feature I wish they add? SHUT UP! Silence the blasted thing for 5 minutes or so.


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

thats when i turn on the no u-turn feature..


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

Here is my GPS story. I had used my GPS to circumnavigate the Northern Atlantic. I was near the end and had left Puerto Rico headed for the SC. On my passage through the Bermuda Triangle my, up until now flawless, GPS dies. I pull out my backup GPS that has only been used enough to make sure it works, and it dies. After I got through the triangle I pulled out the last GPS from the survival gear and used it to get into SC.


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## fteter (May 23, 2014)

Love my GPS devices. Cool tech. Convenient. Fun to use. But I also keep a set of maps and a compass with me for backup, both in my vehicles and in my pack.


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## sgtusmc98 (Sep 8, 2013)

I used military gps' in their early years, in general we disregarded their info unless it agreed with our map as a verification, but we always went with the map.

Gps has come along ways since then, one of the big problems with iPhone maps are that they don't always have service, as long as nothing goes wrong and you stay on track it works but with out service one alternate turn or change in plans makes it useless.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

More GPS funny stories and why they should teach map /compass reading at schools in America today.
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/19/9_of_the_most_epic_gps_failures_partner/


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