If you use a GPS - take your paper maps with you!

Good point Ray... good point!

Back of the Kimberly sounds nice for a few weeks........

Right on Ray,
I would want to be lost if the GPS was out over OZ.For Military reasons.
Best to be in the middle of nowhere.

Golly I can get lost WITH the things, without them I would have to find something else to fiddle with.

the gps system at the moment lets them disable the sats only in the area of operation like irak there not disablede but have a random ofset so \civi gps s cant get an acurate fix but millitary ones programed with this ofset can so ulnless the yanks want to invade us for our oil where safe the shouldnt go down

Who told you that? I think it was done durin gw1 but since then they have the technology to be able to selectivly scramble/turn off only affected areas. This post is just scaremongering from yet another ul started on the net. Mine surveyers use gps for surveying and there is rarely any problems with accuracy down to less than 1cm certainly no problems during gw2

Twas on tele on one of them specials on the war...

Just send up a smoke signal, sit back with a beer and wait for some poor fish to swallow your hook.

Dave - Yes, and they call it "Selective Availability". With the GPS system in this mode, accuracy is reduced to "no less than 100m" accurate on the ground - unless you had a military GPD receiver. On the 2nd of May 2000, the US President turned off selective availability to enhance accuracy for all users.

Nowadays, I suppose they just re-introduce it temporarily (during skirmishes) when they need to reduce accuracy for any receiver other than US military-spec units.

You can find out more here: http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa050400a.htm

or read this:

If you take a look at your handheld or automobile Global Positioning System (GPS) unit today, you'll notice that it's much, much more accurate now than it was on May 1. The reason? U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered Selective Availability (SA) turned off at midnight May 1 (Coordinated Universal Time). Now, civilian GPS users around the world will no longer experience the up to 100 meter (approximate 300 feet) random errors that SA added to keep GPS a more powerful tool for the military. Today, GPS units are accurate to within 20 meters (approximately 60 feet); although in good conditions, units should display an error of less than 10 meters.

In 1998, President Clinton directed that SA should be turned off between 2000 and 2006. Fortunately, it happened early in that range of years. The U.S. military was able to quickly develop and test their ability to selectively block accurate GPS transmissions in areas of conflict or where U.S. security was at risk. When the U.S. Air Force Space Command turned off SA last night, GPS became incredibly accurate for the entire planet.

GPS operates through the use of 24 satellites, paid for by the U.S. government but free for the world to use, that are orbiting the earth. The satellites broadcast extremely accurate time signals (accurate to within 40 billionths of a second) using their onboard atomic clocks. GPS units on the earth triangulate the time signals from the satellites to provide location, velocity, and elevation of the units themselves. When Selective Availability was on, GPS units received a scrambled signal from the satellites, which hindered private and commercial use of GPS.

The current worldwide GPS industry is estimated to be approximately U.S. $8 billion and there are about four million GPS users worldwide. Now, experts expect that the demand and use of GPS will skyrocket, leading to $16 billion industry within three years. Use of GPS in a variety of areas has automatically been vastly improved. For example, automobile GPS units and mapping software under SA would often place the car one to two blocks from its actual location; today, GPS can tell which side of the freeway a car is on.

GPS is actually now more accurate than the accuracy standard for United States Geological Survey topographic maps so outdoor enthusiasts should truly appreciate the new accuracy of their GPS units. Soon, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will require location determination technology in cellular phones for use in emergencies as part of their enhanced 911 service. With a much more accurate GPS system, GPS might be the technology of choice and emergency responders will be able to respond more quickly and accurately to these signals from cellular phones.

Future plans for improving the accuracy of GPS include the launching of eighteen additional satellites that are awaiting launch or are currently in production. Additionally, two new signals will be broadcast from the satellites by 2005 to help bypass any distortion from the ionosphere.

Geocacher - yep thats right it is called dgps and requires a base station set up on a proper survey point I dont know the hows and whys but I think the surveyers gps is corrected by the base station which knows the error. I can be corrected if wrong but I thought the degradation of the gps system was still there but greatly improved allowing accuracy to between 5-10m in ideal circumstances. I used my gps during gw2 and noticed no problems occasionly due to whatever reasons I have experienced problems like what you are talking about but they dontlast long and often can be put down to other reasons