INTRODUCTION

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is a great boon to anyone who has the need to navigate either great or small distances. This wonderful navigation technology was actually first available for government use back in the late 1970s. In the past ten or so years, It has been made available to the general public in the form of handheld receivers that use this satellite technology provided by the U.S. government.

Through the use of these handheld receivers, one can navigate back to a starting point or other predetermined locations without the use of maps or any other equipment. In conjunction with accurate maps like ones provided by the USGS, and other basic tools like a compass and Lat/Long or UTM scales, one can navigate to identified locations on maps or take readings from a location that they are at or have been at and plot those locations on a map.

All of these features make it a very desirable and useful technology for a mirid of activities including Search and Rescue, Aviation and Nautical navigation, hiking, hunting, camping, fishing, and many more. All of these various GPS users have unique needs which require different levels of understanding and skill in using this technology.

At the most basic level, the GPS user needs to be able to set-up and initialize the unit and SAVE and GOTO a waypoint. For many users, this is all that they really need to do. For others, it is important to understand the coordinate grid systems and to be able to plot and read position coordinates on a map. Being able to plot and read position coordinates, enables the user to make the optimum use of this technology for more sophisticated applications.

In Chapter one, we will cover the fundamental concepts of what makes GPS work, the basics of setting up the receiver, taking a position fix, and activating the GOTO navigation function to a given waypoint. For some, this may be all they need to know for the applications that they are interested in.

The second Chapter will cover the concepts of the Latitude and Longitude Grid system and how to plot and read the coordinates of positions on a map.

Chapter three covers these same concepts using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) metic grid system.