Making A High-Tech Gizmo Usable

For every normal person who climbs mountains, paddles oceans and bikes through the backcountry, there’s an odd-ball like Michael Ferguson.

This outdoorsman is different than the rest of us because he actually knows how to use the GPS.

“I’ve always enjoyed electronic things,” the nit-picking techno junkie said from his home in Boise.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System, an amazing satellite navigation system devised by the U.S. military. GPS is almost a household term, now that affordable receivers can tap a zillion dollars of space technology in order to get one-up on the simple compass.

But there’s nothing household about understanding the complexities of the system.

Ferguson has been curious about GPS ever since the first of the NAVSTAR satellites were launched in 1978. He notes that a magazine devoted to GPS technology has been published for nine years.

But like most Americans, he was too practical to buy a consumer GPS receiver until 1995, when the price finally dropped to the reasonable range of about $300.

That’s when it dawned on him how little information was available on using the gadgets.

Maintaining the tradition of computer manuals, the instructions that come with the products are poorly written and incomplete.

Ferguson put his curiosity and research into print with a recently published book, “GPS Land Navigation: A Complete Guidebook for Backcountry Users of the NAVSTAR Satellite System.”

The book helps non-technoids grasp GPS.

Just in case that’s not enough, Ferguson will present a program on using GPS tonight at 7 at REI in Spokane.

GPS receivers have all sorts of features. But the backcountry user is mainly concerned with the system’s ability to:

Provide coordinates so you can find your position on a map.

Plot the distance and direction from your position to a coordinate you designate.

Monitor travel progress or dynamic information including speed and estimated time of arrival.

GPS made its first splash with boaters. Using the satellite technology, small-craft sailors could navigate the Inland Passage in the fog or log the coordinates of a hot fishing hole in the ocean and return to the same spot time after time.

Recent advancements of pocket-size receivers for as little as $150 have put GPS units in the realm of almost any backpack.

A hunter can pinpoint where an elk was bagged. Sea-kayakers can swap coordinates for the best campsites in Barkley Sound.

A backcountry skier who plots his course on a GPS receiver doesn’t have to worry about a sudden storm brewing into a whiteout and obliterating his tracks. If everything is done correctly, the unit would easily guide him back to the trailhead.

“One of the scary things about GPS is that it’s going to allow people to get out there farther,” Ferguson said. “But when it breaks down all of a sudden, you have to be able to draw upon less high-tech skills.”

You’ll notice he said “when” not “if.”

GPS allows you to navigate without a map if you plan in advance and plug in coordinates for your intended route. But Ferguson includes in his book an entire chapter on maps, as well as a chapter describing use of the compass and altimeter.

“GPS will not make the map and compass obsolete,” he said.

His book is arriving in bookstores as interest in GPS is beginning to swell.

On Tuesday, National Public Radio reported the U.S. Coast Guard has considered disconnecting fog horns because GPS is making them obsolete.

“GPS is the most significant navigational advancement since the compass, and I still get the willies when I think what this technology can do,” Ferguson said.

In a short time, a 9-ounce unit will be able to pinpoint a position in the boonies within 20 meters, he said.

But Ferguson and others intimate with GPS always add a footnote to their enthusiasm.

“Traditionally, a sailor didn’t have a chance to grow old unless he knew more than one method of navigation,” Ferguson said.

In other words, if the batteries go dead, so might you.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review