GPS

[AndyC]

I see from the Rules Committee minutes (yes sad person read them) that apart from elites we can use GPS to monitor in events http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/governance_minutes_rules_22_05_10.pdf (item 10/07)

[LostAgain]

I take it that this is so that you can upload your actual route onto routegadget.

Is the actual use of a GPS to locate yourself during an orienteering competition actaully fast enough to be considered an advantage? Clearly and advantage over a 5-10 minute mistake but probably not fast enough for coninuous use?

[Scott]

I can mainly see it being helpful in competition if, like me, you are hopelessly bad at pace-counting/distance judgement, but I doubt it would be much use to those at the top end of the field.

[frog]

How do they help you in woodlands with few paths though? With geocaching they can be useful but only because you have an OS map with grid references on them. As omaps have no grid refs unless you're doing a long o with grid ref map I wouldn't have thought they added much. I've only used Garmin edge 705 GPS mainly aimed at cyclists and the basic gecko 201 that rarely works in forests though and have never orienteered with either, I'd only lose it.

[andy]

I can mainly see it being helpful in competition if, like me, you are hopelessly bad at pace-counting/distance judgement, but I doubt it would be much use to those at the top end of the field.

I've never used mine for pacing/distance at an event (I only use it for analysis afterwards) and I can't really see myself benefiting from using it (and I'm far from being the best navigator out there).

Actual GPS location will never be of any use because you have to work out position relative to the map, and maps don't have GPS coordinates on them...

[AndyC]

Personally mine tells me how lost I was when, how slowly I was travelling and how near a heart attack I was.
No use at all for active navigation apart from the opportunity to replace pace counting and measure my altitude but that isn't better than reading the map properly.
And if I was really lost in thick woodland it wouldn't have a signal and be completely useless anyway

[Dave]

I think one of the main reasons they were banned was because technically, although unlikely, you could get someone to pre-run a course and save the location of each control onto a simple gps watch like the garmin forerunners and then you could run round with an arrow telling you which way to run and how far to each control.
in real terms this alone wouldn't be close to beating the top guys, but if one of the top guys ran using this and their navigation they could save time, especially in bingo areas.
as for the 'non-elite' runners I guess that, wrongly or rightly, there's not much stopping you from employing these methods. but I (maybe naively) don't think its something many people would consider, or many competitive people would actually be able to use to their advantage compared to orienteering themselves. It [gps] is really useful purely for analysis and geeking though, for those which are that way inclined.

[RJ]

Some of our maps are referenced so that mapping was done on the area using GPS. The planner can then identify his control sites. Either he can put them out himself using the data or he can ask a friend to do the job for him.... someone who hasn't actually visited the sites previously. Also dead good for collecting in, particularly for a night event. Also misty conditions!!

[Spookster]

GPS can be used quickly and effectively for distance judgement on a long leg, in terrain that has few other features, or is too complex to easily stay in touch. Just hit the "waypoint mark" button as you leave a known position, and it will tell you how far you've then gone on a bearing.

Personally I'd rather rely on distance judgement and location on mapped features, but for some people it could be beneficial.

[NeilC]

There is no doubt that GPS units can be used to aid navigation - although BOF rules do not allow their use for things like distance judgement or relocation during the race. There is always a balance between fairness and practicality. To make an orienteering race fair those that have finished should be separated from those that have yet to start to avoid information being passed from on - however it would be impractical, and very unpopular, to enforce this. The same with GPS- many orienteers find the post-race opportunities available from a GPS track very informative/amusing etc and so given than most GPS units used by competitors are those with screens, rather than simple loggers, the decision has been made not to ban them for non-IOF classes at this time. Instead competitors are trusted not to use them in the same way that they are trusted not to pass on information about the course to those yet to start.

[Miner]

I haven't ever seen one of the GPS watches close up so haven't the faintest idea about them but wondered if anyone could recommend one that would track where I've been but not tell me where to go. I think it's probably time to face up to the honest truth about my route rather than the optimistically edited version I draw on my maps after the event.

[SeanC]

If you just want to log your route on routegadget, apparently you can buy GPS loggers that are not part of a watch and save yourself some money. There was an article about it on the Southdowns website a while ago.

[andypat]

I have (or rather my wife has and i borrow) a Garmin 405. Although it can tell you where to go if you go to a lot of trouble to input waypoints etc, it generally is best at telling you where youve been, and how long it took. Ideal for routegadget, if a tad expensive.