Let’s face it, GPS devices are great. I use them on a regular basis. I have GPS units for both driving navigation and while I am out in the wilderness camping, hiking, etc. I also use GPS enabled apps on my cellphone for a wide variety of activities. I am sure that the majority of people are the same way; they rely on GPS systems pretty much on a daily basis. Now just think of what would happen if you lost your GPS unit, it got broken, stolen, or the batteries died and you didn’t have extras. What if the device itself worked fine, but something happened to the satellites, or something interfered with the signal from the satellites.  I truly believe that most people would be completely lost, and this is exactly why I believe we have become way too reliant on GPS technology.

I have seen it first hand, people will venture out with their GPS and think to themselves “I have the GPS, How could I get lost?” They don’t think about having a backup device, or even better, a map and a compass. In my vehicle I leave plenty of maps for all of the areas where I travel often. If I am travelling somewhere different I get a map ahead of time to have with me. If I am hiking or camping, I have a compass and a map of the area I am in. (I’m also quite sure that most people would have no idea how to properly use a map and a compass, but more on that later.)

While a lot of people argue with me about how reliable today’s GPS system is, and it is, people still don’t think about other unknowns that you could come across while out in a vulnerable situation. Say you are on your way to a job interview; you are following the GPS turn by turn directions in your car. All of a sudden the screen goes blank, one good reason may be a blown fuse, but you are in an unfamiliar place, you don’t know where any parts store is to get another fuse, and now you at the very least are going to be late for your interview. So what do you do? Well, in this case, even if you had a backup GPS unit, you probably still wouldn’t be able to use it, because it is the fuse in your vehicle that has gone bad. If you were smart you would have written down the directions before you left home and had those with you. If you had maps of the area in your car, and had the address written down or remembered, then you could spend a few minutes finding the location and figuring out a route to get you there.

As another example, say you are out hiking in the woods. You have a handheld GPS unit tracking everywhere you go; you assume that when it is time to head home you will just click on the waypoint of your starting location and the GPS will take you straight to it. If you were smart you would even have extra batteries with you for the GPS. Somewhere along the way you trip and fall. The screen of the GPS gets smashed on a rock. Now what? Could you make it back? Hopefully you would not be alone on the hike and the other person would also have a GPS, but say you are alone, or the other person doesn’t have one with them. Now is when you would really love to have a map and a compass, and know how to use it. Now granted in order for this to work you would have to at least know the general direction you traveled in from your starting location, but in my opinion if you don’t know where you started and didn’t take note of your direction of travel when you started, then you don’t belong out in the woods anyway.

My point is that there are way too many ways for your dependency on GPS to get you into trouble. You need to have an alternate method of navigation, whether on the road or in the wilderness. Even if the GPS unit you have with you is functioning normally it still doesn’t mean that you are in the clear. What most people don’t know, or never thought about, it just how vulnerable the GPS systems are to outside tampering. Now you can assume for the most part that the satellites themselves are relatively safe, unless some country or well-funded terrorist organization finds a way to either hack and take control of them or do physical damage. The satellites send RF (Radio Frequency) signals on a specific frequency to the receivers that we all use. If something or someone were to send out a stronger signal on the same frequency it would effectively jam the system and render the whole thing useless. The really scary part is just how easy this would be to do. Some critical infrastructure that could be impacted by interference would include plane and airport navigation systems, emergency service vehicles, ships and security vans, some of which carry large amounts of money. Researchers in Britain have gone as far as saying that GPS failures could lead to “loss of life”. It is not only interference here on earth that we have to worry about; Solar flares in space can cause serious damage to satellites.

I am hoping that anyone that may read this will seriously think about having backup methods in place in the future. Granted in today’s world being lost on the road will probably not lead to serious injury or death, but being out in the wilderness is a totally different animal. As I mentioned earlier I believe most people would have no idea what to do if their GPS malfunctioned on them in the wilderness. Even if they did have a map and compass, most wouldn’t know how to use it. I encourage anyone who does any kind of hiking or camping to at least get a basic knowledge of orienteering. For this reason I am going to follow up this article with a brief tutorial of how to use a map and compass. [UPDATE: I have now posted this tutorial. You can find it HERE.]