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Post by jdd2 on Dec 17, 2022 23:27:38 GMT -5
I always like this kind of activity, did it in boy scouts and later for a day or two in basic. I was not an expert, but better than most. And it carried over into the maps and to visualize routes and patterns in ATC. news.yahoo.com/soldiers-forgotten-map-compass-173137773.html"About seven months after the Army reintroduced land navigation to its Basic Leader Course, or BLC, half of the soldiers in that pilot program have failed the training." I'd like to think I'd've passed.
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Post by theevan on Dec 18, 2022 4:02:01 GMT -5
I have employees who can't go around the corner without the address in their phone. A verbal or written set of directions, no matter how easy and clear, are a no-go.
That scares me.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2022 9:01:59 GMT -5
I'm glad the Army reintroduced land navigation. The Navy is teaching celestial navigation again. As a young officer, I got very good at it. And navigating accurately on foot and in a vehicle at speed are two distinct problem sets. I can still use terrain analysis and self awareness to find my way around on hikes. It takes time to build that level of awareness up, and practice to keep it. Believe me when I say I'm getting rusty. As a wise old sergeant said to me once, "A computer with a bullet hole in it is a paper weight. A map with a bullet hole in it is a <expletive deleted> map, Sir."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2022 9:03:17 GMT -5
And I imagine with the polar shifts going on, folks are needing to pay even closer attention to declination diagrams and magnetic to true north calculations.
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Post by PaulKay on Dec 18, 2022 9:45:16 GMT -5
I must admit I still don't understand how to read a terrain map even if I had a compass. If it's got a highway going through it, I'm good.
Maybe the Navy should go back to teaching Morse Code with signal lights. Alternative battlefield communications.
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Post by howard lee on Dec 18, 2022 9:48:45 GMT -5
[...] Maybe the Navy should go back to teaching Morse Code with signal lights. Alternative battlefield communications.
Nice Gibson L5 at lower right!
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Post by dradtke on Dec 18, 2022 10:08:58 GMT -5
I learned it in Boy Scouts and it seemed silly, living in the dead flat cornfields of Illinois, all marked out in one-mile grid-gravel roads. Learned it again when I had to use it for real in the far reaches of Canadian canoe country. Now it's a little frightening how much I depend on the Garmin for cross-country drives.
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Post by billhammond on Dec 18, 2022 10:26:08 GMT -5
I must admit I still don't understand how to read a terrain map even if I had a compass. If it's got a highway going through it, I'm good. Maybe the Navy should go back to teaching Morse Code with signal lights. Alternative battlefield communications. PaulK and I were in the last Navy Radioman class that was required to learn Morse Code, but with a key, not a light. Instruction included a diabolical method called Shout Week, where we required to scream out the dits and dahs of each letter -- DI-DAH, ALPHA!, the theory being that it imprinted each character deeper in our memory banks, no doubt the result of some very expensive consultant's research.
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Post by millring on Dec 18, 2022 11:13:10 GMT -5
It's asianteering.
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Post by james on Dec 18, 2022 11:26:17 GMT -5
I got my map-reading badge as a cub-scout. Acquired and mastered the use of a Silva compass in my teens. Learnt orienteering at night school in my twenties and went to quite a lot of events on weekends. I took it slowly and enjoyed the scenery. Properly competitive orienteering is hardcore!
I still get hopelessly lost all the time without a map or sat-nav. Even quite locally.
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Post by John B on Dec 18, 2022 11:33:59 GMT -5
I must admit I still don't understand how to read a terrain map even if I had a compass. If it's got a highway going through it, I'm good. Maybe the Navy should go back to teaching Morse Code with signal lights. Alternative battlefield communications. PaulK and I were in the last Navy Radioman class that was required to learn Morse Code, but with a key, not a light. Instruction included a diabolical method called Shout Week, where we required to scream out the dits and dahs of each letter -- DI-DAH, ALPHA!, the theory being that it imprinted each character deeper in our memory banks, no doubt the result of some very expensive consultant's research. A family friend owned a ham radio company, kantronics.com/. When I was a kid he gifted me a key, a small speaker and a book. I remember "Da dit dah dit, dah dah dit dah" and "dit dah dah dah, dah dah dah, dit dit dit dit dit, dah dit." Pardon my spelling, but I believe the book used "dit" for dots, to reinforce that it should be a shorter duration than an open-ended "dah."
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Post by John B on Dec 18, 2022 11:34:55 GMT -5
Oh yes, and "dit dit dit, dah dah dah, dit dit dit."
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Post by brucemacneill on Dec 18, 2022 12:23:42 GMT -5
Had to do a night orienteering thing in military training at Camp Lejeune, map and compass. We had to find several points on the map and pick up a ribbon at each point. When we reached the last point we figured we made it but we were one ribbon short so they said we must have cheated somehow. I figured maybe we dropped a ribbon, I don't know but we got from the start to the finish.
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Post by TKennedy on Dec 18, 2022 13:41:39 GMT -5
Ever notice that if you use a map to drive to an address in a city you almost always know how you got there when it's time to go back?
If I use Siri I usually have no clue.
It's automatic with kids now. I rode with one of my grandkids in Chicago to pick up take out a few blocks away. He had been there many times but still reflexively asked Siri for directions.
It's frightening how dependent we have gotten.
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Post by Cornflake on Dec 18, 2022 14:10:32 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the term "orienteering" encompasses but I got adept at using topo maps and a compass back in my hunting days.
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Post by millring on Dec 18, 2022 21:21:41 GMT -5
Oh yes, and "dit dit dit, dah dah dah, dit dit dit."
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