Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
beardy
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by beardy »

There may well (probably, more like) come a day when you can no longer get hold of the paper maps as they have been totally superseded and exist only as oddities kept for amusement and out of historical interest.
Any up to date ones will be home printed sheets after downloading from the internet.

Rather like my slide rule (I may even have a set of tables somewhere in a box or at the back of a drawer).
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simonineaston
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by simonineaston »

I read recently an interview with a big cheese at the OS that there is an commitment to continue to make paper maps available. Interestingly the cheese was of the female persuasion... and why not?! :wink:
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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simonineaston
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by simonineaston »

and using the powerful organ that is my brain... :shock: I recall where I saw said interview!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activ ... month.html
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
drossall
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by drossall »

I still teach my Scouts mapping. One of our favourites is a "parachute drop" hike - you've just landed by parachute, so you know where you are within a few miles, now work out how to get home. In reality, of course, you've been blind-folded and driven to the start in a parent's car. No GPS phones allowed!

I use a GPS to do Audaxes and planned routes, because you don't have to keep stopping. However, it's an old one with low-definition mapping, because the route planning is done on a larger PC-based OS map, and when riding I normally just want to know where the turns are.
Mark1978
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by Mark1978 »

OS recently have announced that if you buy a paper map, you'll get the electronic version for free. Which is a decent idea.

You can get 1:50000 for the whole of GB on Viewranger for £90, it was about £250 when I first got it back in about 2008.
psmiffy
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by psmiffy »

I quite like the look of viewranger - it is not clear if you can view maps on a PC or for that matter mobile device when offline? - might be worth me considering as I am in the process of refreshing my digital maps
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simonineaston
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by simonineaston »

The OS business model changed hugely a few years ago, when the cost of licences to resellers dropped - at least to us leisure consumers. Before that date - 2012? I chose not to buy a Satmap Active; after, it all suddenly became 'affordable' - the major cost being not the unit but all the bloomin' maps cards I'd wanted!
I bet the commercial costs are still steep. It does make some sense to offer digital at the same time as the paper, although you can peruse OS mapping so readily as well as print, it seems hardly worth the cost of buying these days.
An unintended consequence - printing from the on-line mapping of choice while obviously not free, given the cost of domestic colour printer consumables :roll: does means you get to centre your route on the page, and for walking at least, to a certain extent avoids the folding/refolding issue that we know of old. And for winter walks at least, I often pop the A4 'hard copy' through the office laminator! :lol:
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Neilo
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Location: Swansea Valley

Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by Neilo »

meic wrote:I always assumed that Mountain Rescue units were locals who knew the ground. I would not trust my GPS's accuracy to guide me along a cliffside path in the fog. My Brecon based sister was a little disappointed when I warned her (now Ex-) husband that a GPS would not reliably provide this service on his regular walks in the hills. :lol:


Mountain Rescue is often mispercieved as just rescuing people that have fallen off a mountain. In addition to that we are often called to search for missing people in urban and rural areas, for many different reasons, missing walkers, missing elderly people with dementia, people that wish to do them selves harm, missing children, the list is quite long. We are called to help the ambulance service, if the terrain is difficult. We have assisted the fire service with the recovery of casualties from car crashes when the car has ended up in a ravine. Some teams provide assistance during floods.
My team covers roughly the area west of a line drawn from Bridgend to Aberyswyth, but often go further afield to help other teams. So, locals who know the ground, not possible. Calls to places as far afield as Hereford, St Davids, Carmarthen, Newton and Aberystwyth.

I would not use a GPS to guide me, I would use it to navigate, along with a map, compass and all the navigational techniques I have learned over the years.

I am not one of those anti GPS tpyes, but I really do believe that people need to learn how to navigate with a paper map and compass first. I find it quite scary that some people venture into the hills with just a GPS and a route programmed into it to follow, with zero navigational skill. Ignorance is not always bliss, and a GPS is not a shortcut to experience.

Neil
If it aint broke, fix it til it is.
gottogetfit
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by gottogetfit »

I like maps & they are my favourite bed time read.
nickbutler80
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by nickbutler80 »

Mark1978 wrote:OS recently have announced that if you buy a paper map, you'll get the electronic version for free. Which is a decent idea.

You can get 1:50000 for the whole of GB on Viewranger for £90, it was about £250 when I first got it back in about 2008.
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simonineaston
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by simonineaston »

gottogetfit wrote:...they are my favourite bed time read.
When I tell people that, they look at me as if I'm strange and tell me I need to get out more - which is ironic...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
_aD
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Joined: 24 Jun 2015, 1:22pm
Location: East Hampshire

Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by _aD »

psmiffy wrote:I quite like the look of viewranger - it is not clear if you can view maps on a PC or for that matter mobile device when offline? - might be worth me considering as I am in the process of refreshing my digital maps


As someone who much prefers paper maps, I got ViewRanger to help when out in unfamiliar territory. Picked up a pack of National Parks, SW and SE England in 1:50k and I've been very happy. The app, on my HTC One M8, is fast and responsive and I can upload GPX tracks that I made on the PC as well as download routes I've ridden on. Once the maps are downloaded to the app it can all be accessed offline. You can also then use the maps you've purchased to plan routes on their web site and sync them with the app on your phone, which is handy. Unfortunately the maps you purchase cannot be "seen" via a PC directly, but again you can use them on the web site.

Would be nice if digital & paper OS Mapping was just linked to a central OS Survey account so we only had to pay once, without worrying about changing apps, apps being shut down etc. Another corner of life darkened by Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).
_aD
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by _aD »

simonineaston wrote:
gottogetfit wrote:...they are my favourite bed time read.
When I tell people that, they look at me as if I'm strange and tell me I need to get out more - which is ironic...


Find us all a bed big enough and I'll be the first in it! Have map 197, willing to travel.
Palinurus
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by Palinurus »

I work in tech but I just have an old phone and use OS maps for cycling. Phone screen isn't big enough for maps, I like to plan my route as I go to some extent. Prefer paper maps for walking too.
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horizon
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Re: Map reading - can anyone do this now?

Post by horizon »

beardy wrote:
Rather like my slide rule (I may even have a set of tables somewhere in a box or at the back of a drawer).


Some years ago I arrived at a smallish campsite in Spain (I think, but it may have been France) and the usual formalities were demanded - passport, address etc (the Spanish are quite particular about this but it may just have been marketing info). Anyway, it was all entered onto a computer. I was disconcerted. This was meant to be camping, not retail high-tech corporatism. Where was the farmer with his grubby cash-in-hand, bits of straw and black pencil on an old notepad?

Same with paper maps IMV.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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