Reminiscing about one of my recent backroad trips I recall the frustration of trying to accurately determine just exactly where the 49th parallel was while driving over the Canadian border. I have an external antennae attached to the roof of my truck and running down to my Garmin Map76S so I should have pretty good signal strength and accuracy.
This particular backroad in SW British Columbia actually crosses the border with no official border crossing station. Would-be smugglers take note; the bushes in this area are heavily fortified with surveillance equipment. Some DEA officer somewhere would have seen me inching my truck back and forth along this dirt road for about 15 minutes while I tried to pinpoint exactly where it was. Had I done this just a little longer I would have expected to see an Apache helicopter hovering overhead. I could then have easily backed up a few feet and ignore it but with my luck I would have still been 20 feet inside US territory and gotten nailed.
At no time in my comings and goings along this road did my GPS display that magical 49 00 00 number. It wasn’t until I parked the truck, on the Canadian side, and walked to the rocky shore of the lake beside the road that I achieved success. Even this feat left me with doubt. As the GPS was lying on the ground the readings would wander a bit. I concluded the border actually moves and is the reason why there is a 10 metre wide swath through the bush indicating where the border is. I always assumed the border was a razor thin line but apparently not.
Yes, I am aware of how GPS works and why civilian GPS accuracy is different than military GPS but that gives little comfort. It’s high time the US military gives us the same pinpoint accuracy as they have and not just because I want to take a picture of my GPS screen at exactly the 49th parallel. You too can calculate your GPS units accuracy by applying quantum physics and adjusting it’s high compression foo foo valves but we should no longer have to. In case you’re wondering, exactly how to do this can easily be found on the net.
An incoming tourism technology you’ll soon be hearing more about is Location Based Services. This technology will rely heavily on pinpointing exactly where you are. Early adopters will no doubt be applauded however this could be short lived if the GPS accuracy required on your GPS enabled cell phone is displaying the menu of the Starbucks two doors down from where you are and you’re standing at a bus stop expecting to see when the next bus will arrive.
New technologies on the horizon should increase GPS accuracy but these are ground based add-ons to enhance the local system. The US military I believe has no intention of ever letting us have 100% accuracy. I give them credit for allowing us the system in the first place but if this were any other technology in today’s world and it gave us this level of service it surely wouldn’t be around for too long.
