Posted: 12/8/2008 11:30:02 AM EDT
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I have been doing some planning on what if I ever need to level the house and "bail out" to a relatives house. I would like to set up multiple routes to relatives house and have it all pre-planed in case the road is blocked or down. I would like to have one for the whole state and then maybe even a county by county map. Does anyone know where to get some good detailed road maps? Or have other suggestions for making this plan work.
Stupid me the other day got lost in urban chaos and my mental compass lost its way. Found my way eventually but it would have helped to have a good compass. I'm working on getting a GPS but want to have a good back up. I would like to get several fairly inexpensive compasses to keep around. Any suggestions for compasses or what I should look for in them? Thanks a lot. |
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Quoted: AA+++ www.delorme.com I have an copy of the "backroads " map and it is great. The front and back covers are missing so I can't give you any more info than that. Just a super, super state atlas. Search for it. It is worth looking for. awesome maps, they give all the back roads and their numbers too, even jeep trails. all the roads are numbered too and they do correspond to those little white numbered signs that you see at intersections and never knew what they were for. those are township and state roads. like it will say SR401 or TP5976 and so on. i have two for each state around me as well as mine and keep one in each car i have. me and my wife love road trips. we get lost on purpose, then use our topo's to get home. works like a charm. |
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Its always a good idea to have a compass. Threr are several good compass on the market for 20 to 40 $$. I have a silva and a brunton that are with my stuff. I also have a military compass that is on my BOB. I have a silva on a key change and my brunton is on my waist pack. +1 on the maps. You can also order tropografic maps from the Uncle Sam. US Geological web site might be agle to help with maps too.
GPS are great but I always back that up with my compass. RLTW 
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Quoted:
Its always a good idea to have a compass. Threr are several good compass on the market for 20 to 40 $$. I have a silva and a brunton that are with my stuff. I also have a military compass that is on my BOB. I have a silva on a key change and my brunton is on my waist pack. +1 on the maps. You can also order tropografic maps from the Uncle Sam. US Geological web site might be agle to help with maps too. GPS are great but I always back that up with my compass. RLTW +1. Pretty much everything I would have said. |
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I have several USGI Tritium compass and I keep one in my BOB and one in my BOV at a minimum. I also like to keep the book style maps they sell for the state as they are topo maps and show detail very well. I think these are the one I have:
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10096 I also keep a USA Atlas in case I had to bug out of the state. Now, I was slow to buy a car GPS and while it is not the perfect answer to bug out, it does an excellent job of showing you your coordinates as well as the street name you are at. Now, if the government turns off the GPS signals that consumer devises use it would be useless but I know I would not bug-out without my car GPS but it does not replace a good compass and maps but instead can be used to help you find yourself on the map. |
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i think it depends on how you see yourself using the compass. are you looking for inexpensive, almost disposables, that will help keep direction? or do you see yourself using with a map and taking bearings, plotting travel, etc.
the baseplate compass i use most often, and really like, is the suunto m3g. has map scales, inch metric, magnifier, luminous bezel, and some other goodies, and the numbers are etched into the bezel so they won't wear or peel off under heavy use. they run about 30.00. i'm not sure if i'd buy several, but if you still need an all around go-to compass, i think it's worth considering. |
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Here is a web link to the U.S. Army FM 3-25.26 MAP READING AND LAND NAVIGATION. July 2001. It will show ya everything ya ever wanted to know about using a map and compass.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-25-26/index.html Have fun RLTW |
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Something fun to try
is USGS maps that you can download as PDF's USGS Map Locator this link should take you to a page that looks like google maps, enter in what you are looking for, and when it zooms in, left click on the RED pin, and it will give you the chose of ordering or downloading the map. To order online the maps are $6 each, I called Kinko's and they will print it (in black and white) for $3.75. You don't want to know how much color was. 
ETA: Downloading is free. |
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www.delorme.com I have an copy of the "backroads " map and it is great. The front and back covers are missing so I can't give you any more info than that. Just a super, super state atlas. Search for it. It is worth looking for. awesome maps, they give all the back roads and their numbers too, even jeep trails. all the roads are numbered too and they do correspond to those little white numbered signs that you see at intersections and never knew what they were for. those are township and state roads. like it will say SR401 or TP5976 and so on. i have two for each state around me as well as mine and keep one in each car i have. me and my wife love road trips. we get lost on purpose, then use our topo's to get home. works like a charm. GPS is all fine & dandy, but pretty much useless without electricity, or when your handheld dies in an EMP. I go old-school with a modern twist. |
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i've had a version of THIS on me for over 15 years. the Silva web site has some very good products and links to places to get maps. |
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AA+++
www.delorme.com I have an copy of the "backroads " map and it is great. The front and back covers are missing so I can't give you any more info than that. Just a super, super state atlas. Search for it. It is worth looking for. awesome maps, they give all the back roads and their numbers too, even jeep trails. all the roads are numbered too and they do correspond to those little white numbered signs that you see at intersections and never knew what they were for. those are township and state roads. like it will say SR401 or TP5976 and so on. i have two for each state around me as well as mine and keep one in each car i have. me and my wife love road trips. we get lost on purpose, then use our topo's to get home. works like a charm. GPS is all fine & dandy, but pretty much useless without electricity, or when your handheld dies in an EMP. I go old-school with a modern twist. Does EMP affect a compass? |
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Quoted:
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Quoted:
Quoted:
AA+++
www.delorme.com I have an copy of the "backroads " map and it is great. The front and back covers are missing so I can't give you any more info than that. Just a super, super state atlas. Search for it. It is worth looking for. awesome maps, they give all the back roads and their numbers too, even jeep trails. all the roads are numbered too and they do correspond to those little white numbered signs that you see at intersections and never knew what they were for. those are township and state roads. like it will say SR401 or TP5976 and so on. i have two for each state around me as well as mine and keep one in each car i have. me and my wife love road trips. we get lost on purpose, then use our topo's to get home. works like a charm. GPS is all fine & dandy, but pretty much useless without electricity, or when your handheld dies in an EMP. I go old-school with a modern twist. Does EMP affect a compass? Only if your sitting at the POI of the nuke that's giving it off 
J/k No, it will not affect a traditional (ie non electronic) compass.. Zar |
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Maps: USGS quads. I like the National Geographic TOPO! series; it's a state by state set of scanned quads that you can annotate, rint, route plan, etc.
Another good (printed) map set is the DeLorme Gazeteer series. 
State by state. For the vehicle I'd pick the printed maps, for the computer the NG Topos. For a compass, you NEED the Silva Ranger Type 15. Best hand compass out there, bar none. Trust me, I use this compass every day and it's what you want. When you start looking at GPS units, look very hard at the Garmin GPS Map 60CSx |
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+1 for the Delorme Atlas and Gazetteer.
I cut out the 4 most important pages for my AO, cut them in half and had them laminated to put in my BOB. I just put in an order for this compass I looked at it and the Silva ranger before ordering and they are identical. |