In the last war, the military didn't have enough gps units, so they bought 
civilian ones (maps had nothing to do with it).  I hope the fliers weren't 
looking at their gps unit since the plane should have had one, ground troops on 
the other hand...

> Actually is was quite funny, in the last war over there the military had
> to turn off the futzing because so many of the fliers were using their
> own civilian GPS's which had moving maps and the military stuff did not!
> 
> Too funny

>>I could be wrong, but I thought that they could turn the dither on the GPS 
>>civilian signal on based upon the region. Therefore they could degrade the 
>>GPS signals over southwest Asia but not the rest of the world.
>>
>>Maybe you were in a RAIM hole when you got the bad reading.

>>>>Just thought I pass along that GPS accuracy has been degraded
>>>>as was being predicted to the war in Iraq. Last night and
>>>>earlier today I got an accuracy of 33 feet. Just tried it now
>>>>and got an accuracy of 223 feet. Well there goes my plans of
>>>>me and kismet going out for a drive.
>>>
>>>After reading your message, I turned on my Etrex Vista.  The satellite
>>>page claims an accuracy of 16 feet.  I checked it against a waypoint
>>>that I set when I first bought the unit.  It looked to be spot on to
>>>me.
>>>
>>>FWIW, I've noticed (in the past) that the claimed accuracy varies
>>>greatly with signal stength and the number of satellites that it can
>>>see.