About BSC Walk About
Do you like to go off the grid, no phone calls, no email, no texts, no data coverage? BSC Walk About is the app for you. Turn your Android device into a GPS solution for outdoor activities and sports, including hiking, walking, trailing, hunting, fishing, geocaching and much more.
Find and navigate to GPS waypoints with GPS Grid view & Compass. With Walk About you can record points of interest on your hiking trails, backpacking trips, hunting, fishing, and/or camping adventures. Walk About works in remote places without data coverage like national parks, wilderness areas, and backcountry hunting or fishing spots without having to rely on cell signals.
Note: BSC Walk About map view uses your data service and will add data usage to your plan. The grid view and the compass view do not require any data service.
Simply enter your destination point’s Latitude and Longitude (or select from your saved list or a gpx file stored on your phone) and Walk About will help you to find it. Using the Grid View finding your destination is as easy as keeping the red circle aligned with the small green circle. It is as easy as that. As they get closer to the blue circle (your current location) you are approaching your destination. This is a great tool for both experienced and novice hikers alike. All you need is the GPS location of your destination. It also allows you to use your current location as the destination for finding your way back to camp or to your car after a hard day of wandering around in the woods or shopping in the concrete jungle. Never get lost again!
If you would like to temporarily use your current location as your destination (such as for finding your car in a parking lot or maybe finding your way back to camp after a walk in the woods) simply press the “Use Current Loc” button and your current lat and long will be populated into the Destination Lat and Long fields.
If you would like to save your current location as a saved waypoint, from menu on the Compass view select the “Save Current Waypoint” option. This will take you to a dialog to name the point and save it.
To select a saved waypoint, from menu on the Compass view select the “Select Waypoint” option. This will take you to your list of saved waypoints.
By default the map view centers on your current location (the blue circle). If you would like to turn this off, on the map view go to the menu and select “Turn Centering Off”.
BSC Walk About stores its waypoints in a file called waypointstorage.gpx on your external storage or sdcard depending on your phone. This is a standard GPS Exchange Format file with waypoints and can be used to interchange of GPS data in the form of waypoints between applications and Web services on the Internet.
Note: If you can not find a waypointstorage.gpx file, you may not have saved any waypoints yet. Save your current location as a waypoint and the app will generate the file for you.
Note: GPS accuracy for lat, long, and altitude is a function of the phone, GPS accuracy generally increases with time as the phone gets a better lock on more GPS satellites. It is recommended that you have Current Lat and Long displayed for a couple of minutes before using those coordinates. This will allow your phone to have a more accurate lock with the GPS satellites available. Not all phones seem to report accuracy (i.e. Motorola XPRT does not report accuracy, but the GPS works well enough to guide you to your destination)