What is the difference between a gps point and a gps waypoint?

Answer 1

Waypoints, Tracks, and Routes.

Waypoints are individual points that you select. You can either do this while you are at the point, or you can select the point on your GPS before you go. If I am walking in Manhattan, I can select waypoints before I go by moving the pointer on my GPS. For example, I could start at the battery as waypoint 1, select the empire state buidng as waypoint 2, MOMA as waypoint 3, and so on. When I set these waypoints up in advance, they become a route. I can establish the waypoints on my computer using Mapsource, and then use the USB cable to transfer the route to my GPS receiver. The Track is where I actually walked. After I've walked all over Manhattan, probably deviating from my Route, I can find my track on the GPS unit and see how far I travelled, or save the track to my computer, or use the Tracback function to find my way back to the start. My Track will include some of my Waypoints, but it will also include many other recorded points along the way. Using Tracback, I might see that I stopped at the lake in Cetral Park at 2:57 PM, for example.

Each Waypoint and each point along a track has a specific latitude, longitude and height. If you select the Waypoints before you go, this information is calculated from the information stored in the GPS unit. As you move along and create a Track, possibly marking specific Waypoints along the way, each point of the track or Waypoint is recorded from actual satellite readings, along with the exact time that you were at each point. The points along your track will often be a little bit off the trail or road on your map, due to errors in the radio signals. It will always be close enough that there's no doubt which road or trail you're suppose to be on.

I use waypoints to plan where I'm going to hike in the mountains, to plan my day. I normally don't plan a route because my GPS has the topo map loaded on a memory card, which has most of the main hiking trails already marked. I use my Track to find my way back to the truck at the end of the day, and also to decide when I need to turn back to make it back before dark. Also, I like to transfer my tracks from my GPS to my computer as a record of where I've been. The GPS unit holds a limited number of tracks, but you can store a ton on your computer.