In this article, I will share simple and convenient tools (maps and programs) that I use myself to plan my simple walking routes and navigate them in the process.

Disadvantages of topographic maps of the General Staff

Topographical maps of the General Staff (usually paper or already scanned) are good because they provide high-quality standardized information about the area. But sufficiently detailed maps are not always possible. And they cannot be used “quickly” by opening the cards on a computer or smartphone. They are not represented in their entirety and each area has to be searched individually and in advance.

After performing a certain dance with a tambourine, you can link a scan of the map to the coordinates in special programs and load it into the navigator. But again, this needs to be done in advance, you need a navigator, skill and time. What if you decide to just take a walk on vacation in a huge park or suddenly get lost somewhere in nature (especially in the mountains) and want to find a path? In such a situation, an application installed once on your smartphone will certainly help you out.

In addition, there are other goodies that are missing in topographic maps ah, which I will tell you about next.

However, it is worth mentioning a good service that connects maps of the General Staff into a unified online map - Routes.ru. But so far I have not found such maps in applications on smartphones.

- modern topographic maps

For myself, I long ago found a replacement that covers most of my goals (simple tracking). These are maps built using OpenStreetMap (OSM) data.

These are open non-profit online maps all over the world, created jointly by the participants of this project.
To create maps, data from personal GPS trackers, aerial photography, video recordings, satellite images and street panoramas provided by some companies, as well as project participants.

In fact, it is data about objects created by a huge community of people in various ways. And anyone can freely build maps based on this data.

So why is OSM better? topographic maps of the General Staff?

1. Completeness of coverage. They represent the whole world.
2. Detail and precision provided information about the area and location of objects.
3. Hiking trails. Large quantity accurate information about hiking trails based on GPS trackers. Moreover, this is precisely what allows you to use the map for direct navigation along the trails. And if you find yourself in conditions of unexpectedly fallen snow and a swept path, poor visibility, such information will help you find the lost path. This has saved me more than once.
4. Lots of easy to use programs and services for all kinds of devices and operating systems that use these cards. All thanks to an open license. Most of them provide the ability to save maps offline on your device for navigating the area without using the Internet.
5. Opportunity map export in all sorts of formats. Be it PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF, PostScript or even Garmin and Polish format for other navigation programs.
6. Some programs and services overlay data from other maps and sources on these maps supplementing information and functionality. For example, data from Wikimapia
7. If you have internet, you can download the desired area on the spot.

In addition, there is everything that is in topographic maps:

1. Terrain type. Rocks, forests, fields, rivers, ponds and everything else.
2. Availability altitude information(OpenCycleMap, Landscape, OpenTopoMap).
3. Water sources

The list of advantages is far from complete and represents only what most clearly reflects the advantages from my point of view and for my purposes (tracking).

OSM based maps

The main and first map built on this data has the same name OpenStreetMap and is located at the address of the project itself. Often represents more useful information about the terrain than the next two, but does not display heights.

These maps are available online both on the osm website itself and on its own domain.
The most interesting layers for tracking with elevations are OpenCycleMap and Landscape itself (available only at http://www.opencyclemap.org).

The Landscape map (layer), in my opinion, provides more information about the area.

I recently discovered these cards. Despite their name, they are also built on the OpenStreetMap database, but are more reminiscent of topographic maps and are in many ways similar to the Landscape layer mentioned above.

Wikimapia
The slogan of the project: “Let's describe the whole world!” An international project, an online geographic encyclopedia whose goal is to mark and describe all geographic objects on Earth. And they cope with this very successfully. Wikimapia has more than 2.4 million registered users and more than 26 million objects added to the map (as of 2016). On its website the project uses different cards, including OSM. It displays these objects on them. Wikimapia data is often used by other services to overlay it on their maps.

Computer programs with OSM cards

To plan a route on your computer, you can use online maps in your browser. But this is not entirely convenient.

I use the program SAS.Planet for Windows. The program accumulates all of the above cards, except Landscape. As well as many other cards including General Staff cards from the service Routes.ru, GooglMaps, YandexMaps and many others.

You can overlay data from other maps and databases on one map, thus creating personal information content. Allows you to plot routes, measure distances, save marks, export maps and data to other formats. Allows you to connect a navigator and much more.

Some of the most common and detailed maps Ukraine - these are maps of the General Staff. Mostly they were compiled and published during the 70-80s of the last century. However, despite the years that have passed, today on the Internet you can find scans of such maps in very decent resolution. In total, they take up just over 900 megabytes. Maps of the General Staff of Ukraine, as a rule, have a traditional scale of 1:100000. The value of these maps is almost immeasurable. They make it possible to form an idea of ​​the situation for the 70-80s, and also help to compare the old and new card to calculate what changes have occurred.

In order to freely use the maps of the General Staff of Ukraine, no special superpowers are required. It is enough just to have access to them, master the symbol system and know the measuring techniques that are usually used in working with maps. Perhaps someone, due to inexperience, will have problems using the card. What do you need to know about the General Staff to prevent this from happening?

A little about the military term

To begin with, it must be said that in fact General Staff was created after the collapse of the USSR and the formation of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Today, it is the country’s main body in matters of state defense planning, management of the armed forces, control of military formations, administrative bodies, executive power, etc. In special cases, such as an emergency in the country, the General Staff also receives the powers of the working body of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Headquarters APU. That is, responsibility for making all decisive decisions rests with the staff of this organization.

In a broad sense, it is generally accepted that the General Staff is the main body for command and control of troops. But if you delve deeper into the meaning of the term, you will notice that in different countries it is understood and interpreted
differently. In Germany, for example, the General Staff was the operational leadership body that commanded the ground forces, aviation and navy. In France, he supervised the training of troops and the provision of all necessary operations. It is logical to assume that the highest ranks are enlisted in the General Staff, whose experience and knowledge are necessary in resolving the most important issues in the fate of the country. The defense of the state can only be entrusted to people who know their job. That is why the best personnel from the highest military headquarters are admitted to the General Staff. As a rule, these are those who have already reached the position of general.

Maps of the General Staff of Ukraine (original sheets) require careful preservation. Since only careful handling of valuable cartographic material guarantees that this material will not become disposable in the performance of a particular task, and will also serve for subsequent use. The correct initial folding of the map of the General Staff of Ukraine will ensure proper preservation. After all, numerous kinks contribute to rapid wear, in particular in these same places of kinks.

Today, downloading a map of the General Staff is the easiest and most accessible way for every Internet user. Information of interest is available in the form of photographs, as well as files linked to GPS navigators and the ozi explorer program (in ozf2 and map format).

Topographic Maps

Topographic map is an integral part of a long hike, a mushroom walk, orienteering and driving a quad over rough terrain. Legend on topographic maps such as:

Forest, urban settlements, power lines, bushes, swamps, difficult areas, dirt roads, trails, fords

etc. will allow you to walk through the forest, away from settlements in a safe way. Topographic maps of the areas are offered in two formats:
- cards with extensions .ozfx, .ecw, .Gif, .png with location references for use on personal computer (PC), laptop with the operating system Windows XP, 7, 8, as well as tablets and mobile devices under control operating system Android 2.2 and higher.
- Cards with extension .jnx with location references for use in tourist navigators of the company with support for the service BirdsEye.
Detailed topographic scale maps 1:25000 are now most in demand among both mushroom pickers and travelers due to the accuracy of the terrain data and other information they contain. Our online store presents topo maps in Scales:
throughout the western Russia to the Urals, including O. New Earth and partially some squares of central Russia, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
- 1:50000 (1 cm = 500 m or 500 meters) throughout the western Russia to the Urals, also some squares of central Russia, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
- 1:100000 (1cm = 1km or kilometers) throughout western Russia to the Urals, also some squares of central Russia, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
- 1:200000 (1 cm = 2 km or 2 km) throughout Russia, partly in neighboring countries, CIS territories, countries of Western Europe and Africa.
- 1:500000 (1 cm = 5 km or 5 km) throughout Russia, partly in neighboring countries, CIS territories, countries of Western Europe and Africa.

Recently, a huge number of maps have appeared on the World Wide Web, which, unfortunately, some sites want to sell. Our store contains only unique information products. Only here you can download a map of the Sverdlovsk region for free in just one click. We cannot hide from users what has long been in the public domain. For example, here you can find Garmin topo maps for free. A navigator is a fairly expensive purchase, so it may be that there is not enough money for maps. In any case, when you buy such a device, you win, but you can use it for now free cards which are presented in this section.

What are Garmin Introductory Maps

This is branded software prepared by us. Professional cards, which come for a fee, have a much larger number of options. In order to understand whether they are needed, you need to establish the purpose of your trips. If it's just a trip to nature with your family, then just buy a navigator in our store and download free Garmin topographic maps. If you are engaged in serious multi-day hikes (including ATV hikes), then buy professional cards eventually you will have to.

What else can you find here?

Download free Garmin GPS maps and more. Information here will be gradually updated, we will display maps that we have prepared for free use. There are also topographic maps that were scanned a long time ago and have been in storage for more than 10 years. free access. Essentially, everything a beginner needs is here.

After the Second World War, the military triangulations of independent states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) as well as Germany were combined into one system (triangulation network of 2, 3, 4 classes). An accurate triangulation network was necessary when creating topographic surveys on a scale of 1:25000 and small scale maps.

In the USSR, since 1942, Krasovsky's reference ellipsoid has been used. Krasovsky's ellipsoid is a reference ellipsoid, the dimensions of which were derived in 1940 at the Central Research Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photography and Cartography (TsNIIGAiK) by Soviet geodesist A. A. Izotov based on research conducted under the general supervision of F. N. Krasovsky.

The dimensions of Krasovsky's ellipsoid were derived from degree measurements made in the territory of the former USSR, Western European countries and the USA. Although the above-mentioned degree measurements, together with the definitions of gravity, led to the conclusion that the geoid figure could be more correctly represented by a triaxial ellipsoid, the ellipsoid was nevertheless accepted as an ellipsoid of revolution.

Krasovsky's ellipsoid is characterized by the following values: semimajor axis a 6378 245 m; Earth compression 1:298.3.

The position (orientation) of the Krasovsky ellipsoid in the body of the Earth is determined by the geodetic coordinates of the center of the round hall of the Pulkovo Observatory:
latitude B0 = 59°46"18.55",
longitude L0 = 30°19"42.09",
the height x0 is set equal to zero.

Krasovsky's ellipsoid is also used in geodetic and cartographic works in all countries former USSR, in Eastern Europe, China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and other countries.

On the territory of the former USSR, Russia and a number of other countries for large scale maps a similar Gauss-Kruger projection is used. In 1825, Carl Friedrich Gauss solved the general problem of depicting one surface on another while preserving the similarity in infinitesimal parts. Working formulas for the projection were derived by A. Kruger in 1912. This projection is conformal, or equiangular, i.e. preserves angles and directions.

In 1959-1969, the military completed a triangulation network of classes 2, 3, 4 on the territory of Lithuania, which included about 1,800 points. Maps published in the USSR since 1942 use the 1942 coordinate system or SK-42. For civilian purposes, a distorted coordinate system of 1963 or SK-63 with a shifted frame(s) was introduced.

At the end of the USSR era (1990s), the category of topographic maps included maps with scales1:1000000, 1:500000, 1:200000, 1:100000, 1:50000, 1:25000 and 1:10000. Maps at scales of 1:5000, 1:2000, 1:1000 and 1:500 were considered topographic plans.

A map with a scale of 1:1,000,000 was considered strategic, while maps with a scale of 1:500,000 and 1:200,000 were operational maps. Maps with scales of 1:100000, 1:50000 and 1:25000 made up a group of tactical maps.

In the first decades after the war, the scale of topographic survey was 1:25000; in the 1990s, the entire territory of Lithuania was covered with maps at a scale of 1:10000 with contour lines every 1.0 or 1.5 meters. Using the 1:10000 map, the map was updated to 1:25000, the relief step on the map (h) was strictly connected to the map scale: on the map 1:25000 h=5 m, 1:50000 h = 10 m, 1:100000 h=20 m.

The main geodetic and cartographic work during the war was carried out by the military. Civil organizations carried out topographic surveys on a scale of 1:10,000 (and larger) and a leveling network. Only at the end of the century maps began to be updated not by the military, but by Enterprise No.5 under the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography.

Nomenclature of 1942 coordinate system maps

The nomenclature of topographic maps is based on a map at a scale of 1:1000000 (10 km in 1 cm).

The entire surface of the Earth is divided by parallels into rows (every 4°), and by meridians into columns (every 6°); the sides of the resulting trapezoids serve as the boundaries of map sheets at a scale of 1:1000000. The rows are designated by capital Latin letters from A to V, starting from the equator to both poles, and the columns are designated by Arabic numerals, starting from the 180° meridian from west to east. The nomenclature of a map sheet consists of a row letter and a column number. For example, a sheet with the city of Vilnius is designated N-35. Subpolar circular regions (with latitudes greater than 88°) are designated by the letter Z without indicating the column number. Sheets of millionth maps located between latitudes 60-76° are doubled in longitude; Thus, a sheet of a map with a scale of 1:1000000 will have a longitude length of not 6, but 12°. Above 76° the maps quadruple and occupy 24° longitude. Beyond 88° is the Z sheet, which occupies all 360°.

The double sheets of the millionth card are indicated by indicating a row (letter) and two corresponding columns (odd and subsequent even numbers). Quad sheets are formed in a similar way; the four columns are separated by commas.