Pedometers

[Jolt]

I was reorganizing some things today and I came across an old pedometer.  Since our squadron is participating in a SAREX in a few days, my brain is in ES mode, so I was wondering if anyone has ever used or considered using a pedometer as a pace counter.  They're easier to use than ranger beads, they have digital readouts, you can stop focusing on counting while you're walking and focus more on other tasks like scanning, they have buttons on the side that easily reset them to zero.

On the other hand, I guess they can be slightly unreliable at times and they count steps and not paces (which would be easy enough to convert I suppose).

Has this been discussed here before?

[maverik]

Good Idea but for the wrong purpose. It would be easy to convert butt. no one wants to do that while searching. Instead say Mission base says okay go and scan XX location for Xmiles. Then a pedometer would be great. It's personal preferance I suppose.

[lordmonar]

Sure I've used pedometers before....but now I use GPS.....and I don't need it any more.

[Jolt]

Well, for the cheaper among us, do they help?

[DC]

I have yet to find a pedometer that I consider accurate. Beads work, and you can't get much cheaper than that. Save up some money and get a GPS if you want something easier.

[DrDave]

Well, all pedometers are inaccurate.  You do have to "calibrate" each model when you first use them.

What is recommended is to walk a determined number of known steps (your own step rate and stride) and see how the pedometer measures up.  Then adjust for any inaccuraces.  This is what I tell my patients who use them.

A ground team walking over uneven ground may not produce an accurate pace count using a pedometer.

YMMV,
Dr. Dave