Fourteen years ago, when Peg Smart began working with the technology we all recognize by three simple letters, things were different.

Mention “GPS” to someone back then and you’d likely get a blank stare. The units, which can pinpoint your location (give or take) anywhere on the globe, were a novelty to some … and a sizeable necessary expense for others, like surveyors and map-makers.

Smart, who has owned (and presently manages) The Map Store in Old Town, says the ensuing 14 years have been eventful and full of changes in the technology.

Years ago, there were two models. A Garmin. A Magellan. That’s it.

Now, she sells 16 Garmin models and six manufactured by Magellan. And she doesn’t sell the extreme low-end units, figuring users are just going to be disappointed … and return them for replacements with more bells and whistles.

If you’ve thought of a question about GPS, chances are Smart has answered it about a thousand times. She knows each model, how it works, and why it (sometimes) doesn’t.

Simply put, a GPS unit receives signals from one of 24 satellites, crunches some numbers, and spits out the equivalent of a high-tech “You Are Here” arrow.

Not so simply put, GPS units can tell you where you’ve been … where you want to go … and some will even talk to you in order to get you to your intended destination. Other systems offer a radio-and-GPS combo that can let you talk to a hunting buddy, as well as tell exactly where he’s located.

The technology is so precise (within 3 meters or so, when a unit possesses what’s called a Wide Area Augmentation System), there are certain applications that are a bit ominous … especially in time of war.

Earlier this week, those ominous applications came up in this newsroom, where a number of GPS enthusiasts sometimes trade valuable information (or gossip) about their nifty toys.

This week’s topic: Scrambling. Specifically, with our country at war overseas and with terrorist threat levels high, has the government begun scrambling the signal that GPS units receive so that “evil-doers” (to steal a word from our president) can’t home in on their own “targets of opportunity” (to borrow another phrase from our leaders in Washington)?

There is history at work here. First, realize that the Global Positioning System was developed by the government, and for years the signal was scrambled by the military, for the reasons already mentioned. Back in the old days, Smart tells me, units were accurate if they could place you within 300 feet of your actual location.

“Until you learned the tricks,” she says with a grin.

Of course, surveyors and others in nonmilitary jobs possessed the units (which sold for about $5,000, Smart says), and found ways to get around the scrambling.

As it turns out, it wasn’t that difficult.

“[The purpose for scrambling was] so it couldn’t be used by ‘the enemy,'” she says. “It was just so hilarious. Because if they had a credit card with a $500 limit on it, anyone could buy a descrambler.”

Eventually – in about 1992 – recreational units were introduced. The problem was the scrambling, or degradation, of the signal, called “selective availability,” was still in effect until President Clinton signed a bill ending that practice in 2000.

History lesson over.

The question making the rounds in GPS circles: Has the government begun scrambling again, or has the WAAS system been disabled during the newest war in the Persian Gulf?

Smart doesn’t think recreational GPS users have much to be worried about … though she has heard the questions.

“I cannot see that there is a bit of difference,” says Smart, who fires up one or another of the various units her store sells several times a day to show prospective buyers how the nifty gadgets work.

“Once in awhile I have had a guy come in and say their unit’s acting a bit strange, but I don’t know if it just happens to be a fluke,” she says.

On Thursday, I visited her at the store, and arrived a bit concerned about my own GPS’s accuracy.

My own WAAS readings, you see, were nonexistent. And for a guy who sometimes has a hard time finding his posterior with both hands and a flashlight, any difference in GPS accuracy could have devastating consequences.

She quickly turned on two units and showed me that the trouble (apparently) was all mine: The units in her hands knew exactly where they were … and where the WAAS ground stations and satellites were.

Simply put, they were just as accurate as they were six months ago.

In fact, anecdotal evidence gathered from various GPS-oriented Web sites indicates that the last time the U.S. was at war, GPS accuracy may have actually improved.

The theory (Be warned, this has been forwarded, regurgitated, and rehashed so often on Internet sites that getting to the source and asking for documentation is impossible … therefore, take this with your own grain of salt): During the Gulf War, the storytellers will have you believe, our military actually descrambled its own signal, because troops didn’t have enough “military” GPS units on hand.

These conspiracy (or anti-conspiracy) theorists will tell you that the U.S. government essentially turned “recreational” GPS units into “military” units by letting everyone receive the same signal. Then they ran down to the local sporting goods store and stocked up with recreational units for their troops.

Anecdotally (again), Smart can vouch for that theory, though we didn’t speak about it specifically.

“The first time around [during the Gulf War], they didn’t have enough units for the troops and they took a bunch of Magellans and Garmins just so they’d have them,” she said. “You have no landmarks [in the desert] and that’s where it really shines.”

Smart says in the weeks before the current war, she noticed an interesting trend among local soldiers.

“Over a four-week period, as they got their orders and knew they were going, I would say I had 18 or 20 of the guys come in and buy units,” she said.

Smart said the soldiers told her they’d grown accustomed to using their GPS units in training, but weren’t guaranteed constant use of one in the field.

“[They told me] they have to turn their units back in when they’re off shift, and they wanted their own units so they could get their coordinates and get everything [else they needed],” Smart says.

Smart, who makes a living by selling a product that helps others prepare for unpredictable conditions in the wild, wasn’t surprised at the surge in sales.

“What surprised me was that there weren’t more of them,” she says. “And I think if they’d had the money, [more] would have done it.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.