So two questions:

1. On your Pip-Boy in every game, is a world map which shows the entire playable area, my question, is it ever explained HOW exactly your pip boy knows the surrounding area and your location, does Vault Tec still have satellites in orbit for GPS, or do they use existing [and oddly enough still functional] ones? Something I always wondered.

2. I was playing FNV recently and did the HELIOS mission, how exactly do you "power" the Archimedes, since the beam fires from the sky it must be a satellite in orbit, but how does redirecting power at HELIOS to Archimedes power it. Are you powering some array that needs alot of power to send signals, or is it some fancy "Dont ask" deal where somehow your powering the satellite from the ground.

GPS is not required for navigation or mapping. Same way the early navigation systems worked. People moved around the planet for thousands of years with just a map, a compass or some way to tell direction, and some way to determine the time of day. Sure, early on, sun shadows and stars provided most of that information and the map was in our heads or the guide's head.

The first electronic navigation devices used a map, usually sourced from a DVD, that was loaded into the unit. Then Dead Reckoning was used to determine the Vector and Distance of the travel. Dead Reckoning means that if I travel in X Direction at Y Velocity for Z Time, I will be at this location on the map.

In this case, the map we see in the beginning of the game only shows the land. This information can be gleaned from any topographic map. Other than craters, a nuclear war is not going to change the land.