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This GPS is for life, not just for Christmas 51 of 51 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from steveking5000 5 Stars ()

Advantages Small, Basemap, Price

Disadvantages No Electronic Compass-Altimeter-

When you ask the normal person on the street, "What is GPS?" the majority would not have a clue. After being around for years, many a person still does not what GPS are, and what they do. But through reading this I hope to help those of you out there understand and maybe choose to purchase one of these fantastic inventions.

About GPS
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GPS stands for "Global Positioning System", as it is a piece of technological kit that tells you exactly where you are at that exact time.
GPS are not really "new" to the technological world. They have been around for years, available only to the military, but since the 1980's they have been available to us, normal working people, in aid to help us in walking in the countryside to driving to Grandma's.
GPS's will work in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.

What does a GPS actually do?
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With any standard GPS, they will allow you to receive co-ordinates to the accuracy of around 15 metres on average. How GPS work is through satellites. The GPS sends a signal to 24 satellites circling the earth and then using "triangulation", the receiver will tell you where you are. First off though, you will need to have a lock onto these satellites. Most GPS's need at least 3 locked on satellites. Make sure you have a clear view of the sky to be able to obtain connection with the satellites. GPS are great, but trees, cloud cover etc. can affect on you achieving a connection with the satellites, and making you go back to your map and compass.
Garmin have now installed WAAS into most of their GPS systems. WAAS stands for Wide Area Augmentation System, which Garmin claim that GPS will then be able to receive accuracy up to 3 metres. WAAS are basically 3 geostationary satellites and a complex network of ground stations. In the Europe, the equalvent of WAAS will be EGNOS. Every year EGNOS/WAAS will be released by governments after testing, but since 2000, it still has not been released......but all GPS users are hoping that it will finally be available in 2006.
Using "Waypoints", you can create routes on Mapping software such as "Memory Map" and then transfer these to your GPS, so you can then follow a route which can allow the GPS to show distance covered/remaining, predicted" finishing times, average speed etc. These can be helpful in most situations, but unfortunately, the GPS cannot allow time for accent/decent. When routes are followed on the GPS, the GPS will not allow time for accent/decent, which can make the predicted time pretty useless.
You will not always have to use a route to find an area, but if you draw a route using the GPS to an area, the unit will draw a straight line to the designated area you have selected. This in not helpful as usually routes are never straight lines so the distance etc. will be out.
Whether you are following a route or not, the GPS will draw what is called "a track".

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Comments

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Previous page Next page Page 1 of 11 | 1 - 5 out of 51 comments
  • snake_plissken 14/06/2006 03:07
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • valangel1945 27/03/2006 16:48
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    A very informative review.Regards Val

  • purplelynne 21/02/2006 20:30
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • galaxynicole 12/02/2006 15:39
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • harmonic_overtones 01/01/2006 23:07
    Rated this review as
    Exceptional

    Nice review!

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