GPS
units use satellites to locate your present
position.
Sounds
a bit silly if you know that you're sitting in front of your computer at your
house and you know where that is ! Ok, be brave, venture out your house. You're
at sea and fog appears, or you're flying over a desert. Even if you have a paper map, how are you going to work out
where you are as you don't have anything as a reference? (yes, I've heard the
one about sailors and stars)
Bring
that thought closer to everyday life - perhaps you are from Cape Town and you
are visiting Joburg for the first time. Pretty lost without Table Mountain to
navigate by hey ! The point is that paper maps, as great as they are, do not
show you where you are on the map.
Wouldn't
it be nifty if there was a device that could show you a local map - no matter
where you are in the world - show you where you are on the map, and hey, why not
make it so you can ask
it to guide you to your destination - street by street, turn by turn ? Far fetched ?
Well,
the idea of carrying a personal phone around, even on the streets, had a few of
us laughing not so long ago...mmmmm, and now there are a few billion of us with cell
phones that we would be lost without. Wasn't such a bad plan..
GPS
units have evolved significantly over the past few years. Gone are the days
where such a device was huge, chewed batteries, gave an estimated position of
around 100 metres and spat out a response in Lat and Long grid references.
Todays
units are as small as modern cell phones - they still give you Lat and Long
co-ords if you really plead for them, but the average person has more fun with the new features.
Some of the current features include moving maps, trip computers, altitude,
speed, speed towards destination, track, track log, compass, street by street
voice directions to destination, airway Jepp charts, points of interest (parking,
building names, public venues, hazards), glide ratio, nearest
(cities,exits,hospitals, points of interest), and so the list goes on. You have
the ability to store a number of your own waypoints - like business associates,
friends, schools, best fishing spots, hazardous areas (speed traps!!!) etc.
Do
you need a GPS? Well, did you need a cell phone ?
Most
systems today are capable of tracking at least 12 satellites to provide accuracy of
around 3 metres. Units vary from those specialised for a
particular task to hybrid combinations of cellphone/GPS, VHF/GPS, PDA/GPS, or 3 in one
Land/Marine/Aviation GPS units.
Detailed
mapping is now available for most countries, showing residential streets,
restaurants, hotels etc. The amount of information is impressive and
useful. South African Land, Air and Marine map information is available
and most local units ship with this software. Garmin
also produce other specialised maps, for example hiking trails and
recreation spots. Even without
addittional maps, the
built in basemap on the unit is fairly useful.
Click
on the BASICS button on the top menu if you'd like to know more about how the
whole system works.
