European GPS system

**Byzantine Prince** · 01-02-2006, 17:29

Originally Posted by BDC

It's that it won't be turned off which is the important bit. Imagine if it was turned off for 'safety' just as a few airliners are landing. Could lead to lots of dead people.

It cannot be completely turned off. It just turns on selective availability. It causes the following problems:

degradation of the GPS range signal
orbit errors (ephemeris)
clock errors (dithering)
SA on: position accuracy  100 m.
SA off : accuracy  10 m.

**English assassin** · 01-03-2006, 16:51

I think this is a bad thing. According to my paper today it can (read will) be used as part of a system to track the location of all vehicles in Europe in due course.

As for GPS in the wilderness, I held out as long as I could. But now the buddy I used to go hiking in the highlands with each winter can't always make it, and if you are going to be on your own and a white out/fog/driving rain is possible, its pretty comforting to have some back up even if it does only confirm you are where you thought you were. I haven't myself found it accurate or reliable enough to replace good old map and compass even if you wanted it to.

To be honest I use the altimeter more than anything, I never realised what an aid to navigation one of those was until I had it.

**Kralizec** · 01-03-2006, 16:52

Originally Posted by English assassin

I think this is a bad thing. According to my paper today it can (read will) be used as part of a system to track the location of all vehicles in Europe in due course.

That's assuming the rest of Europe is going to follow in the UK's footsteps, and I don't think that will happen. To many privacy issues.

**jayrock** · 01-05-2006, 06:51

Originally Posted by English assassin

I think this is a bad thing. According to my paper today it can (read will) be used as part of a system to track the location of all vehicles in Europe in due course.

As for GPS in the wilderness, I held out as long as I could. But now the buddy I used to go hiking in the highlands with each winter can't always make it, and if you are going to be on your own and a white out/fog/driving rain is possible, its pretty comforting to have some back up even if it does only confirm you are where you thought you were. I haven't myself found it accurate or reliable enough to replace good old map and compass even if you wanted it to.

To be honest I use the altimeter more than anything, I never realised what an aid to navigation one of those was until I had it.

for vehicle tracking, dont you have to have a gps transmitter or reciever mounted to the car, and if so is that required by law, if yes, then id have a problem with that...

ill second the altimeter, i use it in winter when we snow machine, you have to adjust your jets on the carb based upon altitude and tempurature, takes alot of the guess work out of having a smooth running machine...

my main use for the gps in winter is, when we get to where we park the motorhome, i set that as base camp, then no matter where i go, or visibility, all i have to do is turn it on, get a signal lock, which has never failed yet, knock on wood, and that will point me in the direction to camp..

my other use used to be on the volunteer search and rescue missions, with it i was able to get lat and long coordinates and the copters could fly right to us it made things much faster, and i credit it with saving at least two peoples lives we found out in the wilderness with severe expsoure. copter was there in 5 minutes instead of 10 or 15,

i got a magellan for xmas a few years ago, and its a nice one, it has an altimeter, a barometer, and i got the topographical maps on a cd, it really helps.

**Quietus** · 01-05-2006, 09:21

The US is also experimenting on using GPS to track all vehicles.

E-tracking, coming to a DMV near you.

**Zalmoxis** · 01-05-2006, 12:10

Yay, individualized anal cameras can't be far off!

**English assassin** · 01-05-2006, 14:12

my main use for the gps in winter is, when we get to where we park the motorhome, i set that as base camp, then no matter where i go, or visibility, all i have to do is turn it on, get a signal lock, which has never failed yet, knock on wood, and that will point me in the direction to camp..

I haven't found the navigation features all that useful myself. Sure, it can tell you distance and bearing to a point, but of course it doesn't tell you about the cliff in the way. I think trackback is especially dangerous in that regard even if you set it to record points very frequently. Some times you can't afford to cut a corner...

Not that this is a criticism, I'm actually glad it doesn't replace map and compass and its a handy back up if you understand its limitations. But I am sure they will be increasingly used as the primary (and only) navigation tool by people and that's when the accidents will start