Automobile GPS Navigation

GPS units have become common devices primarily due to the automobile GPS navigation systems. These things are wonderful improvements over paper maps and over not having a map at all!

The auto gps units are great for providing driving directions from point A to point B. Good ones will calculate driving distance and estimated time for arrival. The best will also speak to you to tell you when to make a turn. This is great when you are driving with a lot of traffic and need to keep your eyes on the road.

My favorite feature on these units are the Point-Of-Interests. If you need to find the nearest coffee shop, just search the database and the gps unit will plat a course for you to the nearest coffee shop! Awesome.

Check out auto GPS reviews for more info on car GPS units.

GPS Handheld Maps

One of the coolest feature of most GPS vehicle tracking devices is the mapping display that is built into the units. The maps will show your position on the map in real time. They can also show you the path you have taken and the path it wants you to take to get between where you are at and where you are going.

There are also additional maps that you can buy and install on your GPS handheld unit. This is particularly useful if you are traveling to a new area and don't already have a map installed on your gs unit. On some systems you can also download you data to your computer to do additional mapping there.

GPS handheld - how it works - the GPS receivers

In our last article we covered the function of the gps satellites. What they do is send a signal out for you to receive. In this article we will cover the gps receiver.

You GPS handheld unit is a receiver in the GPS system. It is listening for a signal from the satellites. When it receives the signal it is processed to determine how long it took to get to the receiver, and then how far away the receiver is from the satellite.

Once the receiver know how far it is from 4 or more satellites it can calculate the exact position of the receiver. It will know longitude and latitude AND elevation.

There are MANY types of GPS receivers. Some examples include automobile GPSs, GPS pedometers, navigation GPSs, Golf cart gps units, GPS watches, GPS add-ons for laptops, and on and on.

GPS handheld - how it works - the satellites

There are two major parts to a gps system. The first part are the satellite systems.

The GPS satellite system consists of a large number of satellites that orbit the earth. The system is designed so that there are 9 or more satellites visible to your location at all times. They may not be the same satellites all the time but that part doesn't matter.

The satellites send a signal to earth that is received by your GPS handheld unit.

Part 2 will cover the roll of the consumer GPS devices in the GPS system.

GPS Handheld Units

There are many kinds of GPS hand held units. There are gps laptops, gps mobile phones, gps receivers for automotive navigation and gps systems for hiking, gps golf systems and other outdoor sports to name a few.

The GPS in mobile phone is interesting because the FCC mandated that all emergency calls from mobile phone had to have location information automatically passed in on the call. This is for the obvious purpose of aiding rescue services in finding and arriving to whatever emergency that might exist.