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The End Of Satnav ?

3574 Views 10 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  Simplelife
According to >>>THIS<<< article the satellite system is in urgent need of investment and the satnav may be obsolete by next year.

Better brush up on the old map reading skills girls :)

footnote;- apologies for the assumption that all map readers are female-they could also be male of course :)
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
The use of the lazy mans navigation should only be a luxury for those who can use a road atlas and read a map.

Shane.....
like Europe's Galileo network.
And imagine the price of one of their satnavs when they eventually do get it released.
Simplelife said:
The use of the lazy mans navigation should only be a luxury for those who can use a road atlas and read a map.

Shane.....
NO NO NO!!! I don't agree. I fell in love with my Garmin on the trip to France and Spain this year. It was wonderful, it did such a good job at reducing the stress levels to the point that by the third week I was actively trying to start a row over something, anything, because all was sweetness and light up to that point.

We just sailed through complex road geometry, enjoying the scenery, chatting about the architecture, admiring the good looking locals, and discussing the next coffee stop.

I still had my maps on my knee, but was enjoying matching the placenames to the actual places. Oh please GPS people, leave it alone, it's wonderful as it is. Don't change a thing. My marriage has been enhanced by the technology!!

Ca
" It must be true - it's in the daily mail" :twisted: :twisted:

Is this the start of the galileo crowd to put the fear of death into gps users so they will switch to their pay to use system?

Me? a cynic? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
It is in the Mail, so it must be true.

However, as all western forces depend on the same system, we can expect all combat to come to an end.

The Mail - comic to the masses.
Gerry
CaGreg said:
I still had my maps on my knee, but was enjoying matching the placenames to the actual places.
Ca
Ca,

You are therefore fully qualified and permitted the luxury of satnav. Enjoy! :lol:

Shane.....
I cannot imagine it being allowed to happen as there are too many armed forces and the security people using it, we car drivers are just small fry and just a by product of the satellite systems

Bill
Simplelife said:
The use of the lazy mans navigation should only be a luxury for those who can use a road atlas and read a map.

Shane.....
Luddite. :lol:

Olley
An interesting article.
Will GPS fail when they say?, who knows, but I think it will be a long time without further investment before the system fails .
Why ?, Well you only need four satellites to give a reasonably accurate position, you can do it on three but quite possibly you could be anything up to 50 metres away from the shown position.
Anymore than four satellites and all they do is give you more accurate positional information, unless the good old USof A military gets a stroppy on and gets the satellites to give you incorrect positional information. This was done in the past and would move targets (the enemy) by quite a large margin. Now it does not happen, but who knows what goes on in the heads of military men.
The satellites used are anything from a few years to a lot of years old. Design life is as any piece of machinery finite, so maybe the satellite is gauranteed for 10 years, quite a few must be near their 'end of life'.
Fortunately there are quite a few satellites up there that are basically shut down, waiting for commands from ground to turn them on and replace a faulty or dead unit.
So to sum up, I would be very suprised if the system failed.
As a bonus there is also a Russian system, and (in it's infancy) a European system. So joy of joys, should the American system fail there are alternatives, but of coarse Garmin etc will have to sell you a new GPS at an inflated price.
Other technologies are available. We have a mobile phone network that covers most (but not my house) of the UK. All transmitter positions are known, so it is pretty easy to turn your mobile phone into a positioning system, a bit of software is all that is required.

A happy TomTom GPS user who still has maps with him, just in case.
Martin.
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olley said:
Simplelife said:
The use of the lazy mans navigation should only be a luxury for those who can use a road atlas and read a map.

Shane.....
Luddite. :lol:

Olley
Luddite? That sounds like a sealer/gripfill type of thing that could be useful. Where can I get a tube of this Luddite?

Shane..... :lol:
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