Wednesday 8 February 2012

Choosing the right GPS Receiver

By Tom Snow


Today most folks encounter satellite technology several times each day in the course of going about their regular lives. They bounce signals off of satellites by making calls on the cell telephones they carry in their pockets. They focus in on their satellite radios in their automobiles while commuting home from work and they put the important game on the televisions in their living rooms.

It's not uncommon , nonetheless, for a consumer to make frequent utilisation of the satellite technology so omnipresent in his life without knowing in detail how it functions, and thus it can be difficult to understand which satellite devices are acceptable for any special individual's use. This applies as much to GPS receivers as it does to smart telephones or satellite TV systems. How is the standard customer in the marketplace for a GPS receiver to find out how hi-tech the receiver he purchases should be? What features should an acceptable receiver have? How much is too much to pay for those features. It is a stunning spread of questions, but fortunately the answers can be discovered by answering a much simpler set of questions.

Start by asking how you intend to use the receiver, as this query alone can do lots of the reduction work for you. Are you a courier who needs the receiver to link up with a satellite signal on a moment's notice so you are not late getting across town? Are you planning to utilize the GPS on a casual basis and so content to sacrifice some receiver sensitivity if it means saving you a few dollars? Do you plan to use the receiver outside? Do you need something lightweight and hand held that you can take on a hike, an outing or treasure hunt? Are you about to purchase a new auto or a new cellular phone? Maybe you could consider a vehicle or a phone that has sufficient GPS-capable features pre-installed. These are all questions that you should be able to answer without difficulty, and the solutions to them will make more vague questions â€" like "How much should I pay for my GPS?" â€" much easier to take on.

When you know what you need the GPS device to be capable of, you can start checking off the features it'll need to have. Generally hard-drive memory is commoner and more cost effective than flash-drive memory, but like any device with moving parts, a hard drive will eventually wear out and is more at the mercy of inadvertent damage. Flash-drive memory in a GPS device is considerably more costly but the absence of moving parts means it's more indestructible and should last you longer.

If you plan to use your GPS in outdoors, consider some of the common problems you may encounter. The display can be hard to read in the bright sunshine. An insufficiently capable hand held unit may not find a satellite signal in dense forest or maybe in your pocket. Most GPS units tell you where you are, although not what direction you are facing. Maybe a unit with an electronic compass would be useful when out on the trail. All these considerations will help you to decide which GPS unit is right for you.








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