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Global Positioning Systems – from military installation to commercial and recreational use

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. Global positioning systems are truly a case in point where a new invention has created markets which were not envisaged when it was first conceived. Global positioning systems are now used in a range of industries – avionics, marine, transport and of course cartography (map making).

The GPS is a set of 24 satellites orbiting the Earth; these are owned and managed by the US Department of Defense. Commercial (or civilian) global positioning systems use these satellites to both develop maps and locate receivers – usually to within about 3 meters. This functionality allows users to perform a range of navigational functions – such as plotting a course from “A” to “B”, highlighting notable points along the way and calculating the distance between points. The real strength of a gps is “real-time” updating whilst you are in route – allowing you to navigate more easily than constantly referring to a paper based route finder.

There are a number of global positioning system manufacturers supplying receivers for a range of commercial and recreational pursuits – from marine navigation (and fish finders), in-vehicle route finders to hand held models which can be used to pin point locations in even the most remote wilderness. Some even come with the ability to help you retrace your steps, so you can always find your way back to where you started. Many include other features such as a compass, altimeter, calculations about how far you have travelled and the distance to your destination, as well as the speed of travel and estimated arrival time. For any type of travel, there’s a gps to suit your needs.

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