Party Vibe

This article was intended for Andy W’s magazine – I agreed with him it would be “published” here as well..

Let me show you the way….

Is satnav all it’s cracked up to be?

Many of you have by now seen stacks of adverts for “in-car satellite navigation equipment” in high-street electronics stores – “space-age” gadgets with electronic maps which claim guide you anywhere in the country (or World) you wish.

Devices cost around £200-£400 (in the UK), usually mount on the dashboard and use the vehicles 12v power supply feed either from a “car kit” or via the cigarette lighter. Most are portable (although not all work outside the vehicle) to avoid the devices being stolen if left unattended (a now common crime report in local papers!)

The kit seems perfect (if you can afford it) for finding a distant club or party/festival venue, or even visiting your friends who moved to a new city due to attending University or finding employment there. Never get lost again!

But are these devices the miracles they claim to be, and are there better alternatives?

The technology behind satellite navigation dates back to the late1970s/early 1980s – at the height of the Cold War. It had been known since the early days of wireless communication that the location of a radio signal can be traced by monitoring its reception strength at different locations (a technique still used today to locate pirate stations).

Various schemes using land-based transmitters were already available for civil and military aircraft navigational aids; but as space technology improved the Pentagon (and the Soviets) both realised that transmitting signals from a number of satellites in space (the orbit of these satellites being known)would enable a user on the ground to locate their position using a radio receiver.

Thus the Global Positioning System (GPS) and its Soviet counterpart (GLONASS) were born. As you would expect, initially the “terminal equipment” (the device used to receive the signals and provide the positional display) was complicated, expensive and initially restricted to military use (AFAIK the Soviets never released GLONASS to the public!)

By the 1980s the Pentagon permitted civilian use of GPS (albeit with deliberately introduced positional errors in certain areas!), and electronic manufacture had advanced to a level whereby the technology involved (a computer-controlled radio receiver, digital decoding equipment, and display) was becoming more affordable (although it cost thousands of dollars initially, and was only installed on high-end boats and aircraft).

As technology developed through the 1990s, equipment became smaller, lighter, and cheaper – it became possible by the end of the 1990s to purchase a GPS receiver the size (and price) of a mobile telephone, with sophisticated facilities and rudimentary map displays.

However, this still required users to have some geographical knowledge and the memory of first-generation GPS terminals and their display size was limited – so as PDA’s / pocket PCs became more common and memory became cheaper, various manufacturers hit upon the idea of combining the two devices – using the PDA with custom software to provide electronic map displays of the locality, using signals derived from the GPS receiver. All “satnav” devices currently sold are based on this technology; many also offer other PDA functions such as calendars, telephone directories etc as well as navigational purposes.

However, they are not without problems….

GPS is not infallible. Like any radio signal, it can be blocked by terrain (dense woods block the signals) or other interference sources. Those who use it in harsh terrain (particularly military and other search/rescue services) are strongly cautioned never to rely upon it as a sole navigational aid.

Using the pretty electronic maps when you have no knowledge of an area is rather like using a calculator before you have learnt arithmetic in elementary school.

Worse still, they are often inaccurate, as the manufacturers of satnav equipment sometimes do not buy the correct and accurate e-maps from the national mapping agencies of the country in which the equipment is sold (assuming of course the country actually permits such maps to be sold anyway, many do not!). Electronic map displays often malfunction when the GPS feeding them provides incorrect data due to signal reception problems – several friends of mine have got hopelessly lost this way!

The devices themselves can malfunction – although standalone GPS terminals are fairly robust they are heavy on battery usage (always take spare batteries!) and electronic satnav devices can (and do) crash and have to be reset – not always practical if you are driving at the time!

And what if you don’t drive a motor car? Perhaps you prefer to travel by
bicycle? Bicycles don’t (normally) have 12v power feeds (if yours does, you are probably already a gadget freak and won’t need this article anyway!)

The solution? Buy a standalone GPS receiver – any good outdoor goods place will sell them or they can be purchased on-line (if it has built-in maps make sure it is the correct one for your home country or continent!). They are far cheaper than the in-car devices (around £160-£200 for a decent one)

Then (if permissible) purchase a set of maps from your country’s national mapping agency – in the UK it is the Ordnance Survey – and a compass. Learn how to read these maps first if you were not taught in school (or anywhere else), (the OS provides an on-line training guide!) – set your GPS receiver to use your country’s grid system – and off you go (did you remember the spare batteries?)

You may also be interested in a pastime known as “geocaching” where people hide random stuff in odd places and track it with their GPS devices – good training to learn how to navigate (and what to do when signal drops make the display go blank!)

And if you are still getting lost after this; perhaps it’s a matter of not celebrating too much before you have reached your intended destination J