Advice November 20th, 2017

The G.P.S - Global Positioning System tool

The satellite navigator or G.P.S. , as the best tool not only for our travels but also in daily travel, in planning routes and in finding points of interest close to us wherever we are.

Increasingly used also in events Tourism navigation both for orientation and safety reasons.

Many companies produce precision G.P.S. instruments, first of all Garmin, leader worldwide in the research and production of terrestrial positioning devices capable of extremely precise and reliable calculations.

Let's try to find out more about this small accessory capable of incredibly technological functions.

The G.P.S. tool provides information on its position, longitude and height, coordinates of points chosen as way points, direction in which we are moving, characteristics and services on the territory (if the cartography is loaded), various information such as temperature, barometric parameters, astronomical, etc ...).

The three positions detected thanks to the satellites are as follows:

Latitude – is measured on the parallel as the distance angle from the equator + 90° to the NORTH or -90° to the SOUTH.

Longitude – measured from the reference meridian Greenwich with + 180° to the EAST (E) or -180° to the WEST (W)

Altitude – height above sea level, measured in meters or feet.

How does that work

In Space, to date, there are 30 operational satellites in orbit structured in six orbital planes: in every area of the world at least five are always visible.

The orbit information of each satellite is called ephemeris and makes up the almanac, the latter recorded in the instrument and kept constantly updated at each ignition. G.P.S. receivers use the almanac to know the position of each satellite.

In the signal indication, each satellite transmits the exact time of sending the signal; the GPS navigator does nothing but calculate the delay with which it receives the signal to know the exact distance of the satellite because it knows its exact position through the orbit almanac.

By replicating this calculation for at least three or four satellites, the instrument can define the exact position in which it is on the surface of the earth.

The main characteristics of this mathematical procedure at very high distances are the following:

Free system
accuracy between 5 meters and 15 meters (instrument deviation)
The instrument is operational in all weather conditions
there is no sending of your location but only tracking
The system provides only location coordinates
all other data such as speed, distances, direction are always calculated by the GPS device in real time but not transmitted.

With regard to signal reception, it is good to consider which are the waterproof materials that can potentially hinder the reception process.

metal
thick masonry such as ceilings and palaces
Some car windshields
the human body (as it is composed of high amount of liquid density)
water
moutains

In fact, to ensure perfect reception of the signal from satellites it is necessary to pay attention to the position of your body (it must not completely cover the instrument), pay particular attention to the proximity of buildings or rocky walls, in the car where it is good to place the navigator as far ahead and as low as possible on the dashboard so as not to suffer the shielding of the windshield and roof.

The concepts of G.P.S. navigation

WAYPOINT: It is a point marked by the user, the waypoint is an exact position on Earth with precise parameters of latitude and longitude and serves to identify a reference point on the globe; You can identify it with a customizable icon.

POI: is a point of interest derived from predefined lists. On the GPS instrument you can find (because preloaded in memory by the manufacturer) many "POI" such as hotels, restaurants, banks, etc. etc.

ROUTE: It is a succession of points, therefore of waypoints, connected to each other. The route is a straight line whose head and end are waypoints. Route navigation is used at sea or in roadless deserts thanks to a compass that allows you to identify the position with respect to the north of the next point to be reached. Made by the user directly in the instrument (or with the PC) to be created a route it is necessary that there are waypoints in the instrument as it is an itinerary in "line" from point to point. This type of navigation requires important experience and in-depth knowledge of the tool (we will deepen this extremely fascinating type of navigation in the next articles).

TRACK or Tracklog: it is possible, in your instrument, to memorize the itinerary we are doing as if it were a "snail slime" which does NOT take into account the preloaded cartography; This is because it is possible to create a track that comes out of the streets such as on a meadow or in the sea. Loading and following a track means following a set of dense points (for example one every 3 meters) that create an itinerary that does NOT interact with the cartography but is drawn on it as if it were a second level of drawing. The tool, in fact, when navigating a track is limited to showing it on the screen allowing us to follow it wherever it has been drawn (even outside the roads in cartography). The extension of a trace file is .gpx (we will deepen in the next articles this type of navigation extremely fascinating).

PATH: the route (or route) is the set of waypoints, POIs and roads to travel to reach a destination. This type of navigation is the most common and can also be used on smartphones. Once the destination has been set (location, street or POI) the tool will choose the most suitable way to reach it from the point where we are. The GPS navigator for the calculation of the route interacts with the cartography (unlike the track as mentioned above) choosing the route according to preset parameters (shorter route, fastest route, avoids highways.... etc etc). For example, we create routes very simply with google maps or viamichelin, where we indicate the point of arrival, the starting point and possibly the transit points.

The difference between TRACK and ROUTE is substantial, in the track the GPS follows a line created by the user and does not interact with the cartography, in the route it calculates the destination according to the cartography and will recalculate a new itinerary if we mistake the road that it indicates to us.

The element of safety during a trip

The universal position detection system, recognized throughout the planet, is GPS coordinate location.
In an organized event, during a trip, in any location on Earth where we find ourselves in case of emergency or request for help, it is essential to know how to extract and read the GPS coordinates from the instrument in order to be located quickly.
At this point we understand how an excellent GPS tool is not only an excellent and reliable travel companion but also an essential security tool in case of need.
At the time of purchase, let's carefully evaluate the characteristics, the ability to quickly read the GPS coordinates in order to locate it, the usability to follow a route or a track but above all the simplicity in interacting with the appropriate PC program to create itineraries and save them in the GPS navigator or vice versa to easily save every trip made by motorcycle to the PC.

Next we will talk about how to use your satellite navigator connected to Computer to create tracks or routes, customize itineraries and send or receive from the device.

The best GPS tools available now from Motostorm.

The G.P.S - Global Positioning System tool

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