1. Home
  2. Car Maintenance
  3. sat navs

sat navs

Hello,

When my car had to be towed home, the chap in the recovery truck told me he was ex-army and had a military GPS. He claimed it locked onto more satellites than a tomtom and that it updated the location faster. I could not see any make on the satnav and when I asked him what make it was he said he did not know. I found this a little fishy because he had just told me that he bought it and how can you buy something without knowing what you have bought?

I am sure that the military do have better GPS systems than the public but would servicemen be able to buy these off the shelf for their own use after leaving the forces? It did not look particularly rugged. Was this just a tall story?

I am thinking of buying a new sat nav. I don't know whether to stick with tomtom because it is what I have had before. Would that be easier than learning the garmin way of doing things?

I was tempted to buy one with free maps and traffic, as this would be cheaper than paying to update my old one. The only thing is, the maps and traffic are free for the life of the device, not the life of the driver, so I am concerned that "life" may only mean a couple of years and may not be the bargain it appears to be.

What does the group think?

Thanks, Stephen.

Reply to
Stephen
Loading thread data ...

There are more accurate GPS systems, surveyors for example use them, but they have no advantage for an average user. I would recommend getting a tablet and using one of the commercially available guidance systems, my preference at present is Co-Pilot, Waze is very good and free, plus there are lots of others to try. Plus it does many other things too.

Reply to
MrCheerful

It would seem likely that if it was an ex-military one, he 'liberated' it, rather than bought it.

Tomtom are cheap enough now to buy a new one. Even the most basic come with free updates, and lane guidance (which I find useful). If your old Tomtom is really old, a new one will be much faster at finding satellites and creating routes.

OTOH my son, who does a lot of travelling, prefers to use his iPhone even though he has a Tomtom.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

+1 with regard to Waze. The ready availability of app based navigation has just about rendered free standing sat nags redundant although they do of course have their place, particularly in places where reception is very poor (or expensive, say on holiday abroad with crippling data charges).

That said, Waze caches a lot of map and even with only intermittent reception it does a good job, the only problem being trying to start in a no reception area. It doesn't seem to use much data either.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Uh-huh. Does he often boast about using stolen equipment?

Riiight.

Of course.

eBay sellers don't often give brand names.

There used to be a thing called "Selective availability" with GPS - which meant that civilian use was less accurate than military. Clinton turned that off in 2000... The new satellites they ordered in 2007 (being launched from 2017) don't even have the SA feature on them, so it can't be turned back on.

There are 36 (IIRC) satellites out there, transmitting the same time signals to everybody, civilian and military. How a satnav translates however many of those 36 it can see at any given time into a location, and how quickly it can process changes, is down to the satnav's chipset.

Reply to
Adrian

We used to let our house here out to the US Military when we lived abroad. After one change of occupier, the new folks found an article in the garage that resulted in a full US Hazmat Recovery Team turning up to remove it. The Radiation and US Navy symbols might have been a clue...

Reply to
Davey

Should have asked him what colour the boathouse door is at Herford...

Reply to
SteveH

Just watch that their free map update for life really means approx. 18 months

The maps they often put on the dedicated units are hacked so they just fit the memory fitted to the device. The updated maps can be larger and will fail to install - but you probably jhad to delete the existing maps first to find to find that the new map hasn't got enough memory

Reply to
alan_m

That was a common complaint on the forum that got axed.

Reply to
Davey

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.