BigaImages.com News, Reviews, Advice

Shops which sell consumer electronics supplies these days, generally include GPS devices. GPS – which stands for ‘Global Positioning System’ – is a Satellite System made up of a least 24 Earth Orbit satellites that transmit microwave signals. These signals can then be used by a GPS receiver to calculate its position, direction of movement, speed of movement, and the time.

Portable GPS mapping systems use the signals from at least 3 of these 24 satellites and use them to triangulate and calculate a longitude and latitude on the earth.

With the increase in GPS equipment sales, portable GPS units have become very popular, and can also come as an integral part or plug-in for such devices as mobile phones and hand held computers.

Handheld GPS units can come with or without mapping. The ones without mapping are good for getting from one point to another, for example in large towns or cities where you might be trying to find a movie, a museum, or a restaurant, and are not really interested in looking at a map.

Portable GPS units are commonly used for navigation in conjunction with such activities as hiking, fishing, exploring in the wild, going on a bicycle trip, exploring a city, and almost any activity where you want to find your way around easily and avoid getting lost. In addition they can also be used for such activities as map-making, geocaching, skiing, boating, flying, land surveying, etc.

Some features to consider when looking into hand held GPS units are:

Battery life: Check to see how long the unit will work on a set of batteries, and whether the batteries are rechargeable.
The Screen Type: How large and clear is the screen, and can it be read in sunlight?
Electronic compass – This feature can let you know the direction you are facing while standing still. Otherwise the GPS unit can only work out your direction while on the move.
Ability to maintain location: Depending on where it will be used, it is important to know if the unit can maintain its location even in heavy cover such as woods, trees, and large buildings, or in deep canyons.

With these handy portable GPS units which even come in smaller sizes such as in GPS running watches , you don’t have to worry about getting lost when traveling. However, it’s still a good idea to have some regular maps along when out on a trip, because, even though the GPS unit can show your location within your immediate surroundings, the small screens make it hard to visualize your location within a larger area, as you can with a normal map.