Royal Cornwall Yacht Club Social Life

Friday 2 October

20:00

James Collier

Will Your GPS Ever Let You Down? 

Do you use GPS on your boat, in your car or when out walking in the countryside?  If so then this is one talk at the RCYC that you must not miss.

Mr Collier, a club member is Chief Technical Officer at CRS, a company specialising in navigation devices among other technologies.  The talk will cover

• The US government's official line on the number and reliability of the satellite constellation
• The effect of fewer operational satellites on navigation accuracy and availability
• The roll-out plan for the Russian (GLONASS), Chinese (Bidou/Compass) and European (Galileo) systems, and when commercial GPS sets will use their signals
• Accuracy and availability as a function of latitude
• Some analysis of jamming and 'dead' spots
• A brief overview of other gadgets which include GPS, now and coming soon, and their specifications / what is important (ie can I use my mobile phone or TomTom as my GPS set? Will it be accurate or reliable enough etc)
• An explanation of how GPS works, so one can understand all those peculiar screens that are shown by GPS sets

Talk - £4.50

Talk plus one course Dinner - £11.50. 

Sweets will be available on request at extra cost.

The list is in the office, but will be in the lounge out of office hours. 

Page last updated: September 14, 2009