Basic GPS Navigation

A practical guide to GPS navigation.

John Bell

Copyright

Unauthorized copying or distribution is prohibited.

Last revision 08/11/2005

Acknowledgement

In my research to find what kind of material was already available on the web, I came across a GPS for kayaking course taught in Boston by Adam Bolonsky. I sent an e-mail to Adam to ask his opinion. Adam has been kind enough to give me extensive feedback on this book. Note that this is an expression of thanks for his help rather than Adam’s endorsement for the content. For that, I remain solely responsible. Adam teaches kayaking skills as well as being an outdoor writer. His e-mail is adambolonsky@yahoo.com .

I used G7toWin, by Ron Henderson, extensively for screen captures. It is available at http://www.gpsinformation.org/ronh/.

Thanks to Fred Simon and his many e-mails on tacking.

Preface and Disclaimer

Although I say essentially the same thing in the introduction, I believe that it bears being said separately for emphasis.

Both the e-book and print on demand versions of this book are not professionally edited or published. Professional editing adds a layer of confidence in that the text is checked for both writing errors as well as factual errors. Although I consider myself to be knowledgeable and I have tried to make this information accurate to the best of my knowledge, this book has not been edited.

Although I have hopefully provided accurate information that will increase your level of safety and effectiveness in navigating with GPS, I take no liability for any of the material.

If this book proves to be sufficiently popular, I may have it edited and published in a more formal manner. By doing so I will have to freeze the content and updates will be harder to make and fewer.

The grammatical and general stylistic errors will be the easiest to fix by hiring somebody with more writing skill. Although I am open to such corrections, these are not my primary concern. I would very much like to hear about substantive errors. These are cases where I was outright wrong or explained something in a manner that while being logical to me, was actually confusing.

I would also like to hear if this book helped you and if there are things that you wish that I had included but did not. Not that I will necessarily include them, there has to be some winnowing of subject matter, but I do appreciate any ideas.

Sincerely,

John Bell

handheldgps@hotmail.com

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction.. 1

What I hope to accomplish in this book. 1

Which GPS receivers I address. 1

My experiences and qualifications. 1

A brief history of this book. 2

Nomenclature. 2

Synopsis. 3

Chapter 2 How GPS Works. 5