What is GPS? The acronym stands for Global Positioning System. It is the new “Polaris” that aids in navigating, positioning and tracking with the use of a satellite-controlled system that broadcasts signals to the equipment on the ground. With receivers hand carried by users, GPS determines the exact location of a vehicle, person or assets and other things useful and valuable to which it is attached and records the position at regular intervals. It is a powerful tracking system that has provided the world with diverse applications for the military and civilian users.

What is GPS? The GPS is a space-based radionavigation system controlled and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by the U.S. Military. This is the GPS Operational Constellation. The tracking system has space segments consisting of GPS satellites sending signals coming from space. There can be at least 24 operational satellites orbiting in 12 hours that recapitulate the same ground track as the earth turns underneath them. The GPS satellites then transmit the data in a very precise time reference plied by what is called “atomic clocks” onboard the satellite. These atomic clocks then passively transmit the navigation messages in specially coded signals, enabling the equipment on the ground called “receivers” to compute position, time, direction and velocity in three-dimensional locations known as latitude, longitude and altitude.

What is GPS? Your Most Reliable and Most Precise Assistant

The GPS was primarily for the use of the military. However, after the Korean Flight 007 in 1983 tragedy, which would have been prevented had its crew only had access to better navigational tools, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive which would guarantee that GPS signals be made available to the world for free or without restrictions. Though it was intended for civilians as well as military applications at first, from its design, civilian users would not be getting the same accuracy that the military could.

Going public, what is GPS serving the commercial market? GPS became the new powerful tool that improved efficient routing of vessels at sea. It has saved a ship’s navigator hours of celestial inference and calculation. GPS enhanced safety at sea made it possible to report precise position to rescuers in case of disasters.

What is GPS navigating the land? GPS also improved efficiency on land: delivery trucks can now receive GPS signals and easily transmit their position back to a central dispatcher; police and fire departments use GPS to efficiently dispatch their vehicles and reduced response time; GPS keeps motorists from getting lost by showing their position and intended route on dashboard displays; railroads now use GPS technology in replacing older maintenance-intensive mechanical signals.

What is GPS navigating the air? Long before the GPS, aircrafts typically fly from one waypoint to another and pilots on long-distance flights relied on navigational beacons situated across the country. The dawning of GPS supplemented existing navigational techniques for aircrafts inexpensively. With GPS navigating the air, airplanes can now fly a direct route to a destination that save significant amount in consumption of fuel and time, the methods of guiding planes to a safe landing in a poor weather or visibility has been improved and simplified and aided pilots with a precise position data to keep the plane on course.

What is GPS surveying, mapping the earth, managing the land and agriculture? GPS is used by surveyors and map makers for precision positioning; map locations of such facilities as telephone poles, sewer lines, and fire hydrants; map construction sites and property lines in minutes. In mapping the earth, GPS points have assigned codes in order to identify roads, streams, or other objects during data collection for analyses and comparison through a computer program called “Geographic Information Systems (GIS).”

GPS can be used in forestry, for mineral exploration, and wildlife habitat management to define positions of important assets precisely and identify their changes. In agriculture, a farm equipment with GPS receivers can provide precise position information and it also gives farmers great accuracy in the application of fertilizers and harvesting crops.

Agricultural GPS systems can be used to create crop yield maps during harvesting, making it easy for farmers to plan exactly how the fields should be used and fertilized for future crops.

So, what is GPS? It is a powerful navigational tool acting as your most reliable and most precise assistant that is transforming the way nations operate in space.

Anyone who has used a great GPS system, including a great motorcycle GPS system, will know how user friendly and useful a good GPS can be. With modern GPS technology coming of age and modern digital mapping technology improving, a great motorcycle GPS can turn a ride into a pleasure.

What is GPS? For those who don’t know, GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a navigation and positioning technology pioneered by the US army, that has been taken to it’s ultimate and turned into a complete user friendly modern navigation solution. Whilst in the past GPS was really just the province of the military, the technology is now so good, and so cheap, that anyone needing the ultimate in navigation can afford it.

That includes motorcyclists, modern motorcycle GPS has also come of age.

Basically GPS works by cross referencing the signals from a number of satellites above the head of the user and using those references to plot the user’s position on the globe. It will only work where there are available satellites, so if you can’t pick up the signals your GPS won’t work.

Modern GPS is accurate, depending on the number of satellites available, to within less than a yard. So anyone seeking to navigate by use of a GPS system can obtain extremely accurate positioning. And this is now user friendly. In the past this information was only available as a longitude and latitude figure. This was only really useful to someone with the technical expertise to actually use this to plot the position on a map.

However now modern GPS, including high quality motorcycle GPS systems, can combine digital mapping technology with GPS positioning to produce an extremely user friendly outcome. Basically the position plotted by the GPS can be overlaid onto a digital map to show the GPS user, including the motorcyclist, their exact position on a digital map, and tell them how to get from where they are to where they want to go.

So motorcyclists can now buy dedicated motorcycle GPS systems that they can use as a total navigation system. There are various ways they can do this. It’s quite possible for the motorcycle rider, who may also, for example, be a keen hiker, to get a handheld portable GPS unit that can be taken anywhere, including mounted on a motorcycle. Download and install some maps that cover the area you want to navigate in and portable GPS can be used by just about anyone just about anywhere.

There are, however, some drawbacks using portable GPS for a motorcycle GPS system. When mounted on a motorcycle a GPS unit needs some special qualities. It needs to be vibration resistant, as a motorcycle has vibrations. It needs to be weather resistant as any equipment on a motorcycle will be out in the weather, including the rain. And it needs to be readable in all conditions, including direct sun.

And a motorbike rider needs to be able to program or use it whilst wearing heavy motorcycle gloves.

Luckily there are some excellent GPS manufacturers who have come to the rescue of the motorcyclist by manufacturing dedicated motorcycle GPS systems that combine all these features and more. The GPS mounts are designed to allow mounting without the problems of vibration, and the GPS units are vibration resistant, waterproof and can be read, and used, by the motorcyclist.

And even better, the best motorcycle GPS units can be used without the need for reading the screen. With bluetooth technology built in they can send directions by voice direct to the helmet of the motorbike rider, so the rider doesn’t need to take his eyes off the road.

Program in where you want to ride and it will take you there every turn, turn by turn. Ask it to and it will tell you all the places of interest along the way, like food or fuel stops, and accommodation. With the right extras it will even tell you in real time where the traffic jams are and how to ride around them. This saves you both time and fuel.

And along the way your motorcycle GPS unit may even allow you to play your favorite music or do the odd phone call or three.

And a good motorcycle GPS system should set you back less than $1000. It’s money extremely well spent for a motorcyclist who likes long, hassle free rides.

So if you ride a motorbike, and have a lazy $1000, you can’t do better than spending it on a quality motorcycle GPS system. It will repay you over and over.

The basic principle of GPS navigation system to measure the known location of the satellite to the user the distance between the receiver and then integrated multi-satellite data can know the exact location of the receiver. To achieve this purpose, the satellite’s position can be based on-board clock time recorded in the satellite ephemeris identified. The user to the satellite’s distance from the satellite signal transmitted through the records to the user the experience of time, and then multiplied by the speed of light received (due to the interference of the atmosphere ionosphere, this distance is not the user and the real distance between the satellites, but pseudorange (PR): When the GPS satellites to work, it will continue to use 1 and 0 binary symbol composed of pseudo-random number (PN for short) launched navigation message. GPS pseudo-code system uses a total of two, namely civilian C / A code and the military of the P (Y) code. C / A code frequency 1.023MHz, repeat cycle of a millisecond, the code distance one microsecond, equivalent to 300m; P code frequency of 10.23MHz, repeat the cycle of 266.4 days, Code spacing of 0.1 microseconds, equivalent to 30m. The P code Y code is formed on the basis of confidentiality better performance. navigation message includes satellite ephemeris, work status, clock corrections, ionospheric delay correction, atmospheric refraction correction and other information. It is in the solution from the satellite signal modulation up to 50b / s modulation in the carrier frequency on the launch. navigation data included in each of the main frame 5 sub-frames per frame size 6s. the first three frames of all 10 code; repeat every 30 seconds, updated hourly. After the two were 15000b. navigation message in the contents of the main remote codes, code conversion, the first data blocks 1,2,3, including the most important was ephemeris data. When the user receives the navigation data, the extraction of the satellite time and do it with their own clock compared satellite and the user will be aware of the distance, and then use the navigation data in the satellite ephemeris data, calculate the location of the satellite launch when the message the user in WGS-84 geodetic coordinate system position, velocity and other information can be learned.
GPS satellite navigation system can be seen part of the role is to constantly launch navigation message. However, users accept the machine using the onboard clock with the clock can not always synchronized, so in addition to the user’s three-dimensional coordinates x, y, z, but also introduce a ?t is the time between the satellite and receiver differential as unknown, then four equations out of these four unknown solution. So if you want to know the location of the receiver, at least four satellites can receive the signal.
GPS receiver can receive the exact timing can be used to nanosecond time information; for forecasting the next few months in which broad locations satellite ephemeris; used to calculate the required positioning satellite coordinates of the broadcast ephemeris a precision of several meters to tens of meters (each satellite is different at any time change); and GPS system information, such as satellite status.
GPS receiver of the code can be measured from the satellite to the receiver, as with the receiver clock error of satellite and atmospheric propagation errors, it is called pseudorange. 0A code measured on the pseudo-range as UA code pseudorange, the accuracy is about 20 meters, measured on the P code pseudo-range as P code pseudo-range, precision is about 2 meters.
GPS receiver to receive satellite signals, decode or use other technology, the information on modulation in the carrier removed, you can restore the carrier. Strictly speaking, the carrier phase should be known as the carrier beat phase, which is received by the Doppler frequency shift effects of the satellite signal carrier phase and the receiver local oscillation signal phase difference. Generally determined by the receiver clock time measurement epoch, to keep track of the satellite signal, you can record changes in the value of the phase, but the start time of observation and satellite receiver initial phase of the oscillator is not known, since epoch beginning phase integer not know about that ambiguity, only as a parameter in the Data Processing Solution. Phase observations are accurate to the millimeter, but only solved ambiguity, only the relative positioning, and continuous observation for some time to use the phase observations, and to achieve better than the meter-level positioning accuracy of only phase observations can be used.
By positioning mode, GPS positioning into a single point positioning and relative positioning (differential positioning). Single point positioning is only one receiver according to the observation data to determine the way the receiver position, it can only use pseudorange measurements can be used for rough travel, etc. navigation. Relative positioning (differential position) is based on two or more receivers of observational data to determine the relative position between the observation points the way, both can be used pseudorange phase measurements can be applied, geodetic or engineering survey shall be phase observations using the relative positioning.
In the GPS observables includes satellite and receiver clock error, atmospheric propagation delay, multipath effects, etc. error, even when in the position calculation by the satellite broadcast ephemeris error, and during most of the public when the relative positioning error was offset or reduced, thus positioning accuracy will be greatly enhanced, dual-frequency receiver can view the two frequency ionospheric measurement error of the atmosphere to offset a major part in the high precision, when the distance between the receiver (there is significant difference between the atmosphere ) should be used in dual-frequency receiver.

Relativity for the GPS provides the necessary amendments
Global Positioning System GPS satellite timing signals to provide latitude, longitude and altitude information, accurate distance measurement requires precise clock. Therefore, we must use precise GPS receivers relativistic effect.
Accuracy within 30 meters in GPS receiver means that it has made use of the relativistic effect. University of Washington physicist Clifford M. Will explained in detail, said: “If you do not take into account relativistic effects, satellite clock on the Earth’s clock is not synchronized.” Relativity that fast moving objects with the passage of time slower than static. Will calculated for each GPS satellite approximately 1.4 million kilometers per hour across the distance, which means its on-board atomic clocks on Earth every day the clock slower than 7 microseconds.
The gravitational force exerted on time more relativistic effects. About 2 million meters of altitude, GPS satellites by the gravitational pull by approximately one quarter of the ground. The result is that on-board clock speed of 45 microseconds per day, GPS should be included in a total deviation of 38 microseconds. Ashby explained: “If there is no satellite frequency compensation of 11 km per day will increase the error.” (This effect is in fact more complex, because the satellite along an eccentric orbit, sometimes closer from Earth, sometimes Also very near.)