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GPS signals


Stuey

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I was catching up on some Sky+ recordings this morning and watched an episode of "Britain from Above" which mentioned a farmer who has a combine harvester that is 'piloted' by GPS. The farmer just sits in the cab while the thing drives itself. The accuracy is down to 2.5cm which means that the position of the harvester is perfect to not miss any wheat and to not overlap too much. Impressive huh? This £400,000 monster replaced three 'normal' combines.

 

Last year I met a cacher at an event who uses GPS in his work to survey beaches, with similar accuracy no doubt.

 

Anyone got any similar stories?

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I used mine when I broke down a few years ago... I had no REAL idea where I was (nothing new there!) and so gave the AA my coords....

 

They soon found me!

 

My lodger works for the RSPB, and they use a GPS to mark the locations of birds nests on the Marshes here in the spring so that they can always find them again to go and check on them.

Edited by HazelS
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When not reviewing I take my astronomical telescope out into the garden. It has a built in GPS so the onboard computer knows where it is and can find objects easily.

 

Has a 'Goto' function just like my Garmin. Bit of a difference though; "Search - M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - distance 2.5million light years - GOTO".

 

Graculus

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When not reviewing I take my astronomical telescope out into the garden. It has a built in GPS so the onboard computer knows where it is and can find objects easily.

 

Has a 'Goto' function just like my Garmin. Bit of a difference though; "Search - M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - distance 2.5million light years - GOTO".

 

Graculus

 

GOTO is cheating - you'll never learn your way around the sky.... :rolleyes:

 

I used my GPS to get to a star party last night then my manual telescope to look at Jupiter and it's moons (nearly as sad as hiding/finding tupperware in the woods....)

 

Brian.

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Im a 4H leader in NYS and my club just finished a 1-year project where they went out and marked waypoints at every farm in the county that sold goods directly to the public. Once they had that data, they imported thier waypoints into a GIS (Geographic Information System) map. That map will soon be available online at the 4H website so people who want to buy thier foods local will be able to locate farmers markets, roadside stands, u-pick farms, etc... that are closest to them and find out more information about those farms (directions, hours, contact information, and more).

 

Thought that was pretty cool!

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When not reviewing I take my astronomical telescope out into the garden. It has a built in GPS so the onboard computer knows where it is and can find objects easily. Has a 'Goto' function just like my Garmin. Bit of a difference though; "Search - M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - distance 2.5million light years - GOTO". Graculus
WOW - and I thought it was I who had the geek problem! :ph34r::blink:
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When not reviewing I take my astronomical telescope out into the garden. It has a built in GPS so the onboard computer knows where it is and can find objects easily. Has a 'Goto' function just like my Garmin. Bit of a difference though; "Search - M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - distance 2.5million light years - GOTO". Graculus
WOW - and I thought it was I who had the geek problem! :blink::)

... and you know, it's a real hassle when he's GONETO Andromeda Galaxy and I have to call him in for dinner. :ph34r:

 

MrsB

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When I told my brother about caching and that the GPS signal gets you to within a few feet of the cache he wasn't overly impressed; he's a surveyor for a company which maintains the railway track and they use GPS for positioning their instruments with mm precision accuracy :ph34r:

 

 

M

Edited by Delta68
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I used mine when I broke down a few years ago... I had no REAL idea where I was (nothing new there!) and so gave the AA my coords....

 

They soon found me!

 

Well done the AA, more than we can say for the Surrey Ambulance Service.

 

Last year whilst caching deep in a forest, elderly grandma Locator fell breaking her leg in 6 places. :blink: We rang 999 and gave them our co-ords from our GPS thinking it was the answer to our prayers. But they insisted that the only way they could find us was by Mrs Locator leaving Grandma and the two Junior Locators (aged 7 & 8 years at the time) in the forest whilst she ran to the nearest habitation, found an address and waited there to meet the ambulance crew to show them the way to Grandma! We were less than impressed! :ph34r:

Edited by Lydford Locators
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I work on a dive support vessel in the North Sea. We build the infrastructure out here to enable the oil companies to pump oil and gas to shore. I normally park my ship up using DGPS and then we use a computer to control the ships thrusters to keep us in the same position (Dynamic Positioning) to allow us to deploy divers and other equipment onto the sea bed.

It's interesting work and pays the mortgage.

An accuracy rule of thumb for us is 1 metre but, sometimes it's better than that. (possibly even 20cm)

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A friend of mine borrowed my spare GPS last week when he went paragliding in southern France. Last night we loaded his tracks into Google Earth so that he could see how he'd done on his various flights. I knew Google Earth could plot GPS tracks onto the ground, but I didn't previously know you could get it to show the altitude. (I knew the GPS tracks contained altitude information though).

 

I suspect my friend will be buying a GPS soon. I've already introduced him to geocaching, and now he has a second reason to buy one. :rolleyes:

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That reminds me... We stopped at the garage in Betws-y-Coed, on the way back from Snowdonia last year and this dude on a motorbike wandered over to me and asked what 'Geocaching' was - he'd spotted the car's window sticker.

He said he'd come across an ammo box in the hills somewhere full of tat and had remembered that it said Geocache on it.

 

I explained and he said that he already used a GPSr for paragliding. It would be interesting to know if he ever gave caching a try :rolleyes:

 

 

M

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Live bus tracking systems use GPS to track the buses and update the "Next Bus Due in x minutes" systems. The same location info is used to play "Next Stop...." announcements. It's been extended to allow you to pay for you journeys with a smartcard where you swipe on and off buses and the GPS locations are used to work out billing.

Our local bus company uses a system called Startrack.

 

Beam me up!

 

J

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Last week I was doing a job for the Forestry Commission Nursery at Wykeham Nursery near Scarborough. Chatting to the blokes in the office I sat a Garmin CS on the dest. I mentioned I had a Legend (before we broke it) and they bromptly gave me another differently broken Legend ;*) so I may have a working "Blue Brick" again!

Anyway they use it to measure the distance on lines of the baby trees they grow so they can work out how many they are producing for stock.

The Wykeham nursery produces 9.000.000 trees each year for the Forestry Commission.

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Last week I was doing a job for the Forestry Commission Nursery at Wykeham Nursery near Scarborough. Chatting to the blokes in the office I sat a Garmin CS on the dest. I mentioned I had a Legend (before we broke it) and they bromptly gave me another differently broken Legend ;*) so I may have a working "Blue Brick" again!

Anyway they use it to measure the distance on lines of the baby trees they grow so they can work out how many they are producing for stock.

The Wykeham nursery produces 9.000.000 trees each year for the Forestry Commission.

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A friend of mine borrowed my spare GPS last week when he went paragliding in southern France. Last night we loaded his tracks into Google Earth so that he could see how he'd done on his various flights. I knew Google Earth could plot GPS tracks onto the ground, but I didn't previously know you could get it to show the altitude. (I knew the GPS tracks contained altitude information though).

 

I suspect my friend will be buying a GPS soon. I've already introduced him to geocaching, and now he has a second reason to buy one. :(

 

Hillwalkers / baggers use the altitude feature quite a bit, either for producing nice graphs of where they've been, or occasionally to measure altitudes - sometimes to sub-metre accuracy with very fancy [borrowed] kit: http://www.nuttalls.com/news/0027.htm

 

Rob

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I regularly use a gps to measure out areas in conjunction with logistical surveys such as that for out of gauge potential load holding points in laybys and motorway service areas. A lot easier and more accurate than having to park up and pace out an area, simply take a mark at one end and drive to the other and note the distance from the mark! Very handy when surveying in busy areas such as container ports or out on the open road!

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there's an organisation that uses gps to track targets then to guide a missile half way round the world to destroy. Hope their's is a bit more accurate than my old GPSIII+ :D

 

:grin: "gps indicates we're coming up over the DZ [drop zone], signal the pilot to open the bomb bay doors ready for us to jump" :grin:

(unconfirmed reports that special forces carried out HALO [high altitude low opening] jumps from the bomb bay of a Vulcan bomber during operations to reclaim the Falkland Islands)

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i use them on the fire engine at work. mark the position of the incident using the vehicle mounted terminal, radio it to control room, they relay it to other pumps, air ambulance etc etc, they input on their vehicle mounted terminals, very accurate os map displays and guides you in. one of the best equipment purchases the brigade ever made.

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I use GPS at work for surveying the location and height of objects to within a few millimetres.

If only I could get a hold of one of those GPSes for OpenStreetMap, pity they're so damned expensive!

 

I missed this one first time round, but I'm now aware of the Open Source mapping project. Today I've used my GPS to add some streets to the map. I'll add more over the next few months. Free maps on my Garmin Oregon, sweet!

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