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Pharos GPS 135 Introduction Manual

Gps navigation
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A Brief Introduction to GPS Navigation
By Brian Underdahl, best-selling "For Dummies" author
Okay, so you've been hearing about these GPS things for some time and you finally
decided to see for yourself just what the fuss is all about. Welcome to the world of GPS
navigation!
A Few New Terms Demystified
Let's start out with some brief explanations of a few of the terms that experienced GPS
users throw about without even realizing that they're talking a sort of unintelligible code
that most of us don't understand. You're going to see these terms quite often so let's get
rid of the mystery right now:
GPS is an abbreviation for Global Positioning System. This is a bunch of
satellites that the US government launched into very precise orbits so that
the signals from the satellites could be used to determine exactly where you
were at any place on Earth. There's a lot of fancy math involved, but
fortunately your GPS receiver handles all the tricky stuff for you and simply
shows your position on a map.
Waypoints are simply places you specify along a route from where you are
to where you want to go (in fact, that's why we call them Saved Places in
Ostia). For example, suppose you want to go to the movies but you need to
stop at the ATM first to get some cash for the tickets. A direct route to the
theatre won't work because you'll miss your bank (and the ATM). So
instead of a simple route with just a starting and ending point, you add a
third point—a saved place—in between the starting and ending points. That
saved place is, of course, the location of the ATM. Saved places don't have
to be specific destinations, though. In some cases a saved place is simply
something you use in order to make certain that your route uses your
preferred path—such as a particular scenic highway instead of a faster but
boring Interstate.
Points of Interest are various places that you might be interested in setting
as a destination (or as a saved place). Points of interest are pretty handy
because they are places that your GPS navigation device knows how to find
without requiring that you know their address. For example, you probably
know where your bank is located but you might not know its exact address.
Or, if you're on a trip, you might be interested in finding a motel or a
restaurant that's somewhere along your route. By accessing the points of

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Summary of Contents for Pharos GPS 135

  • Page 1 By Brian Underdahl, best-selling “For Dummies” author Okay, so you’ve been hearing about these GPS things for some time and you finally decided to see for yourself just what the fuss is all about. Welcome to the world of GPS navigation! A Few New Terms Demystified Let’s start out with some brief explanations of a few of the terms that experienced GPS...
  • Page 2 Getting Used to Your GPS Navigation Device Navigation using the GPS is really pretty easy, but it can take a little bit of getting used to. With a GPS navigation device you start by telling the receiver where you want to go.
  • Page 3 If you need to manually load a map you can use the Pharos MapFinder utility that came with your Pharos GPS navigation device to transfer the required map(s) from your PC to your GPS navigation device.
  • Page 4 I begin by clicking the “Ostia by Pharos” item on the Today screen as shown here. If you are using a Pharos Drive GPS 135 or Drive GPS 140, you’ll see a slightly different initial screen—just select the GPS or Ostia link (whichever appears on your unit).
  • Page 5 Chances are your location will be included on the map even if your city isn’t one of the choices, but if it isn’t, you can use the Pharos MapFinder software I mentioned earlier to load the correct map later.
  • Page 6 Choose the city that’s closest to your current location by tapping it in the list. You can use the scrollbars to see more of the list if necessary. Once you’ve made your selection, tap the → at the lower right to continue. Your GPS navigation device will then try to determine exactly where you are.
  • Page 7 Tip: Watch the color of the GPS happy face to determine the status of the GPS receiver. It’s green when the signal is good enough for navigation, yellow when the GPS receiver is trying to get a good signal, and red when the GPS receiver is turned off.
  • Page 8 Use the onscreen keyboard to begin typing the name of what you want to find. Don’t be surprised when a list of places appears long before you finish typing—your Pharos GPS navigation device is programmed to make some pretty good guesses based on just a...
  • Page 9 (tap ← to make a different entry if you made a mistake). Your GPS navigation device will take a few seconds to calculate the best route and then it will show the route on the screen as shown here. The hollow red arrowhead in the center of the screen shows your current location, the blue line shows the route, and the text at the bottom gives the directions.
  • Page 10 (tap a second time to show the view on the right or a third time to return to the normal view). Tapping the text direction area also tells your GPS navigation device that you want to hear the spoken instructions about the upcoming turn.
  • Page 11 I haven’t told you everything about GPS navigation in these few pages, but I’m hoping that you’ve at least learned that your Pharos GPS is going to be a lot of fun. Once you’ve had a chance to try it out for yourself you’ll probably find yourself looking for excuses to go someplace new just so you can use your GPS navigation device.
  • Page 12: What Is Gps

    Orbiting nearly 12,000 miles above the Earth, GPS satellites circle the globe twice daily transmitting precise time and location information. Using a GPS receiver, a user on Earth can pinpoint his exact location (latitude, longitude and altitude) and navigate from point to point anywhere on the planet.
  • Page 13: How Does Gps Work

    Using the distance measurements of at least three satellites in an algorithm computation, the GPS receiver arrives at an accurate position fix. Three satellites will provide a two- dimensional (latitude and longitude) position, while receiving signals from four or more satellites will result in a three-dimensional position (latitude, longitude, and altitude).
  • Page 14: Who Uses Gps

    Vehicle navigation is becoming one of the largest GPS markets, fueled by products such as the Pocket GPS Navigator from Pharos that enable address-specific routing and...
  • Page 15 The ability to deliver information, based on the location of the driver or vehicle, is spawning the development of a variety of GPS-based services.

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