Satellite navigation units make driving a lot easier as they hold digital maps and use a network of satellites in space to pinpoint your location and they provide turn by turn directions to get you to your destination usually through audible signals.

Satellite navigation kits also known as GPS units are now so popular that they are now seen as must-have gadgets. This has led to an increase in thefts and car break-ins as these units are attractive to thieves.

Often what the vehicles owner does is usually to remove the satellite navigation unit from the windscreen holder and put it inside the glove box compartment of the vehicle while leaving the holder still attached to the windscreen. This is not really a very good idea because it leaves a telltale sign that the vehicle has a Gps unit which could lead to a potential break-in.

It is always advisable to detach the windscreen holder completely as this can attract the opportunist thief. One might want to place the support cradle in the glove compartment but a safer alternative would be to completely remove both the unit and the support cradle from the vehicle. Even if you don’t remove the cradle from the windscreen and still remove the unit from the glove compartment, there is still a high probability that the vehicle will be vandalised and the windows smashed.

An advice I give to people is to consider using a compatible mobile phone for satellite navigation. On some symbian smartphones and windows mobile phones one can install navigation software with full functionality as the dedicated satellite navigation units. This has a lot of advatages over GPS units which include portability and security.

Francis is a GPS enthusiast and writes about satellite navigation

There has been a lot of reported vehicle break-ins with satellite navigations units stolen from the vehicles. This I will say is partly due to the growing popularity of satellite navigation units.

A lot of the owners leave the windscreen mounts of these devices attached to the windscreen when they detach the units, this is a give away signal that leads to the vehicle being broken into with the vandal looking for the device in the dashboard.

My solution is simple, get a windows or symbian smartphone, that is compatible with a navigation software and use that for your navigational needs. These smartphones are really getting smarter, you would want to look for a series 60, 80, or 90 symbian phone or any windows powered mobile phone. Bluetooth functionality is a prerequisite as that is what is used to connect to mobile phone to the portable bluetooth gps receiver. Get yourself a compact buetooth gps unit like the holux gpslim 236, that is currently the smallest unit and you are done.

Before you talk about screen size, I will say the screen size isn’t that bad at all from experience. Most smartphones have enough screen display size to do the gps justice. There are a lot of advantages to this setup. One thing I will say is I have never heard of a car being broken into because of a phone cradle in sight but leave a gps cradle in sight and you could be asking for trouble.

In the United Kingdom you can get a free contract smartphone like the nokia 6630/6680 and alternatively if windows is your thing you can get an orange spv c500/c550/c600 or the t-mobile variants, you can get a navigation software with a bluetooth gps receiver for less than £200 and you are good to go.

Francis Ononye writes about satellite navigation

Today’s GPS receivers are extremely accurate, thanks to parallel multi-channel design. Garmin’s 12 parallel channel receivers are quick to lock onto satellites when first turned on and they maintain strong locks, even in dense foliage or urban settings with tall houses. Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to 10-15 meters on average.
Newer Garmin GPS receivers with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability can improve the accuracy to less than three meters on average. No additional equipment or any fees are required to take advantage of WAAS. Users can also get even better accuracy with Differential GPS (DGPS), which corrects GPS signals to within an average of three to five meters. The U.S. Coast Guard operates the most common DGPS correction service. This system consists of a network of towers that receive GPS signals and transmit a corrected signal by beacon transmitters. In order to get the corrected signal, users must have a differential beacon receiver and beacon antenna in addition to their GPS.

The 18-24 satellites that make up the GPS space segment are orbiting the earth about 12,000 miles above us. They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24 hours. These satellites are travelling at speeds of roughly 7,500 miles an hour.

GPS satellites are powered by solar energy only. They have backup batteries onboard to keep them running in the event of a solar eclipse, when there’s no solar power. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.

16 years as an officer in the Norwegian army. See my pages: http://www.gps-info.org/ and http://www.lincoln-navigator.org/