Whether you’re locating a lost pet or trying to find your way around an unfamiliar city, a GPS tracking device can help navigate you toward your desired destination. Originally developed by the military, a GPS, or a global positioning system, has been adapted by people to help them pinpoint specific locations or loved ones. You can use a portable GPS device by placing it in your car or using a handheld one. Here are four different ways you can use this device during the fall season.
Traveling on Road Trips
Fall break is coming up. Pack up the kids and take a road trip to see the family for the Thanksgiving holiday, or just discover a new area over the weekend. Wherever you’re going, use a GPS system to help get you there. It’ll provide step-by-step instructions on where to turn and which exits to take. Using a GPS navigation and tracking system ensures no one gets lost on your way to and from your destination. Many of these systems are reliable and easy to view. You can easily place these systems in your vehicle and display your route right on the screen. This helps keep you on the right path without taking your eyes away from the road.
Hiking and Biking on Different Trails
On cool fall nights when you’re in the mood to camp alone or with the family, head out on biking or hiking trails. You can mark the spot of your campsite on your GPS device and it’ll remember your starting location. When you’re ready to head back, just hit a button on your system. You can then walk or bike right back to where you started. You can also record the exact trail you walked using your tracking system and play it back next time you want to venture down that same path again.
Locating Your Children
Fall weather often brings football games and bonfires, which is where your kids may spend most of their evenings with friends. GPS tracking devices help you worry a little less about their whereabouts. Install these systems in their cars or have them carry around a handheld device. Most systems make it easy to alert others of their exact location if they’re lost or their car breaks down.
Finding Your Parked Vehicle at Busy Events
Whether you’re attending a state fair, sporting event, pumpkin patch, or any other crowded fall festivity, you may lose sight of your car in a sea of vehicles. By placing your tracking system in your car, you can easily spot where your car is from your handheld device. Some even let you connect to the device using your mobile phone. This helps you leave the event quickly and without wandering around searching for your vehicle.
A GPS Tracking Device Helps You Navigate to and from Destinations
Many GPS tracking devices use global positioning satellites to help others find their specific location. These satellites pick up the signal of the location and the GPS system helps navigate you to that area. Contact us today to learn more about how a GPS tracking device can help successfully get you from point A to point B in no time.
Holiday season officially starts tomorrow (Thursday 11/24) with Thanksgiving.
TTW family sends you blessings for a joyful holiday with family and friends.
God Bless you and your families through out this holiday season.
Thank you for everything we could not have done it without you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
DoD Certifies GPS OCX Program to Congress
The Air Force next generation operational control system, known as OCX, recently breach the limit for cost over-run. Thanks to early engagement with Raytheon (OCX contractor) to resolve the program issues, the program recently received certification to continue its activities. The program capability supports military forces, civil, commercial and scientific uses. However, the future of OCX program still depends on Ratheon’s ability to deliver needed capabilities to Air Force at acceptable cost and within acceptable time.
Source: http://gpsworld.com/dod-certifies-gps-ocx-program-to-congress/
Additional info on OCX: http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/gps_ocx/
Memphis Police Using GPS Tracking to Fight Domestic Violence
Memphis is in investing $900-thousand dollars in the fight against domestic violence. The funds will be used to purchase around 800 tracking devices to help the police track offenders and protect would-be or former victims. With around 18-percent of the city’s murders attributed to domestic violence, the hope is that the use of GPS tracking devices will reduce the overall number of homicides in the city.
Source: http://www.localmemphis.com/news/local-news/mpd-using-gps-tracking-for-domestic-violence-offenders
GPS Tracking Reveals Seagull Habits
We’re always looking for unusual and creative use of GPS tracking devices, and happened across this. A British study utilized GPS trackers and GPS tracking software to monitor the movement of seagulls in St. Ives resort. What’s interesting is that the results showed that all 4 seagulls tracked had very different habits– with some flying out to sea, and others foraging for food on nearby farmland. The tracking devices tracked the seagulls for a combined total of more than 20,000 miles.
Air Force Fixes Control System for GPS III
Next year, and the launch of the first of more than 30 GPS III satellites marks the beginning of GPS III. The new satellites boast increased security and better tracking. Perhaps one of the most impressive features is “spot beaming”, a way of creating a localized area of increased power for military use.
Photo: Wikipedia
The world of GPS tracking continues to receive much needed replacements for antiquated GPS II-A satellites launched during the 1990’s. On August 1, a United Launch Atlas 5 rocket successfully launched the third of 4 new satellites set to be launched in 2014–all part of a series of twelve new GPS satellites.
The new GPS-IIF satellites, manufactured by Boeing, come with multiple advantages over their 1990’s predecessors, including:
- Improved atomic time signals for more accurate reporting data
- An added signal for civilian use–to be used as a GPS signal for aircraft travel. (This signal is known as L5, which began broadcasting in April)
- Medium-Earth orbit
The newly launched satellite is undergoing a few weeks of testing by the Air Force to assure that it is fully functional before being placed into service.
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Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2014/08/03/the-seventh-next-gen-gps-satellite-is-now-in-orbit/
The second of four GPS tracking satellite launches planned by the Air Force for 2014 was successfully completed a day late on May 16 due to weather complications on the originally projected launch date. According to CBS News, the $245 million dollar satellite is part of an ongoing effort to replace and enhance the capabilities of existing satellites which have already been in use for years longer than they were designed for.
The effort to upgrade the current global positioning network of 30 satellites is for both military and civilian benefit, especially considering the many ways tracking devices and GPS tracking software have become an integral part of the daily lives of average people, including cell phone applications, GPS trackers for personal protection, covert tracking for law enforcement, and more.
The third satellite launch is set for July 2014, with the fourth to follow in the fall.
For more information on GPS tracking devices and GPS tracking software, visit TrackingTheWorld.
Scientists may soon be using GPS tracking technology to monitor and track hurricanes, according to a recent report published in Radio Journal. By utilizing a GPS tracking receiver in hurricane hunter aircrafts to measure disruptions in the sea and then comparing the data to that which is received from GPS tracking satellites, scientists can determine the strength of a storm, including wind speeds accurate within 11 mph. Using GPS tracking systems to track hurricanes may also be more cost effective than dropsondes, tubes containing scientific measuring devices dropped from planes directly into hurricanes, which cost more than $700 dollars each. However, GPS tracking for hurricanes is only effective for hurricanes at sea, not those which have already made landfall, and is somewhat less accurate than current methods.
India just launched one of seven satellites as part of its IRNSS positioning system which is due to be completed in 2016. While U.S. initiated GPS tracking satellites cover India, the new system will provide more options to those within 1,500 miles of the mainland of India. The system is designed to be accurate within 20 meters or less.
Photo: Engadget
Here are our favorite GPS tracking news stories for Friday, June 7, 2013:
GPS Inventor Says Self-Driving Cars to Come
Brad Parkinson, former United States Air Force colonel credited with the invention of GPS, says that the future of GPS tracking technology is self-driving cars. Due to the advancement of GPS tracking technology, Parkinson said self driving cars could be just a few years away–especially since companies like Google are already testing them. Parkinson is now a professor at Stanford.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/tech/self-driving-cars-inventor-gps/
GPS Technology for Tsunami Warning Systems
The BBC recently reported that GPS tracking technology may soon be used to increase early warning time in the event of tsunamis caused by earthquakes. According to the report, GPS will be used to measure even the slightest changes in the geography of the coastlines in countries most likely to be affected by tsunamis to provide faster warnings than current tsunami warning systems which use seismic activity data.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22572096
NASA Working On GPS for Navigating Space
Popular Science reports that NASA is developing an “intergalactic” GPS system aimed at facilitating space travel anywhere in the universe. Navigation for space travel currently relies on radio signals sent from Earth, but those signals weaken with distance. The GPS project is designed to rely on light beams produced by neutron stars known as pulsars which spin rapidly and emit steady beams of light.
Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/nasa-working-intergalactic-gps
The U.S. Air Force is set to receive a set of two A2100 composite satellite
structures and the first ship set of propellant tanks for the GPS III
satellites. These deliveries, which represent use of enhanced GPS tracking technology,
is only the first part in a much larger project in GPS tracking systems.
The GPS III structure is made from a composite material that is lightweight and
high-strength, which makes it ideal for integration into military hardware. The
GPS III satellites are expected to deliver navigation that is three times more
accurate than current GPS tracker systems in place. It will also have advanced anti-jam
capabilities, making it more predictable in hostile areas.
Good news for the rest of us, since the system will also be adding a new
international civil signal (L1C) that is designed to work with existing GPS tracking
systems. Just don’t expect to see results until after the project is completed in
2014.
If you’re a GPS tracker enthusiast, you don’t want to miss the launch of the Delta IV GPS IIF-2 GPS tracking satellite. The launch is expected to occur tomorrow at Cape Canaveral by the United Launch Alliance, founded in 2006. The ULA contracts with the U.S. government to perform NASA launches, and has completed 5 NASA launches in the last six months. The ULA is a 50/50 venture of The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin.
For more information on the live video launch of the new GPS satellite, visit the United Launch Alliance here: http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/default.shtml
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