The Commercial GPS turns 25 years old!

Twenty-five years ago, the first Magellan GPS unit were shipped to retailers for the average consumer to purchase.  The release of this military grade equipment quickly gained adoption as navigation devices in light aircraft, vehicles and adventure travel.  This single technology, coupled with mobile technology, has impacted overland travel more than any other device.

Mashable highlights a few memorable moments throughout Commercial GPS history:

While GPS proved invaluable to the coalition forces, it could prove equally valuable for the enemy. So the government introduced "selective availability" (SA) — errors added to reduce accuracy in civilian GPS receivers.

President Clinton turned off SA on May 1, 2000, which improved consumer device accuracy to 15 meters, coincidentally around the same time the first handheld units with included city street maps became available, such as the first full-color GPS handheld, the Magellan Meridian Color Handheld GPS Navigator, in 2002.

After the success of the [Magellan] NAV 1000 and the publicity generated by the Gulf War, the GPS floodgates opened. A variety of GPS devices from other companies such as Garmin (1989), TomTom (1991) and Mio (2002), hit the market using maps and navigation software from a variety of suppliers such as Navteq (1987), Navigon (1991), SiRF (1995) and TeleNav (1999).

Android GPS Apps - Part 2

GPS Apps on Google Play

Do Android tablet GPS actually work or is it simply better to use a dedicated GPS?  I used time travelling between two cities to experiment with a few of the apps I downloaded and mentioned a few weeks ago - read about the few apps I downloaded.

The apps I randomly tested throughout the day included Maverick, MapMyHike+, My Tracks by Google and Androzic.
My primary test was mapping, tracking and export capability of each application.

My device was the Google Nexus 7 (4.1) with a wifi connection to a 3G personal wifi device.  All applications relied on a data connection to download the maps.  I did not test the offline capability.

Jungle Junction, Nairobi

Jungle Junction Photos (Google Search)

Jungle Junction Campsite in Nairobi has to be one of the most popular campsites for majority of overlanders visiting Nairobi.   Reading the blog post from ‘Tin Can in Africa’, I was reminded of the many memories I had whilst traveling overland around Kenya and staying at Jungle Junction.  I arrived in Nairobi in August 2005 having heard rumours of an open house run by Chris Handschuh which was named 'Jungle Junction'.  The internet was young in 2005 and attempting to find the GPS coordinates for this campsite proved pretty difficult.  Eventually, I found the coordinates and headed out to find the house.

Jungle Junction Campsite

October 2013 Update:  I have added the new GPS waypoints as Jungle Junction have moved to Karen, Nairobi.  The remainder of this blog post focuses on the previous campsite...

Smartphone Apps for Overlanding

Just about every overlander planning a trip has the use of a smartphone, a tablet or a multimedia device like an iPod Touch.  The usefulness of the device does often depend on an internet connection and with data plans available in every country, it is worth taking a phone along that is unlocked and open to any GSM network.

Having a useful app on the phone makes it even more worthwhile...  here are a few that I use and have found useful - Road Trip, TapaTalk, Offline Maps and the generic GPS app:

GPS Graveyard...

Garmin GPS III+ mounted on Land Rover dash.

What happens to old GPS units?  Those ancient direct-line-of-sight GPS receivers that would take minutes to acquire the satellites and could only hold 1.44meg of internal storage which was used for waypoints, tracklogs, routes and basemaps.

My old GPS is currently abandoned in a cupboard drawer waiting for a need to be turned on.  It's a Garmin III+ with the world basemap along with limited coverage of Africa.  It uses a serial cable to download and upload the data to a computer (which PC has a serial connector now?).

Being Unprepared...

In the last blog I briefly mentioned that being unprepared for an overland trip might be the way to go.  There are elements of the preparation that are critical to do before the journey begins - namely, ensuring that your vehicle has a carnet and that your passport is valid.  Besides for those two elements, the rest of the journey can be completed without the aid of internet updates, GPS technology, tracking devices and mobile phones.

Here's why I say that:  It was only ten years ago that internet first starting appearing in African capital cities.  Prior to that, all the above mentioned technologies did not exist which meant that any overlanders travelling simply relied on the tried and tested Michelin Africa Maps, word of mouth and Post Restante services.

Travelling without knowing how far to your next GPS bushcamp, or without the knowledge that your satellite phone is charged and ready for that emergency call, does add to the adventure of a Trans-Africa trip.  It brings an excitement of the unknown, an excitement about the fact that you are not sure where you will sleep tonight as your GPS is turned off and no waypoint logged.

In summary, if you don't have the budget available for the latest GPS, satellite phone or computer, simple forget those items and buy a Michelin map.  Begin your journey knowing that each bushcamp, photo taken will be unique to you.