I know people sometimes experience difficulty with their satnavs, but thay really are a great piece of kit, and it is one of those areas of technology where the speed of development has been amazing. In 1981 I sailed an Ocean 71 from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Kos in Greece. Said boat was fitted with the very first satnav I'd ever clapped eyes on - a Navidyne ESZ 4000 - the same one as fitted to Polaris submarines I was told, and it had cost $12000. It was enormous, the size of a telly but twice as deep, and as it was prior to the chain of geo stationary satellites it only got a fix every 4 hours or so when there was a satellite pass - in between times it gave a dead reckoning position. We took great delight in calling up passing freighters and asking them if they wanted a fix (until then something yachts were always asking merchantmen). Who could have imagined that within a generation they'd be in every car for a few quid ?
I find my satnav useful mainly for finding an address rather than navigating from a to b, but on a long trip I'll put it on for the speed camera warnings ('tho not in France of course....)
Last edited by pandy; 10/05/12 06:41 AM. Reason: tidying up
