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 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Kevin Poulter Stan Swan Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Warwick Farm, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. Fax (02) 9939 2648. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Publisher’s Letter GPS car navigation still not perfect Just recently, I purchased a new Sydney street directory and others in the SILICON CHIP office laughed at me. “What do you need that for? You’ve got GPS and that makes street directories unnecessary”. Well, call me conservative but if at all possible I like to know where I am going and I like to know the general route before I get into the car. Now I think GPS is great. I still boggle at how marvellous it is when, after driving for several hours or maybe even a whole day, the GPS says, “you have arrived at your destination, at such and such address”. But I have also driven up a few byways in other cities before I realised that I was nowhere near my selected destination and unless I had a real map, I was to be stranded somewhere out in “woop woop”. Only last month, I had a lunch engagement with one of our regular contributors, Kevin Poulter, at a restaurant in Cloudehill Gardens, in Monbulk, on the outskirts of Melbourne. I had programmed the address into the GPS on my Garmin Android phone as a matter of routine. The route took me and my wife through the very scenic Dandenongs and as we were driving along a steep, narrow, winding, dirt road, the GPS suddenly said “recalculating”. Now as anyone who has used a GPS knows only too well, this is the GPS politely saying “You’ve just taken the wrong turn-off, you stupid idiot”. And since I didn’t know the area, I thought that I had done just that. But after trekking back and forth, going up and down narrow lanes which were dead-ends and becoming more and more angry and frustrated, I had to admit defeat and phone Kevin to tell him we were going to be late – very late! So how did I get out of that one? Fortunately, I had a Melbourne street directory in the car. I was able to retrace the route until I could find a street sign and then I was able to navigate in the old-fashioned way – with a proper map! We arrived an hour late and it took me a while to calm down and enjoy the meal. By the way, I had not taken the wrong turn-off. It turns out that this experience is not at all uncommon, especially in hilly country areas or built-up city streets and with cloudy conditions whereby the GPS loses reception of the satellites. The waitress at the restaurant had seen all this before – many times. But it is not just intermittent loss of satellites that can get GPS units into trouble. Even if the stored maps are supposedly up-to-date, who has not been barrelling down a freeway somewhere and then been instructed to take the first exit at the next round-about? And there is no round-about for the next 50km? Or maybe you are in a city area where they have recently made a lot of changes to the roads and you end up driving into a hotel foyer – or at least you would if you had blindly followed the instructions of the GPS. Don’t laugh; people do such stupid things and some have died as a result. You also have to be careful to see that the GPS route selection criteria are correct for your purpose. Do you want the quickest route or the shortest? Do you want to avoid toll-ways? And so on. These can make a dramatic difference to the time (and cost) of your journey. By the way, you can plan your route point-by-point on the GPS instead of merely plugging in the destination address and then putting your faith in its digital machinations. But there is another reason why I like proper maps. Several years ago I had an evening meeting with a sales representative in a Melbourne restaurant. I arrived on time but he arrived very late and he apologised profusely. I asked him why and he said that he had inadvertently left his Tom-Tom GPS in his other car – he could not find his way without getting repeatedly lost. And he had been a Melbourne resident for several years! I laughed but I wonder how many people these days would also be lost and unable to proceed without a GPS? Leo Simpson Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au