NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Differences between GPS and WWV time
From: Rodney Myrvaagnes
Date: 2001 Jun 22, 1:49 PM
From: Rodney Myrvaagnes
Date: 2001 Jun 22, 1:49 PM
On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 15:25:58 -0400, Smith_Peter@EMC.COM wrote: >However, as Dan Allen noted, receivers' internal clocks often drift, >and shouldn't be trusted until the unit is tracking. > Yes, but even if it is tracking, as Dan (I think) also noted, the display may not be updated fast enough. THis is more likely to be a problem with handheld devices, where battery life is a real consideration. Slowly clocked microprocessors use less power. If the unit is handling a bunch of other tasks, the screen update may wait. My old Traxar (1988) did not have this problem, but it ran through 6 AAs in 7 hours, and had a very simple display. It is annoying that one can't trust the display, even though you know that inside it knows the time to a tiny fraction of a second. Has anyone tested the fixed-mount versions of popular GPS families to see if they are better in this regard? I suspect the answer will be no, but they could take advantage of the ample power available from the boat or car battery. Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjoa rodneym@attglobal.net Senior Editor Electronic Products "Fireman saves pregnant squirrel" -- Arizona Republic, Dec. 14, 2000
