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NAVSTAR GPS is a really famous navigation facilities that are applied by a great number of people nowadays. This system gives a possibility to define the location and speed of the objects at any area on Earth, including polar areas, almost in all weather conditions, and in space to 100 kilometers above Earth. The developer of Global Positioning System became the United States Department of Defense that has realized this system.

The main principle of functioning is identifying of the location by the method of measuring the distance to an object from the point with definite coordinates. The transmitting satellite spreads radio signal to a GPS antenna and the delay time is counted to detect the distance between the receiver and transmitter. 3-D coordinates may be detected when GPS receiver will recognize the distance to 3 satellites and the time of the Global Positioning System. As a result, radio signals from 4 satellites minimum are applied for the definition of GPS receiver's coordinates and altitude. The direction of the satellites from Earth is realized in the control station that is situated in Schriever base, Colorado.

Today GPS receivers are frequently applied for civil purposes, mostly for position and velocity detection. Handheld GPS systems are being sold in different shops and they are built in mobile phones, PCs and onboarders. With a GPS receiver a consumer may indicate his geographical coordinates at the definite period of time. The maximum precision is from three to five meters and with the correction signal from Earth it is to one millimeter.

GPS software is also suggested to consumers. This system allows you to find your location on the electronic map.

There are 2 types of maps. The first type of raster electronic maps is the most available and the simplest kind. It is the image of a country where the position if the receiver is used. There are used different scales but it usually depends on the primary version of a map. It can be both a picture from satellite and scanned geographical map.

But vector maps have their proper data system inside them. The database consists of the information about objects, country and mostly everything you need to know. For example the country information consists of the rivers, lakes, mountains and other objects that are located in this territory. The similarity among these two types of maps is in the data about all the hotels, cafes and service stations. They have all the info about the areas you will need to relax in. You would get a real comfort of a trip with the help of GPS portable GPS systems.

And of course as everything that is made by human GPS has its own shortcomings. The basic shortcoming of all radio-navigation arrangements is that a signal would not reach the receiver due to some conditions. So if you are in a reinforced concrete building it is almost impossible to identify your location. But anyway it is the best way of detecting your geographical coordinates for today.