Author Topic: Using satnavs in Japan  (Read 4268 times)

Pete McK

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Using satnavs in Japan
« on: January 31, 2013, 04:03:21 PM »
My bother-in-law and his wife are planning a holiday to Japan and intend to climb a few mountains whilst out there. I am going to lend him one of our eTrex H satnavs and I have read that in Japan their equivalent to EGNOS is called MSAS, but on the eTrex system menu I cannot find this, has anyone any ideas or suggestions please?

boogyman

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2013, 07:51:42 PM »
For what it's worth: the site "gpsshop.be" explicitly states (about eTrex Venture) that, if the device has EGNOS capability, it also has WAAS and MSAS capability.
  http://www.gpsshop.be/vragen/20674/233855/garmin-etrex-venture.html

Lyle Brotherton

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2013, 08:54:45 AM »
Short answer for you here Pete and a longer explanation in a new thread.

http://micronavigation.com/forum/index.php?topic=467.0

When I was working with the different SAR (Search & Rescue) teams, in various locations across Japan, I turned off SBAS on my Garmin handheld and instead utilised HotFix.

Brief background
Garmin’s original expertise was based upon designing and building aircraft satnav devices, which is why their handheld satnav devices for use on land carry some of the legacy from their aircraft models.

SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation Systems) has been of limited use for handheld satnav devices, although this situation is changing as a larger footprint across the surface of the Earth is created by different Nation States making their SBAS available. In reality, development such as Predictive Ephemeris (Garmin’s proprietary name is HotFix) has improved accuracy better than SBAS in handheld satnav devices.

So the facility to turn off SBAS on handheld was probably more important, which is why Garmin gives users the choice of the different systems.

My understanding is that satnav receivers will use the correction information, supplied by any of these SBAS satellites, if the Nation State(s) has made the code available and this currently includes WAAS/EGNOS and MSAS.
“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” - Plato

Pete McK

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2013, 09:42:50 AM »
Thank you Lyle, a really comprehensive answer as always :)

Lyle Brotherton

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2013, 11:00:59 AM »
Addendum: Pete, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, paper maps that your brother-in-law will need to use are all in Japanese, as in they use the Japanese pictorial alphabet, with some 2000 characters. Their topographic maps are available in 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 and are excellent. My advice would be to buy some prior to his trip (http://yamachizu.mapple.net/) and mark them up in English

Was bother-in-law a typo ;)
“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” - Plato

boogyman

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2013, 07:28:04 PM »
Was bother-in-law a typo ;)

Lyle, so you assume it should have been mother-in-law?  ;)

Pete McK

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2013, 11:05:12 AM »
Nice one Lyle and Boogyman ;) Actually not even my brother-in-law, lives with Emma's sister and a descent bloke. Japan is part work for him so travel paid for - nice :)

Lyle Brotherton

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Re: Using satnavs in Japan
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2013, 09:10:34 AM »
Pete, PM me and I will send you the maps I have for Japan :)
“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” - Plato