[Xastir] New toy, but doesn't work yet.....

[Tom Hayward]

> Just curious; Some of these types of cards from other vendors do have onboard GPS. I wonder if they would work (GPS wise) without being activated on the cell carrier?

I know at least with Sprint, the GPS is heavily integrated with the
cell system. The way the information was presented to me, it sounded
like the GPS stores no almanac data. When the GPS wants a fix, it
grabs the almanac data from the cell providers location server, then
goes about acquire the fix. When cell service is not available, it
runs in autonomous mode and downloads the almanac data each time you
ask for a fix, which results in a long time-to-fix.

This information was presented by a Sprint engineer in regards to
pinging a missing person's cell phone during a search and rescue
mission. He mentioned it also applies to air cards, but I would think
the situation would differ when using a GPS app, as opposed to the GPS
being activated by a ping from the network. And I don't know much
about the other carriers' offerings.

Tom KD7LXL