Magellan Trailblazer User manual

Magellan

GPS Satellite

Navigator

Reference Guide

Welcome from the Magellan crew.

With the purchase of a Magellan GPS satellite receiver, you have joined the

thousands of people who enjoy using GPS in their professional and recre-

ational activities.

Since we introduced our first product more than five years ago, Magellan has

established a reputation for product excellence and customer support. Our

customers include sailors, commercial fishermen, pilots, geologists, explor-

ers, surveyors, and the Allied Forces in Desert Storm. Your receiver represents

the next generation of GPS technology — technology that is combined with

our hallmark durability and ease of use, which have evolved over years of field

experience.

With your receiver are two documents: the

Reference Guide

and the

Field

Guide.

Like the Magellan GPS receiver, the

Field Guide

is tough and ready

to go where ever your adventures take you. Printed on waterproof

"paper", its purpose is to explain how to operate the receiver — in

any weather. When not in use, the

Field Guide

fits neatly in the

carrying case that is provided with the receiver.

The

Reference Guide,

which you are reading now, provides Back-

ground information that will give you a deeper technical apprecia-

tion of the receiver and the GPS technology in general.

Where ever your outdoor recreation excursions take you, we hope your

Magellan receiver will add to your fun and safety.

So that your experiences contribute to the next generation of Magellan

receivers, I need to hear from you. All comments will be considered for

incorporation into future products. Address your letters to me at Dept. 3-A.

Yours truly,

Randy D. Hoffman, President and CEO

Magellan Systems Corporation

Dept. 3-A

960 Overland Court

San Dimas, CA 91773

First-Time GPS Users

...........................

Navigation, 1; Latitude/Longitude, 1

;

Using

Position Fixes,

2; Navigating with Waypoints, 3; Setting

a Route, 5;

Navigating with a Route, 5; Entering

a Waypoint, 6; UTM

Coordinates, 6; Applications, 8.

General Usage

...........................

Power, 9; The Antenna, 10; Initialization, 11; Setup, 13;

The Auxiliary Functions, 17; Map Reading

, 19.

Tutorial

...................................

Waypoints, 23; Routes, 24; Reading

the Pointer Display,

26; Direct-To, 26; Backtrack, 28; MOB, 28; Entering

UTM

Coordinates, 29.

Global Positioning System

.......

What is GPS?, 30; How Does GPS Work?, 30; Accuracy,

31; More Information, 31.

Specifications

..........................

Technical Notes, 32; Packing

List, 33; Optional Accesso-

ries, 33.

Troubleshooting

......................

What to do when you're having problems.

USE GOOD JUDGEMENT

This product is an excellent navigation aid, but does not replace the need

for careful orienteering and good judgement. Never rely solely an one

device for navigating.

USE CARE

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is operated by the U.S. Government,

which is solely responsible for the accuracy and maintenance of GPS.

The accuracy of position fixes can be affected by the periodic adjustments

to GPS satellites made by the U.S. Government and is subject to change in

accordance with the Department of Defense civil GPS user policy and the

Federal Radionavigation Plan.

USE CAUTION

Accuracy can also be affected by poor satellite geometry. When the

accuracy warnings appear an the screen, use the data with extreme

caution.

USE PROPER ACCESSORIES

Use only Magellan cables and antennas; the use of non-Magellan cables

and antennas may severely degrade performance or damage the receiver,

and will void the warranty.

First-Time GPS Users

This section is to help readers who are new to navigation or to electronic

navigation equipment. lt explains terms that are commonly used by naviga-

tors worldwide and some basic concepts of navigation, such as position fixes

and coordinates.

Navigation

Navigation is getting from one place to another. lt is also knowing where you

are in relation to the path between those locations. At its most basic,

navigation is getting from here to there and home again. At its most

advanced, navigation has been called both an art and a science.

In the past, people left markers — blazes cut into trees, sticks laid out in a

particular pattern, or even small piles of stones — to mark a location or to

show the correct path to an important position. Later, these paths were

charted. This eventually developed into the maps and charts we use today.

Today, markers can be made electronically with a GPS receiver, even at sites

that do not permit leaving physical marks, such as on a lake. You can mark

a path even in featureless terrain by making electronic blazes (called

waypoints) and storing them in the receiver's memory. These electronic

markers can be used to return to your starting position, and can be reused

again and again.

All you have to do to make full use of this wizardry is become familiar with

a few terms and what they mean.

Latitude and Longitude

position

is a location that can be

described in a unique, numerical

way. The format that is used to

describe a position is called a coor-

dinate system. The most common

coordinate system in use today is

Latitude/Longitude (Lat/Lon).

Lat/Lon projects lines of latitude (par-

allels) and lines of longitude (merid-

ians) onto the earth. Lines of lati-

tude are the equator and the hori-

zontal lines that are "parallel" to it. Lines of longitude are the vertical lines

that are perpendicular to the equator and pass through the poles. A position

is described as the intersection of a line of latitude and a line of longitude.

This is much like de-

scribing a position in a

city by the street inter-

section, but "Fifth and

Main" can describe

more than one location,

since these are com-

monly used designa-

tions. Lat/Lon uses

numbers and hemi-

sphere to describe each

position in a unique

way. Using Lat/Lon co-

ordinates, no position

can be confused with

any other.

In Lat/Lon, positions are

described as being so

many degrees north or

south of the equator (up to the poles, which are 90°N and 90°S; the equator

is 0° latitude), and so many degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian, which

is 0° longitude. (The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich, England.)

Parts of a degree are minutes; there are 60 minutes (written as 60') to a

degree. Minutes can also be divided into smaller units. Fractions of a minute

can be expressed as decimals or as seconds. (There are 60 seconds to one

minute written as 60"). So a Lat/Lon position coordinate can be expressed in

two ways, which your Magellan GPS receiver displays as 25°47.50 or

25°47'30.

The Magellan GPS receiver can also display coordinates in another common

coordinate system — UTM, or Universal Transverse Mercator. UTMs are

described at the end of this section.

Using Position Fixes to Record Your Movement

position fix

is the coordinates of a location as determined by your GPS

receiver, positioning with a map and compass, or some other orientation

technique. lt "fixes" your position to a specific place. If the fix is saved (either

by writing it down or by storing it in the receiver's memory), the fix becomes

waypoint.

The difference between a fix and a waypoint is that the waypoint

can be recalled for use at a later time.

Imagine that you are camping in the area illustrated on the next page. Before

setting out to explore the area, you determine the position of your camp

(latitude/longitude) by obtaining a position fix, which you store as waypoint

"CAMP." As you walk to your skiff at the dock, the receiver continues to

obtain position fixes; these are "updates" to the first fix obtained. Once at

the dock, you save the current position fix as waypoint "DOCK." Instead of

travelling directly across the lake to the inlet on the other side, you make a

detour to the buoy to avoid an area you know is too shallow for your craft.

Save the position fix at the buoy as waypoint "BUOY." You now continue to

the inlet, where you tie up your skiff and save another position fix as waypoint

"INLET."

The position fixes that are saved as waypoints (CAMP, DOCK, BUOY, and

INLET) can be used as electronic markers to record where you've been. These

waypoints can also be used to guide you back to your camp.

Navigating Home With Waypoints

When

it's ti

me to return to your camp, you decide to establish your course

and navigate with the GPS receiver. Becoming familiar with the receiver now

may help you on a later trip if weather conditions (cloud cover, rain, etc.)

should make using your own navigation skills difficult, or if you need

navigation assistance in an emergency.

The first thing you have to do is to

return to your skiff, which you do

by getting a current position fix,

then setting a Direct-To course. A

Direct-To course is a straight line

from your current position to the

waypoint you select. Here, the

Direct-To course is to waypoint "IN-

LET".

The Direct-To function will tell you

the distance and bearing from the

present position to INLET. Bearing

is the relative direction of the des-

tination with respect to north.

Distance is a great circle measurement, which means that it is the shortest

distance between two points along the curved surface of the earth. Measure-

ments made on a map are rhumb line measurements, or the shortest distance

between two points on a flat

surface. When projected back to the globe, it

is apparent that the rhumb line measurement is both less direct and longer

than the great circle measurement, though the difference between the two

may be slight over short distances.

As you move toward INLET, you have both speed and direction of movement.

Speed is SOG, or speed over ground (sometimes referred to as groundspeed).

The direction you are

moving is your track, or

COG (course over

ground). In this ex-

ample, COG is about

275°T. If you stay on

your intended course,

COG will be the same

as bearing to the in-

tended destination.

Time to go (TTG) is based on the distance to the destination and how quickly

you are moving toward it.

If you stray off course while using the GPS receiver, the receiver will

indicate

the degree and direction of your error, and a steering correction.

(This is

described in more detail in

Navigating with a Route.)

Setting a Route with Stored Waypoints

To navigate safely from the inlet to the dock, you set a route from INLET to

BUOY, then to DOCK. A route is required to help you avoid the shallow area

or any rocks that you may not see when visibility is poor.

A route is a planned course from one place to another. lt is often divided into

shorter units, called legs.

Navigating with a Route

To be sure that you avoid shallow or rocky areas, you must stay on course.

Any time you stray from the courseline of the current leg, the Magellan GPS

receiver will display a cross track error, or XTE.

XTE is the distance between you and the courseline, measured as a perpen-

dicular from the courseline to your current position. lt also indicates whether

you are to the right or left of the courseline. XTE does not include any variable

for the direction you or your craft are actually facing.

The Magellan GPS receiver displays XTE graphically on a course deviation

indicator, or CDI. The CDI displays the courseline at the center of a scale, and

your current position relative to the courseline is shown as a symbol. When

you are to the left of the courseline, the symbol is to the left of the CDI's

center.

As you travel, the navigation displays will be updated with each position fix

update. You will always know where you are in relation to your destination

and courseline. When you get within 500 feet of the leg's destination, the

receiver will display "CLOSE" at the bottom of the screen. When you are

within 200 feet of the destination, "ARRIVED" is displayed.

If you are on a multileg route, the receiver will switch legs when you cross an

maginary line that is perpendicular to the courseline and bisects the

destination waypoint.

Entering a Waypoint

lt is not necessary to visit a place for its coordinates to be in the receiver's

memory. You can obtain coordinates from a friend or pick them up from a

map and key them into the receiver as a waypoint.

Please refer to

Tutorial

in this guide to key in a waypoint. Refer to

Reading

a Map

to get waypoint coordinates from a map.

UTM Coordinates

Another commonly used coordinate system is UTM (Universe Transverse

Mercator), which is generally

found on land-based maps and quad sheets

that are produced by government map providers. On land, you may find that

UTM coordinates are easier to use than Lat/Lon

UTM coordinates are easy to use, but since the model

it is based on is

somewhat abstract, this section is a very simplified introduction to UTM.

Instead of projecting an imaginary grid of intersecting lines onto the globe,

UTM projects sections of the globe onto a flat surface. Each of these sections

is called a "zone." There are 60 zones to cover the entire earth between 84°N

and 80°S (polar areas are not described by UTM). Each zone is 6°

wide as

projected from the earth's center.

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