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    Re: RIP the [Fluxgate compass /benefits of 3 axis] ?
    From: Dan Allen
    Date: 2002 Feb 3, 17:22 -0800

    A good reason to mess around with geomagnetic solutions is that they are 
    independent of the US government and the GPS system, the
    same reason that most of us on this list are interested in celestial 
    navigation with a sextant.  I have had one of my trusty Garmin
    GPSes die on me and fortunately I was just playing with it on the highway -- 
    it wasn't crucial to my navigation.  What if I had been
    on a boat in mid-ocean with only it and no backup?  Then I would have felt quite stupid.
    
    The feeling of dread when the GPS died -- it was sitting on the dash of my car 
    updating its own location every second and then just
    completely froze without anyone touching it or any apparent cause -- is 
    something that I hope everyone that trusts in GPS will get
    to experience!  It would boost sextant sales, but more likely just boost GPS backup unit sales.
    
    Dan
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Navigation Mailing List
    [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Jared Sherman
    Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 10:10 AM
    To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
    Subject: RIP the [Fluxgate compass /benefits of 3 axis] ?
    
    
    George, with all this talk about the uncorrectable problems inherent in 
    fluxgate compasses it seems that there is a point going
    unspoken.
    
    Perhaps if these errors are all so damaging, the fluxgate compass is an 
    obsolete artifact that should be abandoned along with the
    sunstone and the astrolabe.
    
    Why spend the time trying to correct an inherently unreliable technological 
    deadend, when a cheap and simple 3-dimensional WAAS GPS
    system can tell you the speed, position and attitude of your vessel? Employ 
    several high accuracy WAAS GPS devices on board (one at
    bow, one at stern, one to each midships beam) and you should be able to 
    generate some interesting real-time information on vessel
    position in all three axes as well as the true heading of the vessel.
    
    Why mess around with geomagnetic solutions at all if there is a cheaper and 
    more reliable way to get the information?
    
    
    

       
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