GPS camera detectors - time til active?

[martynb]

I don't know what info the Road Angels which a lot of people seem to have show but the Road Pilot displays a map of the satellites it can see and the relative signal strength as it tries to work out which satellites to use, and there is definitely a difference in the time spent coming "online" depending on whereabouts in the country you are and the weather conditions.

 

I live in north essex and heading south on my normal route down to chelmsford it picks up and stays locked in a minute or so from a cold start once I'm out of some narrow streets, but if I head up the A14 into suffolk on a heavy cloud day the signal can take ages to lock and occasionally it will lose it again.

 

I have to go to Wales reasonably often and whilst it will maintain a lock all the way into Welshpool, after I've been parked there all day it always takes a couple of miles to sort itself out again - this is in a relatively open area, not deep in some valley.

 

I've often wondered how far they have to move location before they decide to start from scratch again ie if you start up and drive a mile through a town with a poor view of the sky and they then lock on again as you emerge and the location is different from when they were last active would that explain why sometimes the start times seem to be so different?

 

Re accuracy mine is always bang on as near as I can tell, I've certainly never had it stop warning me before the camera location.

The only exception is when they decide to map a whole roadworks as having cameras because of the sheer numbers Essex police cram into a short space of road. Once you are in there you should be aware of them anyway. That's not really a GPS issue though

 

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[Patrick_Devlin]

Originally posted by Rob

Which would dispel the popular myth that the "governments" can track you by using your GPS device.

 

Correct, but they can by your phone