Lowrance electronic iFINDER GO - Manual (Page 12)

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beyond basic GPS. The FAA has a plan under way to boost GPS per-
formance even further with its Wide Area Augmentation System, or
WAAS. This GPS add-on will include a time control element that will
help airliners fly closer together while avoiding collisions. In addition to
carefully spacing airplanes along travel corridors, WAAS will eventu-
ally make instrument landings and takeoffs more accurate as it re-
places existing aviation navigation systems.
Non-aviators can use WAAS signals to make their GPS navigation even
more accurate. Your iFINDER receives both GPS and WAAS signals.
However, WAAS has some limits you should know about.
First, the U.S. government has not completed construction of the
WAAS system, so it is not yet fully operational. The ground stations are
in place, but only a few of the needed WAAS satellites have been
launched.
WAAS can boost the accuracy of land GPS navigation, but the system is
designed for aircraft. The satellites are in a fixed orbit around the Equa-
tor, so they appear very low in the sky to someone on the ground in
North America. Aircraft and vessels on open water can get consistently
good WAAS reception, but terrain, foliage or even large man-made struc-
tures frequently block the WAAS signal from ground receivers.
You'll find that using your GPS receiver is both easy and amazingly
accurate. It’s easily the most accurate method of electronic navigation
available to the general public today. Remember, however, that this
receiver is only a tool. Always have another method of navigation avail-
able, such as a map or chart and a compass.
Also remember that this unit will always show navigation information
in the shortest line from your present position to a waypoint, regardless
of terrain! It only calculates position, it can’t know what’s between you
and your destination, for example. It’s up to you to safely navigate
around obstacles, no matter how you’re using this product.
How to Use this Manual: Typographical Conventions
Many instructions are listed as numbered steps. The keypad and arrow
"keystrokes" appear as boldface type. So, if you're in a real hurry (or
just need a reminder), you can skim the instructions and pick out what
menu command to use by finding the boldface command text. The fol-
lowing paragraphs explain how to interpret the text formatting for
those commands and other instructions: