Russia announced today it would close down GPS stations in Russia (reverse sanctions) after June 1: http://rt.com/news/158680-russia-usa-rocket-gps/.

The GPS system uses ground stations to help the satellites determine their exact position, which ultimately means those satellites can accurately determine a users position. I dont know for sure, but I assume if the ground stations are shut down in Russia, then the accuracy of the signals in the Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia region will degrade. How much? who knows.

This wont affect most mobile phones as GPS receivers in phones are mostly GPS and GLONASS dual band, but only a few Garmin units are Glonass compatible ... https://support.garmin.com/support/s...00000000000%7D

__________________

Time to treat yourself to a Monterra and a 64ST Walter !
Aside from a host of facilities and advantages, one of the more visible ones is that the above units no longer suffer from 'map wobble' when at stand still- due to their combined gps/glonass ability.

Hummmmm better start looking at doing a map reading course

__________________
Mark
www.bamriders.com

I read in a separate article earlier today (which of course I can't find right now...) that there are in fact no gps stations in Russia.

Here is an article about it:
Russian Officials Puzzled About US GPS Stations in Russia | Russia | RIA Novosti

The gps stations in Russia appear to be of limited utility, so maybe this won't matter very much. It sounds like Russia needs the glonass stations in the us more because their satellite coverage is not as comprehensive.

Keep your skirts on ladies,,
Control part of GPS signal stations are located and controlled by the US Airforce ,, in fact it is owned by the US Govt,, the whole GPS.
32 some sats sending signals to 15 or so stations (Probably more hidden away) ,, with command station in Colorado,, the rest ,,outside of Russia,, UK,, Korea ,, Marshall Island etc ,, well away from the Russians.
This Russian action will not affect us riding through Russia , using smart phone,, garmin or any other civilian GPS.
Besides ,, USA and Russia has entered negotiation on this and international stations, with three months window.
As you can see ,, it can cover anything in between UK and Korea. Only way to shut that down is the US Govt.
Also ,, There are two types of GPS ground stations for the USA system. Main stations about 5 around the world provide corrections to timing data due to relativistic effects, clock drift, ephemeris, or ionospheric delays that are timing constants rebroadcast by the satellites to receivers for corrections. The types of stations in Russia are for augmented gps called Global-DGPS . DGPS improves local GPS accuracy from about 3m to 10 cm. However this lack of support in Russia's areas only effects civilian use of the US system in those areas. Meaning Garmin is really screwed (I can see Bertrand,,palpitating his lips already) ,, if this happens. The Chinese, EU, and Russian systems won't be effected. Smart phones come in all systems.

To see all this Russian action in the 21st century is mind boggling. Gorbachev and Yeltsin ,, one must be sad,, one must be turning in his grave.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Sorry, I don't underStand your response...we should "keep our skirts on", but garmin users are "really screwed"?

If you're saying that garmin (GPS?) users will only be able to get 3 meter accuracy, I thought that in any event GLONASS accuracy is not any better than that?

Relax ,, matter of hyperbole.
We will have no problem navigating through Russia,, either way.
Smart phone makes more sense at this juncture and always have for me,, having had bad experience with Garmins.
Peace brother!

In the Russian papers this morning:

__________________

Bertrand uses Garmin Monterra, which is fully GLONASS compatible

__________________

LOL.. good we won't see his lips palpitate.


Today’s smartphones, and some tablets, have integrated GPS. This allows the device to connect to a satellite positioning system and figure out how far you are away from that restaurant you’ve been in search of or that cool new coffee shop. Here in the US our phones only tap into the country’s own GPS array but, with the help of Qualcomm, new phones will be able to utilize Russian satellites as well.
You might not know about it, but the United States’ Global Positioning System is not the world’s only satellite-based navigation system. GPS as we know it emerged from a Department of Defense project, so you can imagine that it wasn’t always intended to be shared and it remains something that the government has control over. As such, the European Union has its own system, Galileo, but it won’t be ready until 2014. And, never ones to be left out, Russia has developed the GLObal NAvigation Satellite System, or GLONASS. This is a fully operational global navigation system with 22 satellites and near-complete coverage of the Earth.
gps satellitesSome time in 2012 Qualcomm will start to release chips capable of using GLONASS. This means, when combined with the GPS system, more satellites will be within reach of your device at a given time. More satellites clustered within range means more accurate location detection and less problems with typical sat-nav hurdles, like negotiating with urban canyons.
And the best part? Connection with GLONASS is free and not particularly difficult to utilize. A different radio is required so current handsets will not be upgradeable, but once Qualcomm starts releasing these chips it could be a standard feature in high-end devices if demand is sufficient and the cost/benefit analysis makes sense. To date relatively few GPS devices utilize GLONASS, but Qualcomm’s ubiquity could change that for phones, especially if it caused competitors, like Broadcom, to do the same.
PC Mag’s Sascha Segan tested out a Qualcomm developer device and was duly impressed with its performance in NYC, an area that is traditionally difficult to get a good GPS signal. In the city people tend to have to use cell tower-assistance because of the high building that block the line-of-site necessary for connecting with enough satellites (three) to place the user. He didn’t give accuracacy information (devices typical give an accuracy rating, ranging from hundreds of feet to under a foot) and details are still sparse on whether software will allow users to combine GPS and GLONASS into a mega satellite array or if you will have to use them separately (I suspect it’s the former), but it’s something that GPS geeks should be excited for.
Expected to see GLONASS support in handsets sporting Qualcomm’s S2 and S3 processors.

PS ,, It has already happened ,, we are now at S5.

This is a list of smartphones that support the Russian GLONASS navigation system. With GPS ,, you double the number of Sats.

Get an impact, dust and water proof smart phone, with 5 inch screen,, 20MP camera ,,, leave your laptop and heavy camera at home,, cruise through Russia.

1 Acer
2 Alcatel
3 Apple
4 Asus
5 BlackBerry
6 HTC
7 Huawei
8 LG
9 Meizu
10 Motorola
11 Nokia
12 Samsung
13 Sony Ericsson
14 Starmobile
15 Sony
16 Xiaomi
17 ZTE
18 Any latest generation Qualcomm gpsONE(tm) Chipset based device

The following Garmin devices currently support GLONASS:

eTrex 10, 20 and 30
Edge 510
Oregon 6xx series
GPS 19x HVS
GLO
echomap 50dv
echoMAP 50s
echoMAP 70dv
echoMAP 70s
GPSMAP 527xs
GPSMAP 547xs
GPSMAP 721xs
GPSMAP 741xs
GPSMAP 820xs
GPSMAP 840xs
GPSMAP 1020xs
GPSMAP 1040xs
Monterra


Turning on GLONASS may require changing the Satellite System setting to GPS+GLONASS from the Setup System page. Reference the owner's manual for instructions on enabling this feature on the device.

( This is done automatically , in the smart phone.)

You mean a Sony Z2

__________________

Really folks ,,
Had I not had my smart phone during RTW,, OK may be not for Walter or Magadan folks,,
But,, the crisp directions,,, quick connect with Satts ,, and yes music on my handle bar speakers ,, able to download and watch movies sitting in a shitty gastnitsa, on a rainy day ,,read EMs ,, websurf,, talk for free with family and friends ,, host of hotels ,, motels,,, kiosks ,, museums ,,,,theaters ,, monuments,,, restaurants of every village and cities of Russia and beyond, under your finger tips. (saves hassle of loading 10 zillion way points, on a Garmin)
Smart phone is way to go ,, the old excuse of bright screens ,, glove touch ,, weak cases are in the past.


Top 5 Dust & Water Resistant Android Smartphones
BY KARTHIKEYAN 0 COMMENTS

inShare
1
Android has defined almost the every face of a Smartphone OS. Its multitasking, Social Media ready, Customization, portable to different screen size, gaming on the phone and lot more. Android OS has a great feature in embedded electronics world and we saw the first samples with Digital camera from Samsung and Canon. In CES 2013, lots of new electronics were showed off like Android powered refrigerator, microwave oven and Home security systems. Also, there were some phones launched with water and climate resistant properties. If you are a water lover, trekker or wild life enthusiast then these devices can be life saver.

Today handset manufacturer are designing their handset in way that they can face any climatic conditions with new and improved form factor along with latest and developed technology. Mobile phones are generally made light weight so that it can be easily carried anywhere and everywhere we go and it should also be made strongly like dust and water resistant. Water and dust resistant will give your handset longer life as you, as some of the handset gets damaged falling in water or by dust. Water and dust resistant Android phone will ensure that your phone will not be damaged with any climatic elements. In this article we are going to review Top 5 Android Smartphone which is water-resistant, dust-proof, and heat resistant certified.

Motorola Defy+

Motorola Defy+ is a successor of Motorola defy is one of the most popular rugged Android phone. Motorola Defy+ rung on Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) and is powered by a nice TI OMAP 3620 1 GHz Cortex-A8 processor and PowerVR SGX530 GPU. Defy + houses a display of 3.7 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels along with Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Motorola Defy+ measures a body dimension of 107 x 59 x 13.4 mm weighing around 118 g with IP67 certified – dust tight and water proof and can easily survive under water for up to 1 meter till 30 minutes. Motorola has installed a 5 MP Autofocus, LED flash rear camera and has 2 GB internal memory up to 32GB expandable memory supported with 512 MB RAM and 1 GB ROM. Motorola Defy+ is priced at $250/Rs 13, 000.

motorola-defy-plus-white

Samsung Galaxy Xcover:

Samsung has introduced rugged mobile phone named Samsung Galaxy Xcover, featuring some nice and decent specs and features. Galaxy Xcover is equipped with a display of 3.65 inches capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels along with Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Samsung Xcover houses 150 MB internal storage up to 32GB expandable memory with 512 MB RAM and measures a body dimension of 121.5 x 65.9 x 12 mm weighing around 100 g. Samsung has installed a 3.15 MP autofocus, LED flash rear camera with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. Galaxy Xcover runs on Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) OS supported by 800 MHz Marvell MG2 processor. Xcover is IP67 certified – dust tight and water proof and can be under water up to 90 seconds along with rubber trims preventing phone from moisture and dust. Samsung Galaxy Xcover is fueled by a 1500mAh battery and is priced at $372/ Rs 20,000.

XCOVER2

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active a nice featured and rugged Smartphone equipped with a nice 3.0 inches LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen display with Scratch-resistant glass protection. Ericsson Xperia Active measures a body dimension of 92 x 55 x 16.5 mm weighing around 110.8 g with IP67 certified dust and water proof and can be under water for up to 1meter till 30 mins. Xperia Active runs on Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) OS with Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon 1 GHz Scorpion processor and Adreno 205 GPU. Sony has installed 5 MP Autofocus, LED flash rear camera and houses 1 GB internal memory up to 32 GB expandable memory with 512 MB RAM along with Sony xLOUD enhancement with ANT+ technology. Ericsson Xperia Active is fueled by a Li-Ion 1200 mAh battery and is priced at $372/Rs 19,750.

xperia_active

Casio G’zOne Commando

Casio G’zOne Commando is one of the nicest rugged Smartphone by Casio equipped with a display of 3.6 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels along with IP67 certified dust tight and water proof and can be under water of 1meter for 30 mins. The handset is also MIL-STD-810G certified salt, dust, humidity, rain, vibration, solar radiation, transport and thermal shock resistant. G’zOne Commando measures a body dimension of 129 x 65.5 x 15.2 mm weighing around 154 g and houses 1 GB internal storage up to 32 GB expandable memory with 512 MB RAM. Casio has installed a 5 MP Autofocus, LED flash camera and runs on Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) OS and has its connectivity via Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot. Casio G’zOne Commando is fueled with a Li-Ion 1460 mAh battery and is priced at $ 194/Rs 10, 282.

Casio GzOne Commando

Motorola Defy

Motorola Defy is a nice rugged Smartphone equipped with a 3.7 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Motorola Defy measures a body dimension of 107 x 59 x 13.4 mm weighing around 118 g with 2 GB internal storage up to 32GB expandable memory with 512 MB RAM. Motorola has installed a 5 MP autofocus, LED flash camera and runs on Android v2.1 (Eclair) and can be upgraded to v2.2 (Froyo) powered by TI OMAP 3610 800 MHz Cortex-A8 processor and PowerVR SGX530 GPU. Defy is fueled with a Li-Po 1540 mAh battery and is priced at $ 279/Rs 14,800.

More rough smart phones..
You can also add extra protective cases ,


Waterproof and dustproof smartphones rated IP67-IP68

Waterproof Dustproof Shockproof Rugged Smartphones IP67 IP68 From 2013