Taxis working out of Ibiza Town will be equipped with GPS by the summer, according to the president of the taxi association, Vicent Prats. He revealed the association was currently in negotiation with two companies to install the system. He said a decision would be taken in 20 days during a meeting with members, and the installation process would begin.
As well as ensuring drivers never get lost, the system will also improve the speed of service by ensuring the main office is always able to locate the nearest available vehicle and send them to the customer.
Three distinct parts make up the Global Positioning System. The first segment of the system consists of 24 satellites, orbiting 20,000 km above the Earth in 12-hour circular orbits. This means that it takes each satellite 12 hours to make a complete circle around the Earth. In order to make sure that they can be detected from anywhere on the Earth’s surface, the satellites are divided into six groups of four. Each group is assigned a different path to follow. This creates six orbital planes which completely surround the Earth. These satellites send radio signals to Earth that contain information about the satellite. Using GPS ground-based receivers, these signals can be detected and used to determine the receivers’ positions (latitude, longitude, height.)
The second part of the GPS system is the ground station, comprised of a receiver and antenna, as well as communication tools to transmit data to the data centre. The omni-directional antenna at each site, acting much like a car radio antenna, picks up the satellite signals and transmits them to the site receiver as electric currents. The receiver then separates the signals into different channels designated for a particular satellite and frequency at a particular time. Once the signals have been isolated, the receiver can decode them and split them into individual frequencies.
Lastly a data centre is then needed which deciphers the information sent and uses it as necessary.
