Waiting for satellite locks to obtain a location fix can be frustrating if you’re in a hurry. To determine its position a GPS receiver needs to know the exact position of each satellite broadcasting the signals it is analyzing. Obtaining a fix can be slow due to factors including GPS satellite position broadcasting loops lasting 30 seconds and satellite signal interruption by ground clutter (buildings, vegetation etc.) re-booting the entire position-fixing process.

For a first GPS fix seconds after startup, TomTom have announced the introduction of a free service, QuickGPSfix. The service is available for GO910, GO710 and GO510 users from the TomTom website. The QuickGPSfix service provides predictions of satellite orbits for up to seven days for downlaoad to TomTom devices when they are connected to a PC or Mac running TomTom HOME software (available for free from the TomTom website).

All the satellite position data is distilled down to the small easy-to-download QuickGPSfix GPS data file. The data is valid for 7 days and needs to be refreshed regularly for QuickGPSfix to continue working.

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