Despite the grandiose title, this is a magazine devoted primarily to ham radio enthusiasts, although it does try to reach out slightly, as to those who like cb radio. it has no car related advertising, but does have a good article on a field test of a GPS unit, the MAgellan RoadMate 700. It attaches to the windshield with a suction cup, and hangs down at eye level, accessibleto euither the driver or the passenger and powered by the cigarette lighter. it is about the size of a standard paperback book, and has a reasonably sized touch screen. in addition to providing written directions, it also speaks the directions (there does not appear to be a choice of voices). it has not only maps stored, but also the locations of gas, ATMs, restaurants, and major and minor landmarks of all kinds (including hospitals, convention centers, hotels, and schools). if it tries to route you through traffic, you can either ask it to re-route or ignore it, in which case it will apparently first try to get you to backtrack to its original route 'make a legal u-turn...' and then give you new directions from your new location. it saves the route it has recommended, so if it loses contact with the satellites it can still tell you where to turn next. it's also a little pricey, at a thousand bucks each, but not irrational if they keep it well updated.

there is a really short mention of how CB radio functions as a traffic monitor, with truckers (and the few others who have them) passing information on the locations of accidents and other slowdowns to help each other avoid them. this sounds similar to the system we spoke of in several earlier meetings.

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