The Complete Handbook of GPS Cases

Chapter 1: Understanding GPS Cases

The Problem of the Unprotected Receiver

Your GPS unit is a computer with a radio strapped to a clock. It processes signals from satellites orbiting 20,000 kilometers overhead, signals that are weaker than the noise floor of most consumer electronics. The hardware that decodes these signals is sensitive, and the human interface that displays your position is fragile. Consider the reality of the average field day for a surveyor. The device is mounted on a range pole that gets slung into a truck bed. It rides in a backpack with steel tools, or it's strapped to the handlebars of an ATV pushing through brush. It drops onto concrete when a tripod slips. It gets rained on, covered in dust, and left on a dashboard where interior temperatures exceed sixty degrees Celsius.

A GPS case is the engineering intervention between that sensitive electronics package and the hostile world of professional fieldwork. It is not a bag, not a pouch, and not a cosmetic accessory. It is a protective system with specific performance requirements: absorption of impact energy, deflection of water and particulate ingress, resistance to chemical degradation, and maintenance of a clear line of sight to the sky. Understanding how a case achieves these things requires a basic understanding of the threats. It allows you to evaluate a case not by how it looks, but by how it will perform when your position accuracy matters and your deadline is tight.

What a GPS Case Actually Does