Hi Folks,
Does anyone know if British sat nav's work in Canada (Calgary area specifically)?? Is it just a case of downloading info from Canadian satellites rather than British satellites??
Any help much appreciated.

Cheers, Simone

I hope so, I have my TomTom thats going with me - I have been told ( cant remember by who) that they do and you just need to download the local info

fingers crossed

When we were in the UK in March and took our Canadian TomTom sat nav with us, we had to download all the info onto its memory card......fortunately we stayed with a friend who obliged! Otherwise we would have had to buy the relevant stuff, which isn't cheap. I have heard that they will work only in the country in which it's registered.....but we found it worked okay once the info was put into it.

Hope this helps

We take our Tom-tom with us every time. We have the Canada map loaded onto it in the UK and it works fine. I notice that we get less of the added "frills" such as eating places etc, but the map itself - no problems.

Should do - as has been suggested, you'll obviously need the local mapping information, usually available either as a download or on CD.

I believe some subscription services (for updated mapping info and/or traffic alerts etc) will have to be re-registered with the Canadian provider, but that shouldn't be a problem.

where did u get the canada map from ?

Although , as mentioned , you will need local maps .Please be assured that the GLOBAL positioning satellites are exactly that , you don't need Canadian ones !

You can download from the tom-tom website and load directly from your PC onto an SD card

I got a full North American one for around $200 last year for my Garmin Nuvi from a company called GPS Central in Calgary - they do all brands of Sat NAvs and ship too it has never let me down apart from getting a little confused when you are amongst a load of high rise buildings.

Gaynor

No such thing as British Satellites and Canadian Satellites.

The system is actually owned and operated by the U.S. military and is open for use to the general population.

Any satellite receiver will work anywhere in the world provided you have the right mapping software.

Roll on Galileo eh?

We bought the north american one on a sd card for our tom tom from ebay before or last trip, cost us £50 if I remember rightly.

You got there before me Steve, I was going to ask the OP to ponder on the significance of the 'Global' in 'Global Positioning System' or GPS. The interesting thing about GPS is that it is now so embedded in everyday life (aircraft navigation, land navigation, farming, marine etc) that the US Govt are unlikely to ever turn it off or even turn off or on (cant remember which) 'selective availability' which downgrades the accuracy to +/- 100m as opposed to +/- 10m. Rather they & other govts have technology to selectively downgrade/jam the signals in particular areas.

[pedant mode]

The satellite receiver will work anywhere in the world irrespective of mapping software inasmuch as it will give you your position. However without the correct mapping software (e.g. Canada roads and streets) knowing where you are is of limited use.

[/pedant mode]

Kinda off topic but anyone here into geocaching?

AX

But won't British sat nav's make you drive on the wrong side of the road in Canada?

My friend was trying to find her way to my house (in Canada, and using Canadian Sat Nav), when I called her to find out where she was, as she was very late!

She eventually managed to convey to me excatly where she was ... not far away actually, and I said OK I'll direct you from there .... so she was driving along and I could hear the Sat Nat saying turn left,... and me yelling no, turn right RIGHT!.... etc all the way here, until I could see her at the end of my road, still hesitating.

I said, look to your left, I'm WAVING! .. and she eventually made it to my drive, with the Sat Nav still telling her she was going the wrong way. Turns out she had got my address slightly wrong!