In article ,
Stijn De Jong wrote:

On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 21:52:57 -0800, isw wrote:

The GPS unit will output single-line ASCII "sentences", some of which
will contain very precise location and time info (GPS time, that is).

If you're interested, google on "NMEA 0183" to get a list of the things
it can tell you.

NMEA 0183 is a combined electrical and data specification for communication
between marine electronics such as echo sounder, sonars, anemometer,
gyrocompass, autopilot, GPS receivers and many other types of instruments.
It has been defined by, and is controlled by, the National Marine
Electronics Association.

Yes, it is. And if you look someplace like he

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm

you can find a list of the "sentences" taht a GPS unit outputs/

Can I somehow plug that NMEA-compliant cable into my phone?
Or into my laptop?
Or a desktop?
https://www.fugawi.com/knowledge_base/document/HD25110

The wiring looks like it can maybe go to a DB9 but do laptops even have
DB9s nowadays?
https://www.fugawi.com/knowledge_base/document/HD25700

You may have to go right to the GPS subunit to get the data, but you can
use any of several makes of serial-USB adapters, and any sort of TTY
emulator your OS supports. FWIW, I have found ones using CP-2102 and
Ft232 chips to be reliable, and ones with the PL2303 to be not so good.

Take care to get the polarity and voltages correct; most of the adapters
(but not all) use "TTL-level RS-232", where the logic one and zero
levels are inverted from "normal" RS-232. I have no idea what sort of
signal levels that particular device emits.

The GPS unit will output ASCII "sentences" which are plain text.

Isaac