[aprssig] Fwd: TidBITS#979/18-May-09 - GPS Accuracy!

[Dave Baxter]

Hi.

>From the media hype in the UK yesterday about this, you'd think the
world was going to end next year!  Panic doesn't come close to what some
have been saying, and the 'phone interview on national radio (BBC Radio
2, about 5:30 PM UK time) with someone from a US Government department
didn't help things much either.

A woeful lack of any rudimentary technical knowledge was evident,
coupled with many fractional (not even half) truths, all helped to hype
up the sense of impending disaster.

To my mind, it was a political thing, to scare the public into rattling
cages somewhere, so new replacement satellites can be ordered, no doubt
creating jobs etc.

There are it was said, 31 US GPS satellites currently in orbit, only 24
are "needed" for full global coverage, but there was precious little
detail as to how much of what is up there has failed, or is failing in
any way, just that they are coming to the end of their design life, or
in some cases, are way past it.

Though the proposed European Galileo system was mentioned (a long time
away yet) there was no mention of the Russian Glonass (not Glonoss)
system in any way shape or form.   I have only ever seen mention of that
system in the ham press once.  And that was in past issues of VHF
Communications, where a design was presented for a GPS/Glonass receiver
system.  One system or the other, not both at the same time.   I don't
recall the technical details, other than where we (in the "West")
measure Longitude as degrees West.   They measure it as degrees East!

Regards.

Dave G0WBX.

________________________________
From: Brian B. Riley
Sent: 19 May 2009 14:42
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: [aprssig] Fwd: TidBITS#979/18-May-09 - GPS Accuracy!

GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping in 2010