Locate GPS info on Coast Guard site
Last month the Pentagon and the Transportation Department agreed to add two civilian frequencies to the Global Positioning System, giving added importance to an upcoming Coast Guard meeting on civilian GPS. The Pentagon/DOT agreement, according to Vice President Al Gore, will improve numerous comme
The Pentagon/DOT agreement, according to Vice President Al Gore, will improve numerous commercial activities, including navigation. The agreement will be part of the topics discussed at the Coast Guard-sponsored Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) in Alexandria, Va. The meeting kicks off April 7 with a DOT policy update and talks on the two new civilian frequencies. For specific information on the meeting as well as a wide variety of GPS information, tap into the Coast Guard Navigation Center World Wide Web site at www.navcen. uscg.mil. Buttons on the home page lead to a variety of GPS and other navigation information sources, including a section on the Coast Guard's nationwide Differential GPS (DGPS) network, which helps users plot a position to 5 meters— far better than the standard GPS civilian position service of 100 meters or better. Also included on the site is general background information on the GPS system as well as pages devoted to Loran and radio-navigation policy. Click on the CGSIC button and up pops a page that offers links to the schedule for the current meeting, notices of upcoming meetings and information on past meetings. The links on this page provide a cornucopia of information to Web users who continue to drill down.Click on the "1998 Radionavigation User Meetings" link and a page pops up offering the full text of documents presented at the January and February meetings in Long Beach, Calif., and Washington, D.C. These documents include reports on the Federal Aviation Administration's system plans and policies for GPS, the Wide-Area Navigation and Local-Area Navigation Systems, papers on the use of GPS by railroads and the Coast Guard's DGPS modernization plans. Full-text documents from this week's meeting should be available on this site within a month or less. The GPS general information home page offers links to nuts-and-bolts information about the intricacies of how the $10 billion GPS system can deliver precision location information to a backpacker toting a $100 receiver. This page includes a button link that is designed to delight anyone who has tried to navigate federal alphabet soup; just click on the GPS acronyms and abbreviations to start turning GPS gobbledy gook into English. This page also offers links to a comprehensive bibliography, technical reports, an explanation of the GPS message format, a variety of GPS policy documents, and a history and status of the satellite constellation, the last of which allows users to easily determine whether a satellite is active or temporarily turned off by the Air Force, which operates the GPS system. Additionally, the site offers answers to questions about possible Year 2000 problems in GPS receivers. Just like PCs or mainframes, the GPS system has an internal clock, but the system does not face the same Year 2000 problem as computers. Instead, the GPS clock will roll over at midnight on Aug. 21, 1999, instead of at the year's end. According to the "Date Rollover" page on the site, GPS firmware in older GPS receivers will need to be updated to handle the date change.Last month the Pentagon and the Transportation Department agreed to add two civilian frequencies to the Global Positioning System, giving added importance to an upcoming Coast Guard meeting on civilian GPS.
The Pentagon/DOT agreement, according to Vice President Al Gore, will improve numerous commercial activities, including navigation. The agreement will be part of the topics discussed at the Coast Guard-sponsored Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) in Alexandria, Va. The meeting kicks off April 7 with a DOT policy update and talks on the two new civilian frequencies.
For specific information on the meeting as well as a wide variety of GPS information, tap into the Coast Guard Navigation Center World Wide Web site at www.navcen.
uscg.mil. Buttons on the home page lead to a variety of GPS and other navigation information sources, including a section on the Coast Guard's nationwide Differential GPS (DGPS) network, which helps users plot a position to 5 meters— far better than the standard GPS civilian position service of 100 meters or better. Also included on the site is general background information on the GPS system as well as pages devoted to Loran and radio-navigation policy.
Click on the CGSIC button and up pops a page that offers links to the schedule for the current meeting, notices of upcoming meetings and information on past meetings. The links on this page provide a cornucopia of information to Web users who continue to drill down.
Click on the "1998 Radionavigation User Meetings" link and a page pops up offering the full text of documents presented at the January and February meetings in Long Beach, Calif., and Washington, D.C.
These documents include reports on the Federal Aviation Administration's system plans and policies for GPS, the Wide-Area Navigation and Local-Area Navigation Systems, papers on the use of GPS by railroads and the Coast Guard's DGPS modernization plans. Full-text documents from this week's meeting should be available on this site within a month or less.
The GPS general information home page offers links to nuts-and-bolts information about the intricacies of how the $10 billion GPS system can deliver precision location information to a backpacker toting a $100 receiver. This page includes a button link that is designed to delight anyone who has tried to navigate federal alphabet soup; just click on the GPS acronyms and abbreviations to start turning GPS gobbledy gook into English.
This page also offers links to a comprehensive bibliography, technical reports, an explanation of the GPS message format, a variety of GPS policy documents, and a history and status of the satellite constellation, the last of which allows users to easily determine whether a satellite is active or temporarily turned off by the Air Force, which operates the GPS system.
Additionally, the site offers answers to questions about possible Year 2000 problems in GPS receivers. Just like PCs or mainframes, the GPS system has an internal clock, but the system does not face the same Year 2000 problem as computers. Instead, the GPS clock will roll over at midnight on Aug. 21, 1999, instead of at the year's end. According to the "Date Rollover" page on the site, GPS firmware in older GPS receivers will need to be updated to handle the date change.