Skip to content

TAG: Survey Scene

Image: GPS World

The New GPS 24+3 Constellation: What Does it Mean to the Surveying and GIS User?

January 19, 2010

Last week, the U.S. Air Force announced it is reconfiguring the GPS constellation. The Air Force is changing the constellation from a 21+3 configuration to a 24+3 configuration. The result will be more satellites in view, on average. This is great news for the GPS surveying and GIS mapping user. In my opinion, it was the only achievable short/medium-term solution to the GPS “brownout” problem that has plagued GPS surveying and mapping users for years, and has worsened in recent months.


Read More
This article is tagged with , and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

The Federal Radionavigation Plan

January 5, 2010

I’ve intended to write about the 2008 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP) for quite some time. It is an important document because it is the official policy document that drives the United States’ radio navigation (including GPS) program planning. According to the FRP, it includes the introductions, policies, radionavigation system user requirements, system descriptions, and operating plans of various radionavigation systems.


Read More
This article is tagged with , and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

Directions 2010: It’s the Economy, Stupid

December 15, 2009

At the end of every year, I devote this column to Directions 2010 in which I discuss significant developments, trends, technologies, and companies in the GNSS industry. Two years ago, I wrote about the Year of the Who. Not GNSS technology; rather, the people and companies they run.
Last year, I highlighted 2009 as being the Year of the Other GNSS. The little brother of GPS…GLONASS.


Read More
This article is tagged with , and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

As Loran Fades, Attention Shifts to DGPS and SBAS

November 30, 2009

Few precise-positioning users have employed Loran in a professional sense, although maybe you have in your personal life if you’re a airplane pilot or a mariner. Then again, if you’ve flown as an airline passenger or cruised onboard a ship, you’ve benefited from the back-up to GPS that Loran provides. That back-up is about to go away. As attention and resources shift away from Loran, they focuses more intensely on GPS augmentations, specifically differential GPS (DGPS) and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) such as WAAS and EGNOS.


Read More
This article is tagged with , , , and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

A Little Q&A Follow-up and Feedback on My Last Column

November 19, 2009

I received some feedback on my last column entitled “What’s the Difference Between a Used Car Salesman and a GPS Salesman?” Most of the comments were positive in that the technical content was reasonably deep and thorough. However, I did receive a couple of e-mails from folks who were offended by the comparison.


Read More
This article is tagged with and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

What’s the Difference between a Used Car Salesman and a GPS Salesman?

November 3, 2009

I didn’t attend the Minnesota GIS/LIS Annual Conference last week, but I received a report from someone who attended a session in which the presenter seemed to fit the maxim quite well. One of the presenter’s messages was that people should stop using WAAS immediately as a GPS correction source due to the inability of data collection software to handle the ITRF00 > NAD83/CORS96 datum shift. Following is a statement from one of his slides…


Read More
This article is tagged with and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

GPS Constellation Management: Playing Not to Lose

October 22, 2009

In sports, there is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs when a team is leading towards the end of a game. It’s called “playing not to lose.” The reason you are seeing high HDOP warnings from the NAVCEN and GPS “brownouts” during the day when RTK (GPS-only) isn’t working is because the GPS satellite constellation is sub-optimal. The current design of the GPS constellation is not focused on “playing to win”, but rather “playing not to lose.”


Read More
This article is tagged with , and posted in Opinions, Survey
Image: GPS World

“What Can GLONASS, GPS L2C, and GPS L5 Do for You?” Webinar Q&A Follow-up

October 6, 2009

As I’ve been accustomed to doing, this newsletter addresses the questions you submitted during the Sept. 15 webinar entitled “What Can GLONASS, GPS L2C, and GPS L5 Do for You?”.

There were some great questions during the webinar, and a lot of them. There were so many, in fact, that I’m going to break them up into a couple of different newsletter issues. Also, I need to update you on my trip to ION GNSS a couple of weeks ago. I might mix up the next newsletter with more Q&A as well as the ION GNSS update.


Read More
This article is tagged with , , , , and posted in Opinions, Survey
« Newer
Older »