ION is my favorite conference of the year because I get to see where companies and organizations are putting their research effort which, in turn, gives me a good idea where GNSS technology for surveying/construction is heading. Too bad Ike had other plans for me.

I’m on the agenda for the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) meeting prior to the ION GNSS conference in Savannah later this month. I’ll be leading a session titled: WAAS for Mapping: It Works Where You Work.

Yes, it’s in the middle of prime field season. Yes it’s a GIS conference. Yes, it costs time and money to go. But that doesn’t mean you should miss this prime opportunity to mix with high-caliber survey professionals.

Javad’s companies have a proven history of providing high quality, state-of-the-art GNSS receivers, but everyone in the survey/construction industry knows that while a solid receiver is important, the software makes the solution. Data-collection and PC processing software is a must-have in order to compete. Javad’s 2007 acquisition of ArWest Communications Corp., a maker of narrow band and spread spectrum radios, brought the flexibility to integrate RTK communications in creative ways.

The International GNSS Service is thinking about the near future with multiple GNSS available, namely how software receivers may help it achieve its mission of serving as the gold standard for GNSS data.

The PNT.gov website provides users with an inside look at U.S. GPS policy, as well as the thoughts of those who influence that policy. The minutes from this spring’s meeting of the PNT Advisory Board are worth looking through. In particular, the discussion on the number of optimal GPS satellites is positive.

Mobile phones are becoming powerful enough to rival some of the most powerful field data collection devices ever made. Our industry is catching the attention of some software developers who are writing software for smart phones that can be very productive for field personnel.

This may be the most important column I’ve ever written. It’s certainly the most expensive. At $40,000 worth of equipment for this writer, multiplied by 17,346 readers, we’re talking $694 million. And that’s not nearly the full extent of industry impact; the Department of Commerce has some figures that I will quote later.