Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
GPS, Glonass, Galileo Receiver Testing Using a GNSS Signal Simulator
This application note explains how to perform automated receiver tests using the R&S SMBV100A. The presented tests include TTFF, sensitivity and location accuracy measurements, moving receiver and interference tests, and many more. Basic remote control examples are provided for the individual tests to ease programming.
By Inside GNSS
President Obama signed the Fiscal Year (FY10) consolidated appropriations bill (H.R. 3288) on Wednesday (December 16), which will fund a number of civil GPS initiatives in the coming year.
By Inside GNSS
Want to win $40k? DARPA gives you one day to locate 10 of these 8-foot weather balloons moored across the USA(Updated December 7, 2009) A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team won the DARPA Network Challenge on Saturday, December 5. They took home a $40,000 cash prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The team successfully located 10 eight-foot diameter, bright red weather balloons moored in plain site at locations across the United States.
Apparently, the DARPA personnel in charge were sensitive to frigid winter weather in the heartland – most of the balloons turned out to be moored in pleasant places for an outdoor December search: Portland, Oregon; San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Katy, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Christiana, Delaware.
By Inside GNSS
Trimble will hold its first user conference in China on December 15-17 at the Jiuhua Resort and Conference Center in Beijing. It will cover civilian technology only.
The theme "Exploration Has No Boundaries," draws comparisons between 15th century navigator Zhenghe, the 2008 space mission Shenqui, and the use of positioning technology to steer exploration.
Trimble head Steve Bergland will deliver one of the conference keynotes.
By Inside GNSS
One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder. 
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST
1. NOTHING BEATS FREE
Mountain View, California
√ Google’s open-source, customizable Android OS uses its own maps for a free GPS feature on the new Verizon Motorola “Droid” phone. It’s shaking mobile map giants Navteq and Tele Atlas and the smart phone and PND developers who lease from them. Google’s free GPS could appear on the iPhone as well.
The 2010 International Symposium on Certification of GNSS Systems and Services (CERGAL) will take place from April 28-29, 2010 in Rostock, on the Baltic Sea in the north of Germany.
The event includes a technical program and an industry exhibition.
By Inside GNSS
Ice on the tower at Loran Station Dana (Indiana). Photo by Charles SchaafPresident Obama had a big day on October 28, signing 2010 bills for the departments of defense (DoD) and homeland security (DHS) that cut significant programs — eLoran, HIGPS, OCX — connected with the Global Positioning System.
By Inside GNSS
Combined Joint Task Force 76 helicopter carries troops and supplies over Eastern Afghanistan. Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Casteel, U.S. ArmyU.S. Air Force officials are moving to reconfigure the GPS constellation to create a 27-satellite geometry that will improve the availability and accuracy of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities for U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although the constellation currently has 30 operational space vehicles (SVs), not including the SVN49/PRN1 that has still not been set healthy, a number of the spacecraft are located nearby other satellites — effectively creating a 24-SV geometry. (See accompanying figure.)
By Inside GNSS
Trimble and the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co. Ltd. (CREEC), the third largest civil construction enterprise in the world, have signed a definitive agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture in China.
By Inside GNSS
XF102Hemisphere GPS has launched its XF102 DGPS receiver, the latest addition to the company’s XF-Series of differential GPS receivers for handheld mapping.
By Inside GNSS
A Topcon Euro 160T mobile control board connected to a laptop computer collects satellite positioning signals used to calculate the North American Eagle’s speed. Photo: Don TalendA team led by led by Seattle, Washington–area aerospace and computer experts is attempting to break the sound barrier to surpass the world land speed record of 763 miles per hour — and they’re using GNSS technology to help them do it.
By Inside GNSS
Galileo IOV ProtoFlight Model under AssemblyGalileo program managers appear to have bowed to the unavoidable and acknowledged that completing the European satellite navigation system will take longer and cost more than their revised estimates of 2014 and €3.4-billion ($5.04-billion), respectively
And, although a revised Galileo Open Service Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (OS-SIS-ICD) will appear soon allowing manufacture and sale of Galileo equipment without a license, the ICD will still require a license for commercial use of the intellectual property contained in the document.
By Inside GNSS
The 2010 CERGAL symposium will take place in the Baltic city of Rostock, in northern Germany, next April 28-29.
This year, the Symposium on Certification of GNSS Systems and Services will concentrate on maritime and inland waterways applications and GNSS testing infrastructure.
In addition to those topics, papers are invited on GNSS system aspects and aviation, road, rail and other special applications. Abstracts are due on November 30, 2009.
By Inside GNSS
