Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Cumbria, UK – Wikimedia Commons imageEven as the United States tries to decide whether to make good on a commitment last February to implement enhanced Loran (eLoran), agencies and private companies in the United Kingdom are demonstrating leadership in the field of modernized positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services.
By Glen Gibbons
QZS-1 SatelliteEncouraged by continuing progress on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Spirent Communications has announced that its GSS8000 simulation system now supports QZSS in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) — reportedly the first RF constellation simulator to do so.
By Glen Gibbons
Blaupunkt, a leading supplier of automotive systems, has signed a “frame” agreement with u-blox to supply GPS and Galileo receiver technology for navigation, driver-assistance, and related in-vehicle systems.
By Glen Gibbons
Two new GPS modules based on the award-winning u-blox 5 engine and the NEO form factor — the NEO5D and NEO5G — have been announced by the Thalwil, Switzerland–based company.
By Glen Gibbons
Neuchâtel, Switzerland–based SpectraTime, a member of the Orolia group, has received a €2.5-million research contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop critical technologies for future space-qualified active maser, a critical component of the ACES (Atomic Clocks Ensemble in Space) scientific program.
By Glen Gibbons
Baseband Technologies, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has announced its GPS/PC Jr, a real-time software GPS receiver IP solution.
By Glen Gibbons
u-blox AG has selected the NavX-NCS, a multi-constellation and multi-frequency GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator from IFEN GmbH, as the Galileo reference for its receiver development and testing.
By Glen Gibbons
Atheros Communications, Inc., has announced the appointment of Amir Faintuch as vice-president and general manager of the company’s Mobile Wireless Business Unit.
By Glen Gibbons
Applanix has introduced a major new release of POSPac MMS (Mobile Mapping Suite), its GNSS-aided inertial postprocessing software for mobile mapping and surveying applications.
The new release adds features and functionality for land-based mapping and surveying to the existing suite, making it fully equipped for processing mobile mapping data from the air, sea, and land platforms.
By Glen Gibbons
GMV Aerospace and Defense S.A. has announced its new magicGNSS, a set of software tools that supports a wide variety of GNSS projects and objectives, including service volume simulations, core operational functions (such as orbit, clock, and ionosphere determination and prediction), receiver performance analysis, added-value services including integrity, local augmentation developments, and all related performance and accuracy analyses.
By Glen Gibbons
Phi Ward with ION 2008 Kepler AwardPhillip W. Ward, a pioneer designer and developer of GPS receivers, received the lifetime achievement award from the Institute of Navigation at its annual GNSS conference on September 19 in Savannah, Georgia USA.
Ward was senior technical staff member at Texas Instruments Defense Systems and Electronics Group for more than 20 years, where he developed five generations of GPS receivers including, in 1982, the first to enter the commercial market: the TI 4100 NAVSTAR Navigator.
By Inside GNSS
Quellan Inc., of Santa Clara, California, offers the QHx220 active RF noise canceller for GPS applications.
Like noise cancelling headphones, the QHx220 senses unwanted internal noise and applies an opposite signal to the receive path, using sophisticated high-speed analog techniques integrated on a single one square millimeter, low-power integrated circuit.
According to the company, the canceller provides up to 25dB of cancellation, 360º of phase coverage, and operates on a single 1.8V supply voltage.
By Glen Gibbons
Wi-Sys Communications Inc., based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has launched the WS1551QF L-band + GPS (L1) Quadrifilar Helical Antenna.
An active right-hand circularly polarized, quadrifilar helical antenna, the WS1551QF provides an omni-directional, cardoid radiation pattern, with peak gain optimized at elevation angles between 0° and 40°. The wideband antenna covers both the L-band downlink frequency band (1525 to 1560 MHz) and the GPS (L1) frequency band (1574 to 1576 MHz).
By Glen Gibbons
