201405 May/June 2014

Michel Monnerat: Out of Africa — GNSS

Michel Monnerat: Out of Africa — GNSS

SIDEBAR: Michel Monnerat’s Compass Points

“I was born in Arles, in the south of France,” says Michel Monnerat, “but I left France before my first birthday. We moved many times, from place to place.”

Monnerat’s father worked for a civil engineering company, specializing in maritime works — harbor construction, coastal protection, and such. His family lived in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Tunisia, but Monnerat spent most of my early life in Lomé, the capital city of Togo.

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By Inside GNSS
It’s Spring, and EGNOS Is in the Air

It’s Spring, and EGNOS Is in the Air

Europe has been talking up its European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS, for short) — and why shouldn’t it? Talking about Galileo doesn’t get satellites off the ground. EGNOS, on the other hand, is up and running, and has been since 2009. If the object is to build confidence in European savoir faire, why not talk about a real success like EGNOS?

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By Peter Gutierrez
DoD Condenses Acquisition Strategy to Speed M-Code Units

DoD Condenses Acquisition Strategy to Speed M-Code Units

A shift in the Air Force’s acquisition plan should shave a year off the time needed to finish development of new M-code–equipped receivers and potentially inspire more commercially flavored innovation — and perhaps even the entry of new vendors.

The new approach enables the Pentagon to fulfill a congressional mandate to buy only M-code receivers after fiscal year 2017 and could help convince the user community, jaded by previous delays, to speed adoption of the more resilient devices.

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By Dee Ann Divis
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Location Authentication

Location Authentication

Table 1, Figures 2 & 3

Smartphone apps represent the most prominent market for GNSS. No other device or community of users has achieved a larger growth and market penetration in the period 2008–2013.

Apple introduced the first GPS capability on a smartphone in June 2008 with the iPhone3, and one year later Samsung introduced its Samsung Galaxy, incorporating the first GPS receiver for this brand.

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By Inside GNSS
Pentagon Seeks to Partner for Access to Other GNSS Signals
April 30, 2014

Pentagon Seeks to Partner for Access to Other GNSS Signals

The U.S. military is moving toward using the signals of other satellite navigation constellations to help ensure access to positioning and timing information and to potentially thwart spoofing.

The impending shift came to light in remarks made by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III during a talk last week (April 23, 2014) at the National Press Club.

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By Inside GNSS
NANU Alerts GPS Users to Start of L2C/L5 CNAV Messages
April 24, 2014

NANU Alerts GPS Users to Start of L2C/L5 CNAV Messages

GPS Block IIR-M and IIF satellites began transmitting CNAV messages on the L2C and L5 signals, on Monday (April 28, 2014).

In a Notice Advisory to NAVSTAR Users (NANU), Air Force Space Command announced that it would begin implementing the civil navigation Message Types (MTs) 10 and 11 (with satellite ephemerides), 30 (satellite clock data, and corrections for ionospheric and group delay), and 33 (parameters related to correlating coordinated universal time (UTC-USNO) time with GPS system time). MT12 (reduced almanac) will not be broadcast at this time.

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By Inside GNSS
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