Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
NavtechGPS Fall GPS/GNSS Training Seminars 2016 will take place at the Westin Tysons Corner Hotel in Falls Church, Viginia (Washington, D.C. area), November 14-18, 2016.
Courses 541 and 556 start on November 14, 2016. Courses 122 and 346 will start on November 15, 2016.
By Inside GNSS
A U.S. Transportation Department (DoT) public workshop will address GNSS receiver testing results October 14 at RTCA, Inc., 1150 18th ST NW, Suite 910, in Washington, DC. The event begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m.EDT.
Workshop members, as part of DoT’s fifth GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility Assessment (ABC) effort, will discuss GNSS receiver testing that includes non-certified aviation, cellular, general location and navigation, high precision and networks, timing, and space-based receivers, the agency said.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel VEXXIS antennasNovAtel Inc. has introduced its new VEXXIS series of GNSS antennas as well as two new inertial measurement unit (IMU) products for its SPAN technology portfolio.
The VEXXIS series includes two lines of multi-constellation and multi-frequency antennas, the new GNSS-800 series and the GNSS-500 series, introduced earlier this year.
By Inside GNSS
SYNTONY has been awarded a major contract by ONEWEB Company for the delivery of more than 15 GNSS Simulators.
ONEWEB is an Arlington, Virginia–based company that says it is building the largest satellite constellation ever to create a satellite-based Internet gateway, with 900 satellite launched. In that frame, SYNTONY will deliver his new released CONSTELLATOR product, capable of hardware-in-the-loop testing for low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite trajectories.
By Inside GNSS
Champion Instruments has released its new choke-ring antenna. The unit has an integrated GSM/GRPS modem and features a stable antenna phase center (APC) that is tailored for continuously operating reference station (CORS) base stations, the company said.
By Inside GNSS
Septentrio_PolaRx5TRSeptentrio has received a contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 35 PolaRx5 GNSS receivers, the company said. The receivers, which consist of 25 reference stations and 10 timing instruments, will be used in the NASA Global GNSS Network (GGN).
In other company news, Septentrio rolled out its new PolaRx5TR GNSS receiver. The unit has 544 hardware channels, features a calibration circuit, and supports all major constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, and IRNSS, the company said.
By Inside GNSS
IFEN has announced its new NCS TITAN multi-GNSS, multi-frequency and multi-RF output simulator.
With up to 256 channels and up to four RF outputs per chassis, the TITAN design avoids the extra complexity and cost of using additional signal generators or intricate architectures involv¬ing several hardware boxes, IFEN says, which improves reliability without compromising functionality.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Air Force’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) at the 50th Space Wing, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, has moved the longest-serving GPS satellite, space vehicle number (SVN) 23, into a disposal orbit several hundred miles above the operational GPS constellation.
The satellite, which was launched on November 26, 1990, had a rough start, the Air Force said. After early-orbit operations and initial stabilization in December 1990, SVN 23’s solar array stopped working.
By Inside GNSSHow do you win when you are really losing?
Play a different game, move the goalposts, change the rules.
For several years now, a series of would-be wireless broadband service providers have been attempting to convince the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repurpose radio frequency spectrum near the GPS L1 band.
Past efforts have failed because of the transmissions’ demonstrated harmful effects on GPS and other GNSS signals. Now a new contender is trying to gain FCC’s approval by changing the way that those effects are measured.
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. BREXIT
Harwell Didcot, United Kingdom
Dr. Kyle O’Keefe, University of Calgary
In the beginning, there was just one GNSS — the Global Positioning System — and just one fully available signal on the L1 frequency.
Eventually, some clever scientists discovered how to exploit certain characteristics of the encrypted L2 signal to come up with so-called codeless and semi-codeless techniques that enabled dual-frequency positioning. This hastened the development of user equipment that used the carrier phase of signals as well as the code to deliver high-precision results.
By Inside GNSS
Figures 1-3Working Papers explore the technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.
By Günter W. Hein
Q: Are there low-cost and low-weight options for GNSS IF storage?
By Inside GNSS
