Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The European Commission (EC) expects to declare in October that the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) — which provides satellite-based augmentation signals for GPS and Galileo — is operationally ready as an open and free service for non-safety-of-life (non-SoL) applications, according to a press release from the GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA).
By Inside GNSS
The 746th Test Squadron (746 TS) will offer authorized GPS users another testing and training opportunity in its series of JAMFEST events on November 2–6 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
Introduced in May 2004, JAMFEST provides a realistic GPS jamming environment for testing GPS-based navigation systems.
Open House at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) near Munich, Germany.GNSS Signals 2009 will take place at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany on Thursday and Friday, December 10-11 2009.
The free workshop will cover recent advances in GNSS signal design,
evolution of Galileo and other GNSSes and a number of GNSS signal processing and observation techniques. The presentations and papers will be in English.
Program committee cochair Jean-Luc Issler of CNES, the French space agency, said the first call for papers has gone out and abstracts are due before October 2, 2009.
By Inside GNSS
GLONASS-K spacecraft (artist’s illustration)With a nearly restored and modernizing GLONASS system beginning to make inroads into mass market products and services, Russia has revealed plans to build out a space-based augmentation system (SBAS) and establish its first ground monitoring stations outside the Russian territory.
In a July 30 presentation at an International Committee on GNSS (ICG) working group on interoperability, Dmitry Marareskul, head of the onboard satellite navigation sector of Information Satellite System Reshetnev Corporation in Zheleznogorsk, revealed Russia’s plans to expand its network of GLONASS monitoring and measuring stations to include sites in Australia, Cuba, and South America.
By Inside GNSS
Spirent Communications plc has launched the GSS6300 Multi-GNSS Signal Generator, intended for high-volume production test applications for devices that use commercial GPS/SBAS, GLONASS, and/or Galileo receivers.
The GSSS6300 provides a comprehensive remote control interface, designed to facilitate integration into automated test equipment (ATE) environments.
By Inside GNSS
Figure 2. GNSS spectrum (after China ICG presentation)A new Compass signal and frequency plan introduced at a recent International Committee on GNSS (ICG) working group meeting fills in some of the gaps on China’s current thinking about its GNSS system.
The presentation on the new Compass (Beidou-2) plan came at a July
30–31 workshop of the ICG Working Group A – Compatibility and
Interoperability (WG-A), in Vienna.
NavCom SF-3050
NavCom Technology, Inc., has announced the release of the SF-3050 multi-frequency GNSS receiver that incorporates the company’s new Sapphire GNSS OEM board.
Offering integrated StarFire/RTK GNSS capabilities, the SF-3050 and Sapphire feature 66-channel tracking, including multi-constellation support for GPS, GLONASS and Galileo.
By Inside GNSS
(Updated August 4, 2009)
A GPS community consensus is emerging that the initial proposal for mitigating the L1 signal anomaly causing elevation-dependent ranging errors on the SVN49 satellite isn’t the best approach.
By Inside GNSS
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has awarded a new $82 million contract to Raytheon Company to modernize the Indian air navigation system.
Raytheon will build the ground stations for the GPS-Aided Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), and the Indian Space Research Organization will provide the space segment and additional ground equipment. GAGAN will provide satellite-based navigation for civil aviation over Indian airspace and adjoining areas in south and east Asia.
By Inside GNSS
Spirent Communications has launched its GSS6700 Multi-GNSS Constellation Simulator with test test capability GPS, GLONASS, and the planned European Galileo system.
By Inside GNSS
Block IIR Satellite L-Band Transmitter Array of 12 Helical Antennas. Lockheed Martin photo.After GPS Wing engineers and contractors figure out how to solve the elevation-dependent signal anomalies on the latest GPS satellite — Space Vehicle Number 49 (SVN49), they may want to take a look at another nine Block IIR and IIR-M spacecraft that European scientists say exhibit similar, but less severe, behavior.
In an article that will appear in the July/August issue of Inside GNSS, Tim Springer and Florian Dilssner, GNSS engineers in the Navigation Support Office of the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), described the effects of the anomaly as well as the U.S. Air Force’s initial attempts to solve the problem by altering the broadcast satellite orbital positions and time. A version of the article was posted June 25 on the magazine’s website.
By Inside GNSS
Comments submitted to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) suggest that the Galileo program is finally nearing a decision on commercial use of specifications for its Open Service (OS), but U.S. officials remain concerned that this nation’s equipment manufacturers not be placed at a competitive disadvantage. Meanwhile, Galileo simulators appear to finally be reaching receiver manufacturers, despite the absence of official approval.
By Inside GNSS
Chronos Technology, of Lydbrook, Gloucstershire, United Kingdom, has introduced its CTL3500 Interference Monitor, a low-cost, handheld, battery-operated device designed to detect the presence of too much GPS power or non-GPS signals and interference broadcasting on the L1 channel.
By Inside GNSS
