GPS World articles from October 2007

GPS World archives from October 2007

Lightning rod.(OUT IN FRONT)(about navigation satellites)
October 1, 2007... Just set it down right over here, guys. OK, now we run the heavy cable out the window, right, and connect it to that antenna mast? Then if I start sending juice up the rod, we'll see what jagged bolts the ionosphere can throw down on me....

Congrats.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... Just a quick note to tell you how much I appreciate the survey and construction newsletter as well as the daily Navigate! You guys are doing a great job at covering an amazingly broad area of coverage focused on GNSS! Please let your fellow...

Wrong all over the map.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... In the article "Taiwan Dominates PND Manufacturing as Unit Volumes Soar," [LBS Insider, July issue] the author used words "island nation" to describe Taiwan. It's not appropriate, just as we should not call Hawaii an "island nation." The...

NDGPS cut-off premature.(EXPERT ADVICE)
October 1, 2007... As we look forward in the modernization of GPS, and we're looking at the spectrum of other systems that are coming online, GPS today has fundamentally the preeminent position in terms of positioning and navigation. If we don't shoot ourselves...

Advisory Board update.(EXPERT ADVICE)
October 1, 2007... James J. Miller, senior GPS technologist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Communications and Navigation, joins the magazine's Editorial Advisory Board with this issue. He advises senior NASA management on U.S....

Location standards upped: FCC adds muscle, urgency to E911.(THE SYSTEM)
October 1, 2007... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chose September 11 for its vote on an order to strengthen E911 location standards. The new order will require wireless carriers to test and comply with E911 location accuracy standards within a...

Modernization fits and starts: SA, III, IIF, IIR-M.(THE SYSTEM)
October 1, 2007... SA Going, Going, Gone On September 18, President George W. Bush accepted the Department of Defense recommendation to end procurement of GPS satellites that have the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals....

Ground control from AEP to OCX: better monitoring for improved constellation performance.(THE SYSTEM)
October 1, 2007... As news comes of the successful installation of the new-generation ground control system, the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP, see page 31 of this issue), we turn our attention to the next step: the GPS III Operational Control Segment (OCX)....

Galileo finds funds.(THE SYSTEM)
October 1, 2007... The European Commission (EC) announced September 19 that it proposes to use [euro]2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) of public funds to sustain the beleaguered Galileo satellite navigation program. In a statement from Brussels, the EC called...

GIOVE-B tests out.(THE SYSTEM)
October 1, 2007... Thales Alenia Space shipped GIOVE-B, the second Galileo test satellite, from its Rome plant to the European Space Agency facility in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, during the week of September 3. The production team, including Telespazio, EADS...

Phone maker Nokia jumps into PND business.(LOCATION-BASED SERVICES)
October 1, 2007... European handset giant Nokia took a step beyond mobile phones August 27 with the unveiling of the Nokia 500, a dedicated personal navigation device (PND) for in-car navigation. While the company has devoted itself to GPS-enabled handsets,...

Javad GNSS acquires ArWest Communications Corp.(UTILITIES & COMMUNICATIONS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Javad Ashjaee announced August 24 that he acquired all assets of ArWest Communications Corporation. "JAVAD GNSS can compete and sell in all markets from January of 2008, about four months from now," said Ashjaee, CEO and president of JAVAD...

NovAtel picks up antenna developer Antcom.(UTILITIES & COMMUNICATIONS)
October 1, 2007... NovAtel Inc. acquired privately held antenna specialist Antcom Corporation, located in Torrance, California, on September 18. Under the terms of the agreement, NovAtel will acquire Antcom for $5 million in cash and an additional $1 million in...

Flight tests start for Northrop's F-5 nav.(MILITARY & GOVERNMENT)
October 1, 2007... The first unit of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s latest fiber optic gyro-inertial navigation systems, the LN-260, has been delivered to the U.S. Navy for flight testing on its F-5 Tiger II Adversary Fleet Support Fighter, the company announced...

Garmin selects STMicro's Teseo GPS chipset.(MASS MARKET OEM)
October 1, 2007... European chip maker STMicroelectronics announced August 23 that it is engaged in volume production of its Teseo GPS device designed for use in certain Garmin (personal navigation devices) PNDs and handheld GPS receivers. The company didn't...

Magellan unveils MobileMapper CX for GIS professionals.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)
October 1, 2007... On September 6, Magellan introduced the MobileMapper CX, a handheld GPS receiver for geographic information system (GIS) users that offers Magellan's Mobile Mapping application software, a phone-like keypad for data entry, and sub-meter...

FAA awards ITT air traffic control contract.(AVIONICS & TRANSPORTATION)
October 1, 2007... The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced August 30 that it has awarded ITT Corp. a $207 million initial contract leading a team to develop and deploy the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system. ADS-B is a...

Rockwell offers civilian versions of GPS hardware.(MASS MARKET OEM)
October 1, 2007... Rockwell Collins has decided it's time to get in on the booming consumer and civilian market for GPS technology. The military contractor has introduced GPS units for the commercial market, dubbed Polaris, that are similar to its military-grade...

Combo L1/StarFire receivers released.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)
October 1, 2007... NavCom Technology Inc. unveiled its SF-2110M and SF-2110R modular L1 StarFire GPS receivers August 24, saying the receivers can provide 50-centimeter accuracy anywhere in the world through its satellite-based StarFire differential correction...

Hewlett-Packard Co.(IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2007... Hewlett-Packard Co. unveiled five new handheld devices in September, including its iPaq 300-seriesTravel Companion, the company's second GPS-based personal navigation device. The iPaq 300 series (310 model at right) relies on a 600MHz version...

Antenova Ltd.(IN BRIEF)(company launches GPS Radionova M10214-A RF Antenna Module)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... On September 10, Antenova Ltd. introduced its GPS Radionova M10214-A RF Antenna Module, what it says is the world's smallest RF antenna module incorporating a complete SiRFstarlll GPS chipset. The Radionova M10214-A module is designed for...

Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc.(IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2007... Chip-maker Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. is developing a high-performance integrated circuit with GNSS components for use in GPS receivers, the company announced September 11. NovAtel Inc. is subsystems supplier. The new...

Symmetricom Inc.(IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2007... Symmetricom Inc. announced August 28 that its XLi SAASM time and frequency receiver, coupled with a Ground-Based GPS Receiver Application Module (GB-GRAM), has been granted security approval by the Global Positioning Systems Wing (GPSW). The...

The U.S. Strategic Command has awarded Overlook Systems Technologies, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia, a two-year GSA order (base year plus option) for technical support to the Joint Navigation Warfare Center (JNWC) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.(IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2007... The U.S. Strategic Command has awarded Overlook Systems Technologies, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia, a two-year GSA order (base year plus option) for technical support to the Joint Navigation Warfare Center (JNWC) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New...

Back to basics.(Leadership Talks)(Interview)(Company overview)
October 1, 2007... Colonel Dave Madden (CM), the new GPS Wing Commander at the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base spoke with GPS World's contributing editor for military and government, Don Jewell (DJ), himself a former USAF commander...

Navigating these mean streets: real-time mapping in autonomous vehicles.(AVIONICS & TRANSPORTATION)
October 1, 2007... The Defense Department's goal to have one third of combat vehicles--particularly those in resupply--operate without drivers by 2015 fuels DARPA's upcoming Urban Challenge, a showcase for effective real-time mapping by robotic vehicles with...

Finders keepers: uncovering the value chain for location-based services.(TELECOM & LBS)
October 1, 2007... Some glowing predictions for LBS have materialized, but most have yet to arrive. PNDs and GPS-enabled cell phones have barely started to fulfill their potential. The ultimate winners appear to be the Internet and software players. The key to...

Reflecting on GPS: sensing land and ice from low Earth orbit.(INNOVATION)
October 1, 2007... The signals from the GPS constellation satellites are constantly being scattered from the surface of the Earth. The usefulness of these signals for remote sensing applications was proposed over a decade ago when the European Space Agency's...

Automatic asset tracking.(AVIONICS & TRANSPORTATION)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The automatic tracking feature of the AnyTrack GPS-100 tracking device reports the device's location at intervals the customer specifies, from once a day up to every minute. Customers receive on their computer regular reports on the real-time...

Submeter GPS mapping receiver.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The SXBlue II, a submeter Bluetooth wireless GPS mapping receiver, is designed to enable the use of off-the-shelf, Bluetooth-enabled PDA/notebook computers to collect GPS map data. The SX Blue II offers improved tracking/accuracy under tree...

Shuttle upgrade designed for safety.(GNSS technologies in the popular media)
October 1, 2007... The crew of the Space shuttle Endeavour used GPS technology to direct its August 21 landing in Florida--a first for a shuttle, reports allheadlinenews.com and Florida Today. As part of an extensive upgrade, the orbiter is outfitted with new...

Prosecution witness.(GNSS technologies in the popular media)(GPS device admissible as evidence in court )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... A judge ruled September 5 that GPS evidence is admissible in the trial of an Illinois man for a quadruple murder, reports the Chicago Tribune. Eric Hanson's personal GPS device was shut off before four family members were slain on September 28,...

NYC taxi strike ineffective.(GNSS technologies in the popular media)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... A two-day taxi strike over a requirement that GPS be fitted in cabs ended September 7 according to the Associated Press. The strike apparently caused only limited disruptions and no real gains for the taxi drivers who stopped work, say city...