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Date:      Wed, 3 May 2000 16:25:10 -0400
From:      Neill Robins <freebsd@nc.rr.com>
To:        Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: GPS heads up
Message-ID:  <7684.000503@nc.rr.com>
In-Reply-To: <200005031952.NAA01317@nomad.yogotech.com>
References:  <200005031952.NAA01317@nomad.yogotech.com>

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Here is the 'Presidential Statement' regarding the issue:

http://www.navcen.uscg.mil/gps/policynotes/SA.htm

I don't know why they even continued to use SA after they released
Differential GPS, which is good to 5 meters and less.  It sort of got
around the signal degredation.  But, for the folks who didn't want to
sink $500 into a DGPS unit, this news is great.  It is sort of
surprising since it is 6 years earlier than planned.

Neill


Wednesday, May 03, 2000, 3:52:55 PM, you wrote:

NW> [ Moved to -chat ]

>>     Ok, this has nothing to do with FreeBSD, but I just had to post 
>>     something since nobody else has.
>> 
>>     By presidential order, on May 1 the error introduced into the GPS
>>     system, called 'SA', was turned off.

NW> You've *GOT* to be kidding?  Honest and truly?  (Runs outside with his
NW> GPS).

>>     This means that your GPS receivers are now around 5-10 times more
>>     accurate then they were before May 1st.

NW> On my Garmin 12, I could get accuracy to 53' consistently before, now
NW> it's consistenly at 14'.  If I averaged the errors, I got 43', now it
NW> only gets 1' better to 13'.

NW> Still, it's measurably better than before.

>>     And I have to say, I am totally amazed!  My handheld Garmin now
>>     tells me that it is accurate to 14 feet, rather then 100 ft.  It is
>>     so accurate now that I can tell which side of the street I'm on! 

NW> This is good and bad.  Now my routes tell me I'm off since I'm on the
NW> other side of the road. *grin*

>>     I am well and truely amazed.  It's impressive to see the thing recognize
>>     when I take a few steps in one direction or another using a bunch of
>>     satellites sitting thousands of miles away in the sky.  It's even more
>>     impressive to see the government do something right for a change!

NW> No kidding.  Thanks for the announcement Matt, I wouldn't have noticed
NW> this for a while had you not posted this, and then I would have wondered
NW> if my GPS was going bonkers. :)



NW> Nate


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