GPS World, February 2012
Policy and system news and developments GPS Galileo GLONASS Compass SYSTEM THE U S DoD DoT Tell FCC No LS A shton Carter U S deputy secretary for Defense and John Porcari deputy secretary for Transportation have written an official letter to the assistant secretary of Commerce stating that there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service Carter and Porcari are cochairs of the National Executive Committee for Space Based Positioning Navigation and Timing This represents the strongest intra government statement to date on the issue Their letter further states that both LightSquareds original and modified plans for its proposed mobile network would cause harmul interference to many GPS receivers Additionally an analysis by the Federal Aviation Administration has concluded that the LightSquared proposals are not compatible with several GPS dependent aircraft safety of flight systems No additional testing is warranted at this time the authors conclude They further propose to draft new GPS spectrum interference standards that will help inform future proposals for non space commercial uses in the bands adjacent to the GPS signals No response has emerged from either the Federal Communications Commission or the National Telecommunications and Information Administration the two bodies charged with making a determination on the issue But the letter appears to signal a coming end to a conflict that has occupied many and tied up many resources and consumed many millions of dollars for the past year One source commented off the record that Our hope is this will be the end of the matter and the FCC will withdrawal its initial approval and inform LSQ they must seek the 500 MHz in a different portion of the spectrum Second Galileo IOV Satellite Transmits On January 17 the E1 signal of the Galileo Flight Model 2 satellite FM2 also known as GSAT0102 was successfully acquired and tracked by the researchers of the Navigation Signal Analysis and Simulation NavSAS group at Politecnico di Torino Istituto Superiore Mario Boella The signal was received with a non directive GNSS antenna a commercial narrowband E1 RF front end and the N GENE software receiver developed by the NavSAS lab Other research facilities and advanced GNSS companies around the world have also reported reception of a signal from this the second in orbit validation Galileo satellite launched on October 21 2011 The first IOV satellite Galileo ProtoFlight Model PFM began broadcasting in December FM2 currently transmits a Galileo Open Service signal See GALILEO page 10 FIGURE 1 Search space of the successful acquisition of the Galileo FM2 satellite PRN 12 FIGURE 2 Peak obtained acquiring the Galileo FM2 satellite www gpsworld com February 2012 GPS World 9
You must have JavaScript enabled to view digital editions.
