GPS At Risk

[juandigital]

"The U.S. Government continues to support the President's National Broadband Plan and facilitate its implementation consistent with the preservation of national and economic security."
I took the above quote from an article which can be found here
LightSquared and GPS
Apparently this is part of the President's national broadband plan to bring wireless communications to parts of the country that otherwise would not have it. If part of the country does not have wireless internet, its probably for a reason, and that is because the market will not support such an investment which could cost millions. But now here comes Uncle Sam to support it, using millions of tax payers dollars so rural Americans can surf Facebook. President Obama was recently in the Michigan's Upper Peninsula to push this warless agenda. I found it out of touch for a number of reasons.
The Upper Peninsula is a beautiful part of the country that is unmolested for the most part. There are very few roads and LOTS of wilderness. Visit the beautiful Pictured Rocks and the last thing you will be thinking is, "where is the wireless signal??" Another reason I found it out of touch is that people that move to rural parts of the country, typically do so to escape from cell phones, wireless internet, traffic jams and expensive lattes. Besides, quite sure you can get internet anywhere in the world. I had my own satellite dish in both Iraq and Astan and it worked fine. Besides all that, WE CANT AFFORD IT! Check the balance sheets, we are ****-near broke. Not to mention the fact that the system might screw up the GPS signals!! So then it will cost millions of more dollars to either force people to upgrade their GPS software of purchase new.
I dont want to come off as Bashing our President, but I see it as more of a problem with a government thatç—´ just too big, too over reaching, trying to be everything to everyone. I know the government does good things too, Heck, GPS system was funded by the government and for that I thank them. But at some point, we gotta ask them "what the **** are you thinking?"

 

[Ford850]

As a land surveyor, this problem is very real for me since we use GPS all the time.

First off, it doesn't work on the same frequency as GPS, but very close to it, so it does cause interference. Depending on the GPS equipment, this can be a few hindered feet to several miles from the lightsquared tower.

Second, farmers are heavy GPS users, so it could impact them.

Third, the military has access to parts of the GPS signal that civilian users don't. I don't know this for a fact, but I would guess that it impacts the military less than the civilian users.

There are a lot of people putting pressure to stop the lightsqaured thing, but we will see, nothing would surprise me.

I agree. I would bet that farmers need GPS for a level of accuracy more than anyone else other than the military.

 

[dodge man]

I agree. I would bet that farmers need GPS for a level of accuracy more than anyone else other than the military.

Not exactly, I would bet land surveyors demand the most accuracy, we try to measure most things to the nearest 1/8 of an inch. Farmers just need it close enough for the auto steer to get the spacing of the rows correct, the nearest inch or so. The military? Close enough to drop a bomb on someone, the nearest few feet. Its just the militarys use is more important, same thing with aviation.

 

[zzvyb6]

Out of date story. They announced that they are going to change their frequencies.

 

[JohninCT]

You say you read the article, but you didn't understand it apparently. Or, perhaps I'm not understanding what point you're trying to make. The article is not about farmers.

I guess I fell into the same trap since the title of the article is

"Farmers fear new network may jam GPS navigation signals."

:confused2:

 

[JB4310]

I read it and I thought it was about farmers?, not gonna read it again, I didn't read it word for word but think the title is appropriate.

I was surprised to read that the systems farmers are using are accurate down to hazards in the field? must be much more sensitive than our automobile GPS systems.

JB.

 

[dodge man]

A single GPS unit is only accurate to a few feet. The way to get very accurate results is to have two recievers. Our system for land surveying costs around $30,000 and we have a 35 watt radio to connect the two units. As GPS gets more widespread, companies are putting up permanent base stations, sometimes several throughout states, and you pay to recieve a signal, often over a cell phone line. This means you only need one unit. Ag applications use a similar setup, and you pay to get a correction signal, often a radio type setup. With this type of setup, it can get pretty advanced. Companies come in and map the field, and you can load it for planting, fertilizer, and harvesting. It can be so advanced, if you come to a waterway that is at an angle, the seeder will turn off one row at a time, to match the angle of the waterway, all automatically.

As you can see, the Lightsqaured towers might not just affect the users location, but also base stations that may be several miles away from the end user.

 

[AGGIE00]

Also a land surveyor here and without GPS I would be skrewed. Going back to conventional surveying for all our work would be like going back to a shovel after using an excavator. We use both base/rover systems and the trimble vrs network for our corrections. I don't think anyone requires more accuracy than land surveyors.