Galileo, the European global satellite navigation system,

[roger-jo]

Galileo, the European global satellite navigation system, is ready to be used.

With 18 Galileo satellites in orbit, supporting ground infrastructure, and after an extensive testing period,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0AvjY7BD6A

https://www.gsa.europa.eu/segment/maritime

[SV DestinyAscen]

One specific feature the system has is it was planned with SAR support in mind - I think it's supposed to be able to ping beacons to confirm receipt of request for assistance.

Interesting to see what epirb makers can do with this.

[roger-jo]

From this old article
To nye satellitter i Galileo-systemet utplassert - Mobil og tele - VG

In addition to navigation technology and ultra-precise clocks, satellites can pick up signals from distress signals worldwide and convey them to rescue coordination centers for quicker assistance than before.

- It is especially true in higher latitudes in the Arctic and Antarctic where today can be quite long delay of nødpeilesignaler,.

Galileo satellites are the only current navigation systems that have such search and rescue transponders on board, where you also will be able to send an acknowledgment that the signal has been captured back to the destitute.

New Norwegian article
http://www.tu.no/artikler/na-gar-gps...a-lufta/366332

Rescue: A third service which should be ready within two years is unique to Galileo. This is a dedicated rescue. Search and Rescue, or SAR service, will be an important contributor to the COSPAS-SARSAT, an international system that supports rescue activities globally. Each Galileo satellites will carry a separate antenna designed for signals of emergency you on board ships, aircraft or people. A Galileo satellite will be able to receive distress signal and perform retransmission of the signal to national rescue centers via a dedicated link. SAR service is regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Civil

[mikedefieslife]

Ready to be used except there's no GPS units, chart plotters or anything that can use it at the moment. Makes me think the manufacturers such as garmin etc.. Have been asleep at the wheel. You'd think they'd be falling over themselves to be the first to market.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Ready to be used except there's no GPS units, chart plotters or anything that can use it at the moment. Makes me think the manufacturers such as garmin etc.. Have been asleep at the wheel. You'd think they'd be falling over themselves to be the first to market.

As I understand it pretty much all navsat chip sets made after 2010 that use GPS can also access Galileo they just need a software update to activate it. How accurate my understand is, and how long it will take these updates to roll out I don't really know.

[barnakiel]

Yet to see anything that can receive it.

b.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yet to see anything that can receive it.

b.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was among the first Galileo compatible smart devices. Maybe that''s what caused its problem

[StuM]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Ready to be used except there's no GPS units, chart plotters or anything that can use it at the moment. Makes me think the manufacturers such as garmin etc.. Have been asleep at the wheel. You'd think they'd be falling over themselves to be the first to market.

Here's a bit of information on the current status of Galileo compatible receivers:

GSA: 40 percent of GNSS receivers are Galileo-ready : GPS World

[roger-jo]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yet to see anything that can receive it.

b.

And there are many more if one is looking slightly

GPS Antenna | SIMRAD GS25 | Marine Electronics | Simrad Marine Electronics

GP-170 | GPS | Marine Equipment For Merchant Marine | FURUNO

https://www.gsa.europa.eu/segment/maritime

when buying new acquisition with GPS, GLONASS and Galileo

[bcn]

"GPS ready" is just a buzz-word. "ready" means that the hardware of the chips sets is designed to be able to receive and interpret Galileo signals.

uBlox states for example that their latest chip sets are prepared and will with a firmware update - yet to be released - receive GPS and GLONASS OR Galileo.

ESA did make a workshop some weeks ago in Berlin and they had one mobile phone/tablet with Galileo reception there to use it as a platform for projects. Android based. Seems that you can buy it.

We did some test last week with a receiver from the survey market and yes got simultaneously GPS (8 sats), GLONASS (5), Galileo (4) and Beidu (3 or 4).

If I would have to choose between Galileo and GLONASS at this moment I would go with GLONASS just because of the bigger number of systems in orbit.
This might change during 2017 when the four Galileos launched in November are entering active status.
And receiver for consumers are getting ready.

Another remark here: consumer receiver are using only one frequency band, L1. Survey or other high-end receivers work at least dual band L1 and L2. Galileo adds a signal on the L5/E5 band. Due to the characteristics of the Galileo signal a more stable reception for difficult sites is expected. This results in an higher overall precision in theory as well.
So all this is encouraging and we can expect improvements in reception and stability - once we have receivers who can deal with it.


For sailor the most important point in this moment has been mentioned in the thread before: Galileo brings a very important improvement for SAR.
And not only for Europe. With the integration into the COSPAS-SARSAT system reaction times for distress signals from beacons are much shorter, the precision of location will improve drastically and Galileo provides the possibility of a back-channel: the person in distress can get a feed-back that the distress signal has been received and will be responded.
Up to makers of beacons to show up with their products...

Here a marketing article of ESA :
https://www.gsc-europa.eu/news/galil...response-times

[mikedefieslife]

I bet software updates for those with a compatible chipset won't be forthcoming. The manufacturers would prefer you to buy a new device instead.

On the accuracy side, IIRC it's suppose to be a fair bit more accurate than GPS but that won't be realised until after 2020. And it will be rubbish if they actually gave the Americans a back door into the system like they wanted.

[Lepke]

GT-331R GNSS Receiver for GPS/ GLONASS/ QZSS/ BeiDou/ Galileo

I just bought this on ebay for $50 + shipping. Haven't got it yet.

I thought it might be handy in some places to be able to fix from more than one system.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Ready to be used except there's no GPS units, chart plotters or anything that can use it at the moment. Makes me think the manufacturers such as garmin etc.. Have been asleep at the wheel. You'd think they'd be falling over themselves to be the first to market.

Not true!

My Simrad GS25 receives Galileo (and EGNOS, which has already been operational for a few years).

It may be that not all Galileo function is enabled -- the GS25 is dual band, receiving L1 and L2 but not L5.

But GMDSS receivers are so cheap now, that I wouldn't mind replacing the hardware at some point to get the rest of the capabilities. The GS25 only cost me $200 a few years ago and was an absolutely enormous improvement over my previous GMDSS receivers. I regularly get sub 2 meters EPE now with EGNOS working.

[Benz]

My biggest question is: when will actual surveys of physical places happen so that the position fix from the satellites can be accurately plotted on a chart? I have been to many places where the GPS may be totally accurate but the charts are not, and boats go hard aground because the plotter showed them to be in a channel when they weren't.
It seems this is a more pressing concern that having "more accurate satellite signals"
Ben
zartmancruising.com

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Benz

My biggest question is: when will actual surveys of physical places happen so that the position fix from the satellites can be accurately plotted on a chart? I have been to many places where the GPS may be totally accurate but the charts are not, and boats go hard aground because the plotter showed them to be in a channel when they weren't.
It seems this is a more pressing concern that having "more accurate satellite signals"
Ben
zartmancruising.com

That's absolutely true, and assuming that charts are infallible is a big mistake which can result in tragedy.

But the varying degrees of accuracy of charts, does not mean that we don't care about the accuracy of our position data. The errors in charts and the errors in position data compound each other.

Furthermore, accuracy in position data and, especially, consistency in position fixes is useful for more than plotting positions on charts. It's also used for AIS solutions and calculations such as SOG and COG.


In any case, 2 meter EPE is not overkill at all in civilized places. Typical standard of horizontal spatial accuracy for hydrographical surveys in the U.S. and Europe is 2 meters in critical areas, to 95% confidence. See: https://www.fgdc.gov/standards/proje...007.5-2005.pdf

That means that accuracy of position data of better than 2 meters is not at all overkill. I would be really happy to see something more like 30cm, which is theoretically possible. Of course in this range and even at 2 meters EPE, the position of the antenna inside the vessel becomes important, and we don't have the ability to account for that in most of our consumer-grade chartplotting gear. It would be nice if we could have a real sized own ship icon (to be used at high zoom levels), with the antenna position determined within those dimensions. I believe that ECDIS systems used in ships already have this.