GPS Emancipation Day

[Amgine]

It's by no means universal, but many cruisers mark May 2nd in observance of U.S. President Bill Clinton's directive that selective availability of GPS should be set to zero.

Those of you who use GPS should celebrate the day by doing something, anything, using it today!

[Gallivanters]

Aye think everyone should buy all of us Yank Sailors a drink!

because it's U.S. Tax Dollars that developed and maintains the GPS system. How much do you think it costs us every time we light that fuse under the Space Shuttle?

I'll have Rum, thank you very much!

Kirk

[GordMay]

Originally designated the NAVSTAR (Navigation System with Timing And Ranging), the Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed by the US Department of Defense to provide all-weather round-the-clock navigation capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces (replacing the “Transit” system of the early 1960's).

The Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network is a set of hundreds of stationary, permanently operating GPS receivers throughout the United States. CORS stations continuously receive GPS radio signals, and integrate their positional data into the National Spatial Reference System. This data is then distributed over the Internet. After logging onto the CORS Web site, users can determine the accuracy of their coordinates down to the centimeter.

The National Geodetic Survey's Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) Web Site. CORS - Continuously Operating Reference Stations

This is the official Web site of NGS's continuously operating reference stations (CORS). Surveyors, geographic information system (GIS) professionals, engineers, scientists, and others use data from the CORS system to assure horizontal and vertical positioning accuracies within a few centimeters.

A central feature of this Web site is a "dynamic" map of the United States and its territories. The different symbols and colors on the map indicate the locations and sampling rates of hundreds of CORS stations in the United States' network. By selecting and "clicking" on an area of the map you can "zoom" into a region where a CORS receiver is located. By selecting and "clicking" on a specific receiver, you can view a detailed area map showing the receiver's exact location, see photographs of the receiver, and view coordinate data that the receiver is collecting from Global Positioning System satellites in real time.

When a specific receiver has been selected, you can obtain different kinds of information about it from the menu on the left hand side of the Web page. Just select the information you would like to see and then "click" the submit button.

CORS - Continuously Operating Reference Stations

[Pura Vida]

Was is odd that one arm of the government would dither the signal and another with create a system to correct it?

In any case all that is left is to make the charts match the GPS position.

[sluissa]

and here I thought this was going to be about having a day where everyone gives up GPS for a day in rememberance to the old ways of doing things...

[Pa La O La]

Hey,

Lets hope we don’t go back to the old days. The genie is out of the bottle and he never goes back in. These are the good ol’ days. Thank heaven it isn’t the days of wooden ships and iron men. Me, I’ll settle for being a composite type person. I still can enjoy that sun set and the feel of the sails as they fill. That they aren’t made of canvas and the lines are sta-set, works for me.