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View Full Version : GPS Selective Availibility (SA) Gone Tonight Forever



Forrest
05-01-2000, 04:24 PM
As of midnight tonight the government will stop degrading the civilian GPS signal. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/library/PressReleases.cgi?date=0&briefing=0) Standard GPS should become as accurate as DGPS. Now you will really be able to get an accurate speed reading on your Donzi with your GPS.


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Forrest

RickR,GroveCity
05-01-2000, 04:33 PM
Thanks Forrest!
Thats great to hear. Are they going to turn off the DGPS signal?

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RickR mailto:riggerb@aol.comriggerb@aol.com</A>

PaulO
05-02-2000, 09:23 AM
This is the best news I have heard in a long time. I rely on GPS ( probably too much now that I have gotten accustomed to it) for navigating the shallow waters of Long Island with my non-Donzi. I have been wrestling with purchasing the differential unit for my Garmin Chart plotter and have not yet decided to do it. Thed old plan was to do away with SA somtime in 2001. Now, I can put that money to better use than unscrambling the governments scrambling of a beautiful system.
Paul

RickR,GroveCity
05-02-2000, 12:46 PM
Just like magic my GPS works!!!
I live at 1498 to 1531 feet above sea level instead of 600 to 2000.
No more excuses for the top speed of YOUR DONZI'S!


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RickR mailto:riggerb@aol.comriggerb@aol.com</A>

PaulO
05-02-2000, 02:22 PM
Rick,
Good point in regards to the mph! I hadn't thought of that. Now we can seperate the truth from the exaggeration.

Forrest
05-03-2000, 10:07 AM
I just got the low down on DGPS from the Trimble Navigation Thread (http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=1498) over on Silicon Investor (http://www.siliconinvestor.com/). Here is what one highly respected poster from that thread (http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=13541073) wrote:

DGPS will still continue. Getting rid of selective availability still gets you only within 10 meters. That is not accurate enough for most precision applications. But it should give some boost to the car navigation market..

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Forrest

[This message has been edited by Forrest (edited 05-03-2000).]

PaulO
05-03-2000, 11:13 AM
My experience has been that even with SA, the acccuracy has been greater that 10 meters. I am hoping for a further boost now. I predict they won't sell another DGPS unit.
PaulO

Forrest
05-03-2000, 02:55 PM
I think that you are right PaulO. The USCG was out doing test yesterday and found that their regular GPS was accurate to 14' (4 meters). But wait a minute, doesn't the USCG use expensive GPS units by Trimble Navigation? Anyway, the article went on to say said that even the cheapest GPS should be accurate to 30' (9 meters). Here is the link to that article. (http://www.boattraderonline.com/cgi-bin/ads3/soundings/events/editorialReport.html?id=6146)

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Forrest

[This message has been edited by Forrest (edited 05-03-2000).]

PaulO
05-03-2000, 04:23 PM
I recall some boating mag doing a comparison of GPS units from the most lowely $99 hand-helds to the multiple thousand dollar commercial units. The conclusion was that the only differences were with features, ruggedness, and time to acquire sats/updates. Accuracy was pretty much the same across the board.
Paul

RickR,GroveCity
05-03-2000, 08:53 PM
With the DGPS (5 meter accuracy) my brother inlaw expects me to put him in a position so he can drop the sinker on the Grouper's head to wake him up.
I agree DGPS is unnessary now. Sure wish I knew the were going to turn off SA last fall, we would have saved $350.



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RickR mailto:riggerb@aol.comriggerb@aol.com</A>