New satellite launch (GPS)

Very nice! Sub-meter positioning? Incredible for civilian use...

The best I can get right now is 10 feet. Sometimes its 75 feet. But less than a meter. WOW

With that kind of accuracy we not only will be able to locate a McDonald's but know exactly WHERE on the counter the McRib Sandwiches are !

That was really funny

That's good news as far as the satellites are concerned, but unless the map makers and the people that create the built in POIs come up with more accurate coordinates we aren't going to gain much. It was explained to me by a surveyor that coordinates for street addresses are figured by taking two known coordinates and figuring everything in between mathematically, based on the theory that all lots are the same size. If I use map coordinates for my house It shows me about two houses east of where I'm actually at, which is fine as far as I'm concerned.

I tell people that aren't familiar with using a gps that if I can get within 300 feet of an address in a city 1000 miles away and can't find it I'm an idiot.

I also wonder if this is the same system I heard about a couple of months ago that mentioned you would have to get a new generation gps to be able to make use of the signals.

I read the sub-meter stuff and it is what I though. The sub-meter stuff is going to take a lot of new hardware. When a signal comes from the bird to earth, it can get distorted passing through the various layers of the atmosphere. The military GPS unit can read the civilian signal which is on one frequency and the military signal on a different frequency and using both signal "read" the distortion. Then they adjust of distortion. But the military frequency is encrypted - Garmin can't read it. They are adding a unencrypted sub-channel to the military frequency to allow civilian GPS units to do the same thing.

The big deal here is for aviation. A plane comes in for a landing on a 150 foot (300 foot if military) wide runway. If it is off by 20 feet or even 50 feet from center line, no big deal. Once you land you steer to the center. But what if you are 20 to 50 feet to high - a big bounce. Or 50 feet to low - a big crash. So, for now, GPS can not be used for precision landings. You have to use ILS radio and that is 2 channels for each end of each runway. And they have to be constantly tuned. It a lot of expensive hardware and maintenance - therefore limited to major airports.

Now go to sub-meter. Plus/minus 1-2 feet is no big deal, even for a little plane. And once in place, every airport, regardless of size, can have landings in poor visibility.

Haha, that reminds me, I need to get one before they are gone!

You can bet the first of the new receivers will be expensive. Yeah, they're going to need some changes to the front end for the new frequency. Maybe even some antenna redesign. And then the bunch of mathematicians that sit over in the corner of the second floor have to redo the Kalman filters and run the new filters through simulations and live tests. But it's a few bucks of hardware and a handful of different bits running the DSP.

Premium product -- value pricing.

Where have we heard that before? How about with SACDs? Oh, those flopped.

Oh, I remember -- HD DVD! Oh, I meant Blu Ray! Blu Ray was going to be the salvation of so many manufacturers. They were going to be able to command premium prices for a premium product, offering unsurpassed resolution and features, and be able to break free from the cutthroat DVD player market.

And it worked for a while, until the kinks got worked out and the chip vendors reduced the chip count of the product.

But the premium pricing - value pricing game doesn't last very long, as there are manufacturers who will be willing to make less on each unit and make it up in volume. Look what the prices on Blu Ray players have done. Look what the prices on GPS units have done.

But!

Standalone GPS units are currently being compared to buggy whips and ice saws -- technology on the way out, to be replaced by uber-phones...

But standalone GPS units have lots of room for circuitry (something that uber-phones don't have), a car battery for power (something else uber-phones don't have), and only have to do one thing well -- listen for birds.

This enhanced resolution could be just the thing to give the standalone GPS market a few more years vitality!

Going to be a fun one to watch -- and I think my current gear has a few years left on it.

I just bought the new i-blue GM-2 receiver with the MTK-2 Chip.

You can set the baud rate from 4800 to 115200 with the repeat rate of 1 repeat per second to 5 repeat per second.

I paid around $38.00 at Amazon.com.

I have never owned a GPS receiver that would hold a steady signal at a stand still on elevation.

From test that I have seen one meter is pretty common for this unit.

http://www.transystem.com.tw/product.php?b=G&m=pe&cid=4&sid=...

As pointed out already, this is something that could come into great use for the Aviation field, where premium prices and unique features for Aviation GPS units is pretty much the norm. I doubt this would see the light of day in normal civilian vehicle units anytime soon(except maybe for surveying and extreme unit uses [mountain climbing anyone?]).

The old gps satellites are still working well but way past their intended life from what I've read. So I'm glad the greatly improved replacements are being put in place!

As others have commented, though, the capabilities will filter down to us "commoners" via the military loosening their grip and availability of new equipment.

There is the threat of competition from Galileo, should the EU ever actually get it operational, and GLONASS. That should keep the US pushing the envelope.

One other thing the standalone GPS has that the über-phones don't have -- a screen big enough that I can see the dang thing!

Another one! lets hope it improves the GPS nav and doesn't collide with another satellite.