ION-GNSS Blog: Portland, Plenary, and Military Standard Boards
September 23, 2010 By: Don JewellDon Jewell Blogs from ION-GNSS
Days Two and Three at ION GNSS
I mentioned in my first blog of this annual event that Portland is a great venue. I am even more impressed today. The weather is cool and crisp, autumn is in the air and the whole city seems to have a very European flair. Everyone is friendly and getting around this city is extremely easy and quick due to the light rail system, MAX, that seems to go everywhere you need to be. What a great idea and what a great venue. Thanks to Lisa Beaty and the ION staff for picking such a great location. If tradition holds we will be in Portland again next year as well. Savannah, Georgia, was very interesting, but I sure don’t miss the heat and humidity.
The Opening plenary session Tuesday night for ION-GNSS may have been the best since I have been attending, which is for more years than I care to think about. The evening session from 1800-2100 or 6-9 p.m. is a traditional event and usually well attended. If you missed this year you really missed a treat. The speakers, led by Dr. Brad Parkinson were simply outstanding and it was a very well coordinated set of presentations. All very well tied together by a theme presented by Dr. Parkinson in his opening remarks. Now Brad and I are contemporaries and I have the distinct pleasure of working with him on several committees, boards and studies. Brad is always interesting and I generally learn something valuable every time he speaks, and the Opening Plenary was not an exception but it was a surprise. Brad made some suggestions concerning the way ahead for GPS and GNSS that you may find surprising and intriguing. It all has to do with, as Brad calls it, GPtS, with the “t” representing timing as a key service that GPS provides to the globe at large, as a totally free service of course and how GPtS is integrated into our lives especially our automobiles. Brad and his outstanding panel of experts, Dr. Paul Marsatt from Aerospace Corporation, Mr. David Turner from the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Phil Ward (also a colleague) who designed and built the very first commercial GPS receiver (TI-4100) and is a former ION President, as well as Dr. Mikel Miller from AFRL, the current ION President, all added to Brad’s enthusiasm with expert advice of their own concerning GPS sustainment, robustness, interference, interchangeability as well as PNT applications around the globe. The whole evening was educational, to say the least, and also a lot of fun. The time just flew by. Our Editor-in-Chief Alan Cameron covered Brad’s remarks in-depth in his blog, so I will just say be sure and read what Alan has to say and then go to the ION proceedings web page to see Dr. Parkinson’s, indeed all the presentations, and I think you will be intrigued by the ideas presented. Suffice it to say this is not the last you will hear about this.
This year the ION-GNSS has about 1,500 attendees, wonderful presentations and about 80 companies manning booths that are always fun to visit. I almost learn as much by visiting the booths as I do in the presentation sessions.
For example, this year I have noticed a plethora of MIL STD (military standard) boards that are about the size to fit perfectly in a PCMIA slot. And none more intriguing than the MB 100 Compact dual-frequency RTK OEM board from Ashtech. Their new board fits this year’s theme of cooperation among current and future PNT providers in that it is GLONASS capable. You may be aware that GLONASS has never been able to reach FOC or Full Operational Capability with their satellites due to the extremely short life span of their satellites. They (Russian Space Federation) seem to have the longevity issues under control these days, at least according to their spokesman, Dr. Sergey Revnivykh, who claims, and I hope he is correct, that GLONASS will reach FOC, with 24 plus working satellites on orbit in December of this year.
So when I visited the Ashtech booth a few minutes after the Russian presentation, they were quick to point out that they had a new dual-frequency board that could be programmed for GLONASS and GPS. The small board uses Blade Technology and is as I said dual frequency. That can be GPS and GLONASS or GPS and SBAS, or even GPS, GLONASS and SBAS. It also incorporates L1 RTK and L1/L2 RTK technology for real time centimeter level accuracy, which can even zero out the less accurate positioning accuracy from GLONASS. The chip set is compact, about the size of a PCMIA card, and features a very low power draw of .8 watts with a refresh rate of up to 20 Hz. Accuracies are documented to around 5cm for RTK baselines less than 50km and to 20cm +1ppm for RTK baselines exceeding 50 km. Very impressive.
I am especially impressed by the Ashtech MB 100 because it is boards like this that we need for our future PNT needs. The GPS Wing has been sponsoring a CGM or Common GPS Module that incorporates many of the same capabilities of the Ashtech board, but with SSASM and military other capabilities as well. When I see these cards and modules I immediately fit them into my scheme for the Perfect Handheld GPS Transceiver. Take a PCMIA sized card and just slide it into your rugged Garmin, Trimble, JAVAD or Ashtech device (among many others) and you have a rugged military receiver when you need it plus a rugged computer for your other needs, including communications and when you don’t need it you have a civil receiver, or an RTK device accurate to several centimeters for those more exacting requirements. The possibilities are endless. Obviously there will be more on this later. Just think of the possibilities. BTW Rockwell Collins has a CGM device undergoing testing by the GPS Wing as I write this, with Raytheon and L3 to follow. I think there might be a story here. More to follow.
Colonel Bernard Gruber, the new GPS Wing Commander at SMC, kicked off the panel discussions yesterday (Wednesday) and surprised me by acknowledging a recent column I wrote entitled “Advice to Bernie Gruber” in which I advised him to always maintain the GPS as the World’s Gold Standard. He has taken up the challenge, of which I was never in doubt, and he is well on his way to making GPS even better on his watch. Colonel Gruber may have been away from GPS for a few years, but he is a quick study and he seemed very comfortable as he briefed the current status and way ahead for the GPS.
Last night Ken Torok and the folks at Boeing held a private reception with about 200 of their closest friends and celebrated the successful launch and healthy status of the first IIF family of GPS satellites. Initial indications are that the atomic clocks (Rubidium) on the IIF may initially be the most accurate we have ever seen in the GPS constellation. Quite an achievement and as history reminds us the clocks should get better with time. It looks like the next IIF launch will be sometime in the May-June 2011 timeframe. Hey, only 11 more to go.
The current constellation has 31 active satellites, three on-orbit residuals, and of course SVN-49, which everyone still hopes will be set healthy one of these days, or more accurately one of these years.
Tonight is the GPS World annual dinner and that is always a hoot with gastronomic delights, but before that GPS World Magazine is giving away six, yes I said six, Apple iPADS at a drawing this afternoon. I of course am not eligible to win one, but I can tell you I am writing this column on my own iPAD. Our war fighters are using the iPAD more and more in theater, so a review is upcoming. Hint, hint my iPAD is protected by a case from Otterbox that I have been testing for several weeks now and I am impressed. Look for a review of these excellent iPAD protectors soon.
This is a great symposium. More later.
Happy navigating,
Don
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