JAVAD Tracks L5 Signals from Indian GAGAN Satellite

JAVAD GNSS has commented on some news that its receivers can track a new L5 signal from the Indian SBAS satellite, GSAT-8, launched on May 20.  In a further explanation to GPS World, CEO Javad Ashjaee explained, “All owners of our products can track it. The only thing is that if customers have not updated their firmware for a long time, they should update to recent firmwares released earlier. They need to update their firmware, which is free of charge and is posted on our website. All of our customers with recent firmware versions can track the GAGAN L5 signal.”

An earlier report from CANSPACE that appeared on the GPS World website said, in part, “Although GSAT-8 reportedly carries a dual-frequency transponder, no L5 signals from this satellite have yet been detected by International GNSS Service tracking stations.”

The JAVAD GNSS statement on September 30 said “Report of GPS World that GAGAN PRN127 does not transmit L5 signal is not correct. Our receivers track it.
 This graph shows code-phase measurements for this signal.” The web page displays this figure:

A check with a University of Bern, Switzerland, report of stations participating in the IGS M-GEX campaign on October 2 found that a number of stations are tracking the L1 signal from GSAT-8 but none are tracking the L5 signal yet due to issues with receiver firmware. However, various stations in the Cooperative Network for GNSS Observation (formerly the Cooperative Network for GIOVE Observation, still abbreviated CONGO), using Javad Triumph receivers, have tracked GAGAN L1 and L5 signals for more than half a year. No detailed analysis of these measurements has been performed so far.