European Galileo GPS satellite system just went live

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johngo
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European Galileo GPS satellite system just went live

Post by johngo » December 17th, 2016, 9:36 am

More good news for GPS users: the European Galileo satellite system just went on line a few days ago. Most newer GPS units, phones included, can receive the signals of both the US and the Russian (GLONASS) satellite systems. Soon the European system will be added. This offers a greater number of satellites sending signals, which will improve GPS accuracy even more in the coming years.

from wikipedia:
"Galileo started offering Early Operational Capability (EOC) on 15 December 2016[1] and is expected to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2019.[8] The complete 30-satellite Galileo system (24 operational and 6 active spares) is expected by 2020."

Webfoot
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Re: European Galileo GPS satellite system just went live

Post by Webfoot » December 17th, 2016, 3:40 pm

Do you know if existing hardware with work with those satellites, i.e. is this software/firmware upgradable or will only new devices possibly make use of them?

Joseph Elfelt
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Re: European Galileo GPS satellite system just went live

Post by Joseph Elfelt » December 19th, 2016, 3:03 pm

Here is an article that says Galileo will provide 1 meter accuracy.
Time will tell.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/eu-galileo-news/

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johngo
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Re: European Galileo GPS satellite system just went live

Post by johngo » December 19th, 2016, 4:24 pm

Webfoot wrote:Do you know if existing hardware with work with those satellites, i.e. is this software/firmware upgradable or will only new devices possibly make use of them?
Web, that's a fine question. I do not know the answer.
This is another advantage of using smart phone based GPS like Gaia; most people upgrade their phones every few years, and Apple pushes you for a software update every couple of months, so that's a way to make sure you're always using the latest and greatest.

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