Re: [amsat-bb] GPS suppression

[Steve Dimse K4HG <k4hg@xxxxxxxx>]

On 4/2/99 12:45 PM Bill Jones (wejones@megalink.net) wrote:

>I'm a bit confused by this whole discussion.  I thought that 
>what was being suppressed was the orbital elements not the 
>use of GPS, or did I miss something.  I mean the discussion 
>seemed to jump from talking about not being able to find 
>orbital elements and then jumped into assuming that we 
>couldn't use GPS anymore?  I know there was one sentence 
>about not broadcasting "elements" via GPS, but I assumed 
>that had nothing to do with the functionality of the GPS.

NORAD is not releasing the 2 line elements for the GPS constellation, 
that is true. The other message was an April Fool's joke, pointing out 
how ludicrous this truth is. Every GPS satellite continously broadcasts 
its own exact position, as well as orbital elements and status 
information for the rest of the constellation. This information is 
absolutely essential to the functioning of GPS. Anyone with the 
capabilities to interfere with or damage a GPS satellite certainly is 
able to use the data broadcast to determine the satellite's position more 
accurately than the 2 line elements. Hence the joke...only I didn't think 
it was very funny, these are my tax dollars at work!

So relax, GPS functioning will be unchanged by this bogus message.

Steve K4HG



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