March 2, 2020 On Dec. 17, it was -15 degrees outside and, after a long day working on his Alaskan homestead, Tyson Steele had forgotten to stoke the woodstove fire before drifting off to sleep. Awoken by a chill in the middle of night, he quickly tossed a big piece of cardboard, some split logs and tinder into the fire and went back to bed. That decision would unfold into a nightmare that Steele had […]

Photo: Quantum Reversal Quantum Reversal has released the QR100, a novel L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming unit, and the QR101, an  L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming antenna, designed for the commercial market to solve the issue of unintentional RF interference or jamming. The QR100 uses three external passive or active GPS antennas of the user’s choice, while the QR101 has three passive L1/L2 antennas embedded inside the enclosure. Low power consumption of 1 Watt and low cost allow for […]

February 28, 2020 In Lawrence, Kansas, a team at the University of Kansas School of Aerospace Engineering has taken technology from the 1970s and created a tool designed to gather environmental research data. The technology? A 1974 Cessna 172. The team has specially modified the aircraft with an advanced airborne radar designed to measure regional snow thickness throughout South Dakota’s Black Hills region. The Mission After spending four years in the hangar, the KU team […]

Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services. The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office. All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China […]

More launches planned for March and May Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services, according to China news service Xinhuanet. The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office. All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China […]

February 28, 2020 What started out as a fairly routine backcountry freeride on snowbikes — dirt bikes with ski and track conversions designed for deep snow — turned into an unexpected situation that left Craig Hunter and three other party members stranded in a deep ravine in freezing temperatures. In his own words, Hunter shared with Garmin the details of their 40-hour ordeal, SOS, night in the woods and rescue in the Canadian Chic Chocs. […]

Photo: Carlson Carlson Machine Control has introduced the Vsx7 multi-frequency position and heading receiver. The Vsx7 is a multi-GNSS receiver designed specifically for machine control and can be installed on excavators, drills, pile drivers and more. Paired with the Carlson A45 antennas, the Vsx7 features high-precision positioning in Athena RTK, Atlas L-band and SBAS and heading accuracy of up to .01 degrees. The whole Vsx7 system is designed to operate in harsh conditions from -40 […]

L3Harris Technologies has reached a major milestone in the U.S. Air Force’s Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) project — passing the preliminary design review that defines the spacecraft’s path to delivery and allows the program to move to the next phase of development. NTS-3 is an experimental program examining ways to improve the resiliency of the military’s positioning, navigation and timing capabilities. It will also develop key technologies relevant to the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation, […]

Turkey has opened GNSS base station in Antarctica, according to Sputnik News. The station can track changes in the location of icebergs and transmit photos of Antarctica’s surface, as well as process data from GPS, GLONASS and Galileo. “A GNSS satellite navigation base station was set up within the framework of the fourth Turkish scientific expedition to Antarctica,” said Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, as quoted by the national Anadolu news agency. “A […]

Dana Goward, President, Resilient PNT Foundation On Feb. 12, the White House released an “Executive Order on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services.” It is gratifying to see White House attention to this issue. The increase in public awareness it brings will benefit individual users and the nation as a whole. The order also hints at market driven solutions that could quickly improve America’s PNT resilience. Needless delays Unfortunately, […]