BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Surviving the End of Year Leap-Second Event

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On Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:34:09 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:32:05 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 18 Oct 2016 10:34:29 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

11:24

On Tue, 18 Oct 2016 08:47:37 -0400,
wrote:

- show quoted text -
Actually as a mariner, you should care. If you use a chart plotter, it
is good to know your GPS is right.

"The U.S. federal government's Global Positioning System (GPS)
broadcasts leap second correction information in the navigation
message. However, it is the responsibility of users to assure that
their hardware and software recognizes and manages the leap second
correctly; errors and equipment failures can occur when GPS receivers
and clocks process the leap second signal incorrectly. Please ensure
all software and firmware is up to date."
....

Actually Greg I think he's talking about us ordinary folk who put this info in a trivia class.

Not something I'd be concerned about. But it is kind if interesting though..,

===

I think it's interesting that there are people who spend a lot of time
and money being concerned with such things.

If the software in your GPS is not smart enough to deal with this it
could be a problem. It is hard to find someone who doesn't have GPS in
their phone, boat or car.

===

Every GPS unit that I'm familiar with, and that includes even the
cheapo USB hockey pucks, receives updated time information from the
satellites and just reports what it hears - no analysis required. The
satellites however have their own atomic clocks and must be programmed
to skip a second at the right time. A second is an eternity to an
atomic clock and all of the birds have to be synchronized with each
other. :-)