"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
BusinessWeek is carrying an article today that says that government
tests showed that the proposed LightSquared mobile service caused
interference to 75% of all GPS receivers tested.

The report can be found at: http://preview.tinyurl.com/7jyaazf

There is big money behind this. I'd recommend writing your elected
representatives and voicing your concerns.




It seems to me real sailors needn't be concerned about this at all. Who
needs GPS inland or very near coastal anyway where landmarks and
navigation marks are eyeball visible? Those who proceed down the
Intracoastal Waterway with eyes glued to their GPS readout are putzes to
be sure.

It also seems to me that where a clean GPS signal is most needed, the
commercial broadcast will not have the range to reach out that far.
These signals are very weak and short-range. Lucky if they have a
workable range of a mile.

"The laboratory testing was performed for the National Space-Based
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Systems Engineering Forum, an
executive branch body that helps advise policy makers on issues around
GPS. It found that 69 of 92, or 75 percent, of receivers tested
"experienced harmful interference" at the equivalent of 100 meters (109
yards) from a LightSquared base station." - from link above.

If you regularly sail within a 100 meters of a transceiver station (they
won't be on the water, folks" then be worried - be very worried, but
those instances will be few and far between to non-existent.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.


Wilbur Hubbard