EGNOS

[John E Cache]

Will current GPS use it. It sounds like a EU WAAS and a 6 foot accuracy seems optimistic to me.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/04/eus-new...em-goes-active/

[+kallt_kaffe]

The "news":

The EU's Galileo satellite positioning project has been lost in a haze of paperwork for a while, but there's finally some positive news to report: a "precursor" system called EGNOS launched last week, which will provide free positioning over most of the 27 EU states. The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, as it's charmingly called, consists of three satellites, four control centers, and around 40 positioning stations, all of which combine to take signals from US GPS satellites and enhance them to provide position information that's accurate to six feet, compared to around 60 feet for GPS alone. That means satnavs in Europe are going to get more accurate overnight, as most major brands are already EGNOS-ready -- too bad better navigation won't keep drivers in the UK from careening into rivers and damaging bridges.

 

First of all, this has been active for years...

 

Second, 6 feet is roughly 2 meters accurancy which is what I sometimes get with my HCx when it finds an EGNOS satellite (living at N60 means it's not something to count on to happen...) so that part is actually true. However, without EGNOS I often get 3 meters accurancy in open areas which so it reality it is not from 60 to 6 feet... It's from 10 to 6 feet. And not a single GPS will get more accurate over night. Nothing has changed... It's just officially launched instead of being "tested".

Edited October 8, 2009 by kallt_kaffe

[Orion84]

My Vista HCx reported the Artemis satellite (number 37) as one of the "connected" satellites a few days ago and it caused the d's to appear in the other satellite bars, indicating WAAS/EGNOS coverage. My unit reported an accuracy of 2 meters at that moment, which is about 6 feet. (This was even indoors, with the GPS sitting on the desk in my room on the upper floor of our house)

 

So yes, these new satellites can be used and 6 feet accuracy corresponds to what the unit reports, whether that might still be optimistic I don't know. In the case I just mentioned my position was spot on and remained very stable for a number of hours.

 

Not that WAAS/EGNOS coverage and 2 meter accuracy in Europe is anything special. I have seen my unit reporting such accuracy before, with good satellite cover and WAAS/EGNOS coverage from satellite number 33 if I recall correctly.

 

But maybe with a few extra satellites the chances of having WAAS/EGNOS coverage will improve a bit in Europe. However, the problem with those geostationary WAAS/EGNOS satellites is that they "hover" over the equator and as such it is quite hard to get a good view at them from higher latitudes.

 

More info: http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/waas_egnos.htm

[John E Cache]

I don't know who was dumber, Engadget or me for buying what they said. So never mind.

[+agentmancuso]

6 foot accuracy seems optimistic to me.

 

I've had +/- 2m regularly since enabling WAAS/EGNOS a couple of months ago. Prior to that I'd never seen better than +/- 6m, so it does seem to make a difference.

[+DENelson83]

Well, EGNOS hasn't "recently gone active" in that sense of the idea. It's more like it's "come out of beta".

Edited October 12, 2009 by DENelson83

[+GPSlug]

Well, EGNOS hasn't "recently gone active" in that sense of the idea. It's more like it's "come out of beta".

Heck, not even that. It's still running in "test mode" (transmitting message type 0 = not usable for safety-of-live/aviation), so the signal hasn't changed at all. As far as I can tell, the only thing this announcement meant is that someone was able to check off a milestone. The timing of it probably has to do with there being a European space conference this week.

 

Use for safety of life is supposed to happen later this year.