Enos Shenk Posted April 20, 2002 Posted April 20, 2002 Heres a strange use for GPS. When i was working for bellsouth installing cellular equipment, we snuck into a nextel shed to check out the other services equipment. I was sort of baffled to find that each nextel cellular tower has a GPS antenna and reciever attached on the side of the tower. I still have no idea why they do this, do they really expect their 300 foot tall metal pole to someday get up and walk off? [Episkipos Enos Shenk, KSC] [403forbidden.urbanexploration.org] Quote
+MrGigabyte Posted April 20, 2002 Posted April 20, 2002 They are probably broadcasting differential corrections (DGPS) from that location. Quote
Licorice Posted April 21, 2002 Posted April 21, 2002 GPS antenna can be seen on many cell towers. Specifically it's used on sites for both iDEN (including Nextel in the US and Telus Mike in Canada) and CDMA (Sprint PCS, Verizon, GTE, Telus, Bell Mobility, etc) technologies. For CDMA, the timing is very important in the broadcast and sequencing of the cellular transmission, so GPS at cell sites are not used for positional information, but rather for the consistant time signal delivered with the positional information. I run a web site on cell phones that includes pictures of some cell towers, including the GPS antenna. One day I plan to merge the two hobbies and design a multi-geocache cell tower hunt... See http://www.geckobeach.com/cellular/cellpixs/clrn_pix.htm for some GPS pictures on cell sites. Steve (Licorice) Quote
Kerry. Posted April 21, 2002 Posted April 21, 2002 The full name "NAVSTAR GPS" says it all, NAVigation Satellite Timing And Ranging Global Positioning System. The "Timing" bit almost controls the world. Cheers, Kerry. I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go Quote
Kerry. Posted April 21, 2002 Posted April 21, 2002 The full name "NAVSTAR GPS" says it all, NAVigation Satellite Timing And Ranging Global Positioning System. The "Timing" bit almost controls the world. Cheers, Kerry. I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go Quote
ride_bent Posted April 21, 2002 Posted April 21, 2002 And my wife thinks I am a geek! I am not even close after seeing a webpage dedicated to cell towers! Very cool by the way! The best things in life are not things... Quote
ride_bent Posted April 21, 2002 Posted April 21, 2002 And my wife thinks I am a geek! I am not even close after seeing a webpage dedicated to cell towers! Very cool by the way! The best things in life are not things... Quote
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