Big Solar Storm, Little GPS Effect

Although it was billed as the strongest for the past eight years and coincided nicely with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting in New Oreans, this week’s solar storm apparently had a limited effect on GPS receivers and users.

LightSquared GPS Interference Controversy: Senate Investigation Won’t End with FCC Decision

A Senate investigation into how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) handled a request to rezone spectrum adjacent to GPS frequencies for LightSquared’s powerful wireless network will continue whether the FCC nixes the plan or not.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been looking into whether the FCC fast-tracked its review of the Virginia firm’s proposal to build a 4G broadband network with signals that would be, tests now show, powerful enough to interfere dramatically with GPS receivers.

The Return of SVN49

In an effort to improve constellation sustainment, on or about Feb. 1, 2012, SVN-49 will resume transmitting an L-band signal using PRN24 as a test asset, according to the U.S. Air Force Space Command. Upon completion of the test event, SVN-49 will once again be decommissioned from active service.  PRN24 will then once again be available for future satellite service.

DoD Strategic Guidance “Protects” GPS Modernization

GPS and other space systems fare well in the Department of Defense (DoD) strategic budget initiative outlined today (January 26, 2012) by U.S. civil and military officials.

The comments reflected policy decisions laid out in “Defense Budget Priorities and Choices,” an introduction to a strategic guidance intended to plot the course of the Pentagon over the next five years. Modernization of the Global Positioning System will be “protected” financially, according to the document.

Supreme Court Ruling on GPS-Aided Monitoring Leaves Issues Unresolved

A U.S. Supreme Court opinion released this week (January 23, 2012) ruled that warrantless GPS-aided monitoring of a suspect violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures."

But it will probably not be the court’s last word on the subject and may, in fact, provide Congress and state legislatures with enough incentive to address the subject more fully than they have to date.

GPS - The DoD's Profit Center

Why Washington continues to talk about deficits while the country is talking about jobs and foreclosures is kind of a mystery, but let’s play along.

Following the failure of Congress’s would-be budget-cutting committee that wasn’t so super, the Department of Defense is facing about $500 billion in mandatory cuts over the next 10 years.