FWIW I read on a gps website a few months back that the government will be
discontinuing the "selective availability" or induced errors in the civilian
gps system over the next couple of years. Of course anything you read on
the internet you have to take with a grain of salt. But it sounded legit.
--Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: Ned Buckmaster <Ned@Buckmaster.com>
To: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 4:10 AM
Subject: RE: DML: Re[2]: terraserver
> The military, in fact, turned OFF the encoding during the gulf war because
> they didn't have enough mil-spec GPS units for the troops. So the turned
off
> the encoding and supplied civilian GPS receivers to the field.
>
> >The military uses a very sophisticated algorithm to encode/decode the
built
> >in error of GPS. It is my understanding that they can and do change the
> >algorithm at irregular intervals (like during George Bush's War-to
> >- -Keep-Cheap-Oil-Prices...er, I mean War-Against-Naked-Aggression (aka
The
> >Persian Gulf War)).
>
> No, it's NOT a GPS reciever that decodes the US system - It's a complete
> separate system called GLONASS. And it has no encryption.
>
> > While it's hard to imagine Russian anything being
> >better or more accurate that its American counterpart, even if you did
get
> >a Russian GPS unit that could decode the GPS error, it would only last
> >until the military changed their code.
>
> They WERE available, other than the fact that the US military bought most
of
> them and drove up the prices! GPS wouldn't tell the Iragi where the U.S.
(or
> anyone else's) troops were.
>
> > I don't know why you're so upset
> >about this. Would you really want GPS units readily available that would
> >have allowed Iraqi artillery units to accurately target U.S. troops?
>
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