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Date:      Thu, 09 Oct 1997 03:55:40 +0930
From:      Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To:        Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
Cc:        Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, cliff ainsworth III <cliff@cliffsworld.com>, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: project truck.....ideas wanted 
Message-ID:  <199710081825.DAA00927@word.smith.net.au>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 08 Oct 1997 10:58:11 CST." <199710081658.KAA10961@rocky.mt.sri.com> 

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> > > You don't even *need* a wireless radio link, since the GPS unit will
> > > allow you to synchronize your clocks with the satellites, thus allowing
> > > you the ability to use time-stamps for your readings that you can
> > > 'differentialize' after the run.
> > 
> > Uh, hang on a second.  You want to use DGPS to remove the SA jitter, 
> > correct?  SA jitter is by definition random, and DGPS uses the fact 
> > that the reference is known to be stationary to calculate the SA
> > jitter.
> 
> Shh, don't tell anyone, but let me let you in on a little secret.  The
> 'jitter' in GPS that makes most of the difference *isn't* random.  Most
> of it is introduced, and that's what makes the accuracy < 100 M.  If you
> remove the accuracy, you're down to ~1M accuracy, and by taking out the
> rest of the 'jitter', you can do better than .1M accuracy.  However, for
> the above application, I suspect 1M accuracy is probably good enough.

Um.  So you are saying that the "introduced" jitter, ie. SA (Selective
Availability), is actually predictable?  And that this prediction is 
available to a commercial consumer?  What's the point of it then?

> We call this 'fake' DGPS, and use it for many projects at SRI which
> don't need *really* accurate measurements.  (SRI helped develop GPS, and
> continues to do alot of GPS research.)

Heck, I'm not telling you off here; I'm just trying to get a handle on 
this.  For at least one of our applications, this would make a *very* 
significant difference (we need to get < 1/2 wavelength real-space 
measurements for portable gear over 5-50km, with wavelengths in the 
few-metres range) - so pony up, how do you do it?

> Again, I'm talking about removing the 'introduced' jitter, and not
> removing the jitter related to moving satellites/moving cars, but I
> don't think that kind of accuracy is *necessary*. 

No, not at all.  I was merely concerned about SA jitter which is bad 
enough to make solution-to-solution measurements unreliable for 
something like a moving vehicle.

> ps.  However, I'm not sure how the 'static shield' talked about earlier
> would affect the GPS receiver.  If it does, then GPS is a non-starter.

Given that it appeared at around 200mph, there's a good 50+mph of clear 
air left 8)

mike





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