I humbly stand corrected. Walter DCA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bahadir Acuner" <bahadiracuner@yahoo.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 09:47 Subject: Re: Long love the VOR! U.S. would ensure backup systems for GPS > Hey, > let's not forget the NDBs. The only back-up we have for KRNT is a lousy NDB > approach. :) > > BAHA > Fan of getting back to instructing again. > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of W > Wilson > Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 9:49 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Long love the VOR! U.S. would ensure backup systems for GPS > > > Long live the VOR! > > Walter > DCA > > WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) - The Transportation Department said on > Thursday it would ensure that global positioning systems used in aviation > and other transportation are state-of-the-art and adequately backed up. > > Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the agency would launch a plan > that included back-up strategies as well as continued partnership with the > Pentagon to modernize satellite navigation systems used in civil > transportation. > > The department would also study GPS applications for aviation and other > civil transportation over the long term, and obtain new technology to > prevent jamming or other intentional interference. > > Developed by the Defense Department, GPS uses a constellation of two dozen > orbiting satellites as reference points to quickly and precisely calculate > positions anywhere in the world. It has many common applications and is > widely used to track the position of trucks, ships and trains. > > > The Federal Aviation Administration plans to use it to safely pack more > planes into the skies and allow precision landings in bad weather. > > The precise time kept by the GPS system has also spawned myriad other > civilian uses such as coordinating power transmissions and synchronizing > telephone networks. > > A Transportation Department report in September concluded that air, rail, > road and sea users of GPS technology should be prepare for outages and keep > ground-based navigation aids on line as back-up. > > The study found that the relatively weak GPS signal is susceptible to > unintentional disruption from atmospheric effects, buildings and radio > signals. It was also vulnerable to tampering. > > The September report by Transportation Department's Volpe National > Transportation System Center outside Boston concluded that with proper > precautions there should be optimism about the potential of GPS. > > The report recommended development of affordable backup navigation. Those > could include systems that make use of both GPS and radio positioning > systems as well as other technologies. >