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What’s New: Editor’s intro, “First Fix” to August’s edition of GPS World magazine.
Why It’s Important: There is a lot of technology available to improve the safety of navigation (and timing). The problem is:
- Many users choose to not have equipment or access systems that could make them safer. “Why should i spend more money for a receiver that is more resistance to interference?”
- Many governments choose to not make infrastructure and signals available that and augment, complement, and operate independently of GNSS. “There are so many other and urgent priorities. Why should we bother when nothing really bad has happened yet?”
What Else to Know: GPS World is a corporate member of the RNT Foundation.
First Fix: By all available means
All maritime navigators (should) know by heart Rule 5 of the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (Colregs for short): “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”
Analogously, now that positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data have become essential to the functioning of critical infrastructure and many other aspects of advanced industrial economies, it is imperative that we use “all available means” to maintain and improve that data’s accuracy, integrity, availability, continuity and coverage.
