Members of the Subcommittees on Maintenance, Systems Management and
Operations, Special Committees on Wireless Communications, Transportation
Security and Emergency Management, Frequency Coordinators

Good Morning,

I apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message but we are
seeking a wide distribution to insure those needing the information
receive
it as quickly as possible.

Recently the Federal Communications Commission approved a Request for
Waiver of the Commission's regulations allowing a firm to potentially
build
over 40,000 high powered transmitter sites throughout the United States.
The waiver was granted on a "fast-track" basis in that it was
approximately
60 days from application to grant. This included a very brief period in
which to file comments from interested parties on the merits of the
request. In short, the waiver grants a company, Lightsquared authorization
to build high powered transmitters using frequencies assigned to satellite
communications for the purpose of bringing increased broadband
communications to commercial users.

The frequencies are located in what is known as the L-Band and they are
adjacent to the L1 frequency used to send the timing signals from the US
GPS Constellation to GPS units. Laboratory testing from Garmin has shown a
personal navigation device such as the GPS unit used in vehicles will lose
the satellite's signal at a distance of over 5 miles from one of these
transmitters while aircraft relying on GPS technology will lose signal at
distance of over 12 miles.

How is transportation affected? Many systems already deployed rely on the
precision timing signals transmitted from the GPS constellation. Systems
affected include survey instruments, radio systems, cellular telephone
networks and, virtually all credit card transactions as they rely on the
high precision timing data from GPS used as date/time stamps on the
transactions.

To our collective knowledge, this is the first waiver of technical rules
issued by the FCC without conducting extensive testing prior to ruling.
The
ruling has several conditions, the most critical is the requirement
Lightsquared must demonstrate their system will not interfere with the
reception of GPS satellite signals. The enclosed memo details some of the
conditions Lightsquared must meet before they are allowed to commercially
deploy their system.

AASHTO, in conjunction with both governmental and industry groups on this
issue and will keep you informed of further developments. The next
milestone is Lightsquared must produce a report detailing a plan to
mitigate interference in mid-June.(See attached file: DA-11-367A1_LS
WG.DOC)

"josephkk" wrote in message
...

Members of the Subcommittees on Maintenance, Systems Management and
Operations, Special Committees on Wireless Communications, Transportation
Security and Emergency Management, Frequency Coordinators

Good Morning,

I apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message but we are
seeking a wide distribution to insure those needing the information
receive
it as quickly as possible.

Recently the Federal Communications Commission approved a Request for
Waiver of the Commission's regulations allowing a firm to potentially
build
over 40,000 high powered transmitter sites throughout the United States.
The waiver was granted on a "fast-track" basis in that it was
approximately
60 days from application to grant. This included a very brief period in
which to file comments from interested parties on the merits of the
request. In short, the waiver grants a company, Lightsquared authorization
to build high powered transmitters using frequencies assigned to satellite
communications for the purpose of bringing increased broadband
communications to commercial users.

The frequencies are located in what is known as the L-Band and they are
adjacent to the L1 frequency used to send the timing signals from the US
GPS Constellation to GPS units. Laboratory testing from Garmin has shown a
personal navigation device such as the GPS unit used in vehicles will lose
the satellite's signal at a distance of over 5 miles from one of these
transmitters while aircraft relying on GPS technology will lose signal at
distance of over 12 miles.

How is transportation affected? Many systems already deployed rely on the
precision timing signals transmitted from the GPS constellation. Systems
affected include survey instruments, radio systems, cellular telephone
networks and, virtually all credit card transactions as they rely on the
high precision timing data from GPS used as date/time stamps on the
transactions.

To our collective knowledge, this is the first waiver of technical rules
issued by the FCC without conducting extensive testing prior to ruling.
The
ruling has several conditions, the most critical is the requirement
Lightsquared must demonstrate their system will not interfere with the
reception of GPS satellite signals. The enclosed memo details some of the
conditions Lightsquared must meet before they are allowed to commercially
deploy their system.

Ok, so they must demonstrate they do not interfere with GPS... whats the
problem? Don't you think lightsquared isn't going to risk screwing with the
GPS band because if they do effect it they have potential to lose a lot of
money(if they're transmitters are shut down)?

Of course if lightsquared has nafarious purposes(probably a chinese based
company?) then they are installing them to bring down GPS when they need
to(such as when the US economy crashes and china wants to make sure US
doesn't recover). But they then don't need the government to give them a
waiver as they can just build and install them at their leisure or just buy
off politicians.

So either way don't worry about it unless you plan on actually getting off
your butt and running for public office.

On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 05:50:03 -0600, "Jeff Johnson"
wrote:



"josephkk" wrote in message
.. .

Members of the Subcommittees on Maintenance, Systems Management and
Operations, Special Committees on Wireless Communications, Transportation
Security and Emergency Management, Frequency Coordinators

Good Morning,

I apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message but we are
seeking a wide distribution to insure those needing the information
receive
it as quickly as possible.

Recently the Federal Communications Commission approved a Request for
Waiver of the Commission's regulations allowing a firm to potentially
build
over 40,000 high powered transmitter sites throughout the United States.
The waiver was granted on a "fast-track" basis in that it was
approximately
60 days from application to grant. This included a very brief period in
which to file comments from interested parties on the merits of the
request. In short, the waiver grants a company, Lightsquared authorization
to build high powered transmitters using frequencies assigned to satellite
communications for the purpose of bringing increased broadband
communications to commercial users.

The frequencies are located in what is known as the L-Band and they are
adjacent to the L1 frequency used to send the timing signals from the US
GPS Constellation to GPS units. Laboratory testing from Garmin has shown a
personal navigation device such as the GPS unit used in vehicles will lose
the satellite's signal at a distance of over 5 miles from one of these
transmitters while aircraft relying on GPS technology will lose signal at
distance of over 12 miles.

How is transportation affected? Many systems already deployed rely on the
precision timing signals transmitted from the GPS constellation. Systems
affected include survey instruments, radio systems, cellular telephone
networks and, virtually all credit card transactions as they rely on the
high precision timing data from GPS used as date/time stamps on the
transactions.

To our collective knowledge, this is the first waiver of technical rules
issued by the FCC without conducting extensive testing prior to ruling.
The
ruling has several conditions, the most critical is the requirement
Lightsquared must demonstrate their system will not interfere with the
reception of GPS satellite signals. The enclosed memo details some of the
conditions Lightsquared must meet before they are allowed to commercially
deploy their system.

Ok, so they must demonstrate they do not interfere with GPS... whats the
problem? Don't you think lightsquared isn't going to risk screwing with the
GPS band because if they do effect it they have potential to lose a lot of
money(if they're transmitters are shut down)?

Of course if lightsquared has nafarious purposes(probably a chinese based
company?) then they are installing them to bring down GPS when they need
to(such as when the US economy crashes and china wants to make sure US
doesn't recover). But they then don't need the government to give them a
waiver as they can just build and install them at their leisure or just buy
off politicians.

So either way don't worry about it unless you plan on actually getting off
your butt and running for public office.


You are a real optimist i see.