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TWiesengrund t1_j5qhu5q wrote

Consumer grade GPS devices have such a broad accuracy, military and engineering GPS receivers have always had much better accuracy down to centimeters or even below for long-term measurements.

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apeowl OP t1_j5qj86h wrote

Yeah, but to achieve (sub-)millimeter accuracy with Galileo you need much less complex technology than for GPS, also Galileo only needs a few minutes for that, while with GPS, such accuracy can only be achieved with long-term measurements.

Also, Galileo's high accuracy service which provides said 20 cm was just released to public today

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Volcan_R t1_j5qlbgq wrote

The technology for accurate GPS measurement isn't particularly complex or expensive. You just need a GPS receiver in a fixed location to log the fluctuations against the GPS you are determining the location of. You would use the same strategy for Gallileo I assume but there isn't the intentional addition of innacuracy for non military use.

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MrWrock t1_j5rcfvg wrote

In another thread I read that that intentional accuracy drop was removed 20 years ago but there still is a second frequency in the military can use for higher accuracy than consumer grade

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Volcan_R t1_j5rmigc wrote

Looks like you're right. I guess the 10-15 foot distortions I was getting 10 years ago when I was working with it were atmospheric distortions from the single frequency.

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bdesign7 t1_j5u60bl wrote

Yep. When I was in the Army in the late 90’s/early 00’s we would hold our military gps and a consumer gps (probably a garmin, I would guess) and you could see instantly how much more accurate the military one was.

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Shillforbigusername t1_j5rjl7x wrote

Isn’t that additional inaccuracy a thing of the past? I googled it because I was unfamiliar with the concept and came across this:

> Doesn't the government degrade civilian GPS accuracy?

>No. During the 1990s, GPS employed a feature called Selective Availability that intentionally degraded civilian accuracy on a global basis.

>In May 2000, at the direction of President Bill Clinton, the U.S. government ended its use of Selective Availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide.

>The United States has no intent to ever use Selective Availability again.

https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/

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bellendhunter t1_j5sng78 wrote

There is indeed a more precise GPS signal for military use. It requires crypto keys to use it. Can’t remember the specifics but I think GPS has a completely separate signal for it.

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SupFellar t1_j5qp7hm wrote

"but there isn't the intentional addition of innacuracy for non military use." there is, it's at 20cm

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ggrieves t1_j5qqi4n wrote

GPS, as I understand it, was intentionally throttled because of concern it could be used to guide a weapon. But technology has improved so much since then that GPS isn't the limitation any more.

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seamustheseagull t1_j5txdsg wrote

Nevertheless, I believe GPS devices sold in the US are still required to shut off above a certain speed/altitude, much to the annoyance of amateur rocket/balloon people.

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Apeshaft t1_j5vm9eg wrote

And these two systems are compatible with each other so the accuracy gotta be pretty great? Oh, and modern phones even use the Russian GLOSNASS system. It consists of almost three satellites and have an accuracy of 200 potatoes.

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