On Sun 2004-02-15T12:10:17 +0000, Markus Kuhn hath writ:
> The GPS signal format has been virtually unchanged since prototype
> experiments in the early 1970s
I'm just now reviewing the very recent GPS L2 ICD
https://gps.losangeles.af.mil/Gpsarchives/1000-public/1200-cm/documents/review/icdgps200/pirn200c008/PIRN-200C-008,%2027Jan2004.pdf
An insignificant difference is the blue-pencilling of
all occurrences of "Universal Coordinated Time" and replacement with
"Coordinated Universal Time.
A significant difference is that there is now a 16-bit field intended
to give the calendar year. This will certainly alleviate any need
to worry about violating the week rollover patent that Tom Van Baak
mentioned a while back.
But I still find no indication that the leap second counters have a
different width. That would leave the GPS receiver implementor with a
need to guess the value of Delta-T to within 256 seconds. Fortunately
that will be a relatively robust guess for many, many centuries.
--
Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla_at_ucolick.org Voice: +1 831 459 3046 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
PGP: 1024/E46978C5 F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E 49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
Received on Sun Feb 15 2004 - 08:46:26 PST