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As
a group, boat electronics have been on quite a roll, but I detect two
trends about to simultaneously detonate, and the results will be game
changing. The first is about how GPS, already on a fast track, will thoroughly
permeate life ashore and afloat. The second, related, is about how the
expanding promise of marine electronics is too often obscured by hairballs
of confusion and the way yacht builders are consequently rethinking the
traditional model of how boats and their gizmos are paired and marketed.
Look closely at the
photograph above; those two itsy-bitsy chips, plus a tiny antenna, are
the total hardware needed for “Assisted GPS” (A-GPS). A-GPS
is a technology that has been demonstrated to make a cellphone perform
better in some ways than any GPS I’ve ever used, acquiring cold-start
fixes in milliseconds even deep inside urban canyons or suburban shopping
malls. The developer, Global Locate, is just one of several companies
fighting ferociously for a cellular GPS market largely fueled by the FCC’s
E (enhanced) 911 mandates. Stock analysts are also excited and expect
GPS chip sales to increase a hundredfold over the next few years, with
attendant drops in size and price.
Navionics’ director
of OEM business, Bruce Angus, confirms the trend, describing how regular
GPS chip sets that had cost $75 a year and half ago have now been replaced
with single $15 chips that are smaller and use less power. And while A-GPS
is dependent on a wireless data connection for its amazing performance,
we can look forward to some significant improvements in the stand-alone
GPS more suitable to the high seas. Recall that NAVSTAR, as GPS is formally
known, was originally developed as a U.S. military system and rather casually
opened to civilian use in only 1993. Now it’s essential to civilians
and businesses around the world, and both the Departments of Defense and
Transportation are determined to make it better.
The first GPS satellite
with a new civilian “L2C” signal will launch later this year.
The L2C signal makes for easier satellite acquisition and tracking and
will also inhibit ionospheric interference. The new signal won’t
really be useful until enough satellites are launched, roughly by 2008,
and by then new birds will also include an even more powerful and precise
L5 band. (The schedule may be sped up after a presidential commission
reviews GPS this winter.) Meanwhile, significant money is being spent
on WAAS GPS correction—it should be deemed fully operational sometime
this year—and the little-known National DGPS is also being built
out, eventually offering three- to nine-foot accuracy even on inland U.S.
waterways.
Plus the European system,
Galileo, is slowly but surely making its way toward reality, meaning that
there will be a whole other GPS constellation to reference. Finally, it’s
worth remembering that the DOT declared back in 2001—ironically,
the day before 9/11—that GPS was so important, and so susceptible
to malevolent jamming and spoofing, that all its relevant agencies should
come up with an alternative means of electronic navigation. The decisions
are due soon, and at least the U.S. Coast Guard and FAA seem likely to
choose a new and improved Loran system. The U.S. Congress even increased
its appropriation for Loran modernization from $19 to $25 million for
2003.
The obvious conclusion
is that electronic location awareness is going to work well everywhere
and be in everything—phones, cars, portable computers, dog tags,
who knows what? We, or at least our children, will expect to know where
we are at all times, including any and all relevant info about that place
and where everything we value is, too. On big vessels the ultimate plotter
may sport multiple GPS differential aids and Loran backup, but we’re
already seeing mass consumer electronics—PCs, PDAs, even watches—compete
with dedicated plotters. Shopping for cellphones is hellacious right now;
imagine when they add mapping features and show up in boat shops.
Next page >
Part 2: These darn electronics have become important. > Page 1, 2,
3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8
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