From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 93 19:37:36 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re:  GPS and security
Message-ID: <9312290338.AA16524@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Thanks to Phil for the technical descriptions about GPS; I'd heard numbers
like 1 foot for Differential accuracy.  One minor correction to the
"military buying civilian GPS gear" issues - a lot of it wasn't the
military itself buying the gear, it was individual soldiers or their parents
buying the sets so their kids wouldn't get lost out in the desert.

I was at an AFCEA trade show, mainly looking for imaging and crypto stuff,
but two of the biggest hits were the various GPS vendors and a vendor
selling small drone airplanes.  (Very few people probably needed the things
for work, but they were Neat Stuff and you could understand what it did.)
The 6-foot wingspan model had a payload of about 35 pounds; the 10-foot model
had about 120 pounds, where payload includes fuel plus whatever else.
The primary applications it was being marketed for were radio repeaters and
video camera transmission systems, but the Army makes a backpack-carriable
nuke that leaves you enough fuel-weight to get 1-200 miles....

					Bill Stewart
					
# Bill Stewart  NCR Corp, 6870 Koll Center Parkway, Pleasanton CA, 94566
# Voice/Beeper 510-224-7043, Phone 510-484-6204
# email bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com billstewart@attmail.com