Agricultural News
Future Use of Precision Agriculture GPS Could Be Hampered
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:56:54 CDT
At the recent Ag Technology Field Days in Afton and Kingfisher, the question was raised regarding interference with GPS by a proposed 4G cellular network. LightSquared was granted a conditional waiver by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use frequencies near the L-band GPS frequencies. A Technical Working Group was recently formed (mandated by the FCC) to evaluate the potential interference.
This group, consisting of more than 100 individuals with expertise in GPS systems, tested more than 100 GPS devices representing many facets of users (aviation, cellular, general navigation and location, high precision, etc.) and issued a 1000-plus page report to the FCC. With regard to the high precision receivers used in agriculture, the report concluded "The LightSquared Base Station 4G LTE signals harmfully interfere with High Precision, Timing, and Network GPS receivers over long ranges."
The short story is that if LightSquared's proposed 4G network is implemented, precision GPS use in agriculture will be severely hampered and likely cease. While there have been some proposed solutions by LightSquared, none of these have been evaluated. The best source for more information on this topic is the Coalition to Save Our GPS website- which you can find by clicking here.
While the future is still uncertain regarding this issue, the time for comment is short. The comment period for Docket 11-109 with the FCC expires July 30, 2011. You can comment online- click here to comment online..
Questions can be directed to Randy Taylor at randy.taylor@okstate.edu.
Our thanks to Randy Taylor, Oklahoma State University Plant and Soil Sciences, for providing this article through the Extension News. More articles from the Plant and Soil Science Extension News can be found by clicking here.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
