[time-nuts] Satelles PNT from Iridium satellites

[Michael Wouters]

Dear Tom,

A one year, single device licence to access the signal cost about AUD10K
 when I asked about a year ago. The plugin card for a commercial timing box
was about AUD3K.

Cheers
Michael

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 at 9:05 am, Tom Van Baak <tvb at leapsecond.com> wrote:

> Hi Stu,
>
> There's no problem with a semi-commercial posting here. You've been a
> member for a decade and frequent contributor plus the subject matter is
> exactly on-topic. So thanks for posting.
>
> I spent a while on your web site and didn't uncover a trove of white
> papers. If you could post some URL's that would be appreciated. You
> don't have to worry about being less accurate than GPS. I mean, there
> are often far more important factors than nanosecond precision. You
> didn't mention pricing; it's hard to imagine it's as free as GPS so that
> seems like another disadvantage to me.
>
> Your comment about fewer satellites is spot on. That will be taken care
> of if you give SpaceX / Starlink a call and join that bandwagon. There
> are already 597 Starlink [1] satellites up there vs. 82 Iridium [2]
> satellites, yes?
>
> If you have entry-level / hobbyist grade evaluation kits I'm sure a
> number of us would be very interested to try it out.
>
> Thanks,
> /tvb
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink
>
> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation
>
>
> On 8/9/2020 2:53 PM, Stewart Cobb wrote:
> > Taka Kamiya and Forrest Christian both asked recently about the
> alternative
> > satellite PNT system using the Iridium satellites. That system was
> > developed by my company, Satelles. It has been commercially available for
> > more than a year now.
> >
> > The biggest advantage is that our signal is at least 30 dB stronger than
> > GNSS signals (the exact numbers depend on whether you're talking to
> > engineering or marketing :). You can easily get a usable signal in deep
> > jungle, or a data center in the middle of a building's basement, or even
> > inside a locked shipping container. The stronger signal is
> correspondingly
> > more difficult to jam or spoof than GNSS, and our signal has
> anti-spoofing
> > features as well.
> >
> > The biggest disadvantage is that it is not quite as accurate as GPS,
> > because there are fewer satellites in view at any given time.
> >
> > I don't want to quote exact timing numbers here, because they depend a
> lot
> > on system integration details, but you can easily steer an OCXO within a
> > few hundred nanoseconds of USNO time. With a rubidium, you can do
> > considerably better.
> >
> > If you want to know more, our website is www.satellesinc.com.
> >
> > (If this message has been too commercial, I apologize in advance. The
> > boundary between information and salesmanship is not always sharp.)
> >
> > Cheers!
> > --Stu
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