Avionics News January 2012 - 33

LightSquared on lower-band interference issues with certified receivers, according to Bobby Sturgell, Rockwell Collins senior vice president for Washington operations. The military also is doing some additional testing. The FAA is reviewing and finetuning analysis on certified aviation receivers to address the RTCA report’s recommendations, Kalyanaraman said. As readers may know, RTCA warned that LightSquared operations in the upper band would be devastating to aviation. It also said that lower-band operations might raise issues in areas, such as initial signal acquisition, and called for further study. A major concern is the aggregate power levels you would potentially see in LightSquared multitransmitter scenarios. These aggregate power levels are thought – based on a mean aggregate interference analysis – to exceed the interference limits applicable to certified GPS aviation receivers, according to Kalyanaraman. The additional analysis will look at such issues as specific LightSquared transmitter characteristics and statistical variations in path losses, taking into account different GPS aviation scenarios, he said. It’s far from certain that LightSquared lower-band-only transmissions will be problem-free. “My feeling,” Burgett said, is that the upshot of the latest round of tests “will be more information about devices being jammed.” LightSquared’s prediction that its new plan will eliminate problems for more than 99 percent of GPS receivers will turn out to be overly optimistic. LightSquared’s proposals to limit power on the ground also will fall short of being workable, Burgett asserted. GA IMPACT A big problem with handheld GPS devices is they are not retrofittable, according to Burgett. If they stop working because of spectrum issues, they would

have to be discarded and replaced. This would put a dent in general aviation, as there are about as many aviation handhelds as there are GA aircraft, according to Van Ruggles, Garmin’s director of quality assurance and certification. Further, more than 80 percent of the active U.S. GA fleet uses installed GPS equipment, Ruggles said. And, 73 percent of the 400,000 members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association rely on GPS as a primary form of navigation, according to Craig Spence, AOPA vice president for operations and international affairs. “It’s time to take the top 10 off the table all together.” NextGen’s potential vulnerability worries the GA community. “Between now and 2020, we’re going to have to equip around 180,000 GA aircraft (for NextGen),” Spence said. “Any delay in getting certified equipment available will delay implementation of NextGen.” One of NextGen’s biggest benefits to GA is that it opens up airports that currently lack all-weather capabilities through wide area augmentation system and GPS LPV (localizer performance with vertical guidance) approaches, Spence said. LightSquared operation in the upper 10 would make these approaches unusable. At a time when the FAA is beginning to decommission navaids like VOR (VHF omnidirectional range), the NextGen idea was to rely more on LPV approaches, he said. Not having the GPS-based replacements “is going to dramatically impact safety and efficiency.” Finally, even if we could imagine that many problems could be resolved by means of a filter retrofit, cost still will be a huge issue. Who will be left holding the bag if LightSquared’s latest proposal goes through? q EDITOR’S NOTE: The Aircraft Electronics Association is a member of the Coalition to Save Our GPS.

THE LATEST ON LIGHTSQUARED The controversy surrounding LightSquared is a fluid situation with new developments becoming public on a daily basis. The following information includes the most recent news available to Avionics News as of press time for the January issue.

On Dec. 7, LightSquared issued a press release, which claimed that “testing conducted by an independent laboratory has confirmed that several major high-precision receivers, including those developed by GPS pioneer, Javad GNSS, are 100 percent compatible with LightSquared’s network. These results show that LightSquared is well on its way to demonstrating that GPS interference issues have been resolved…Three additional top-tier, high precision GPS manufacturers have also developed solutions that have been tested at the lab.” The LightSquared announcement included a statement from Sanjiv Ahuja, LightSquared chairman and CEO. “Preliminary results show that GPS devices tested in the lab easily surpass performance standards thanks to these newly developed solutions. We are confident that this independent testing will mirror testing being done by the federal government,” Ahuja said. This action prompted an immediContinued on page 51
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Avionics News January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News January 2012

Point of Communication
AEA Now
The View From Washington
International News and Regulatory Updates
Rockwell Collins' Fusion Upgrades
Member Profile
Where Are They Now?
Before & After
Next Step in the GPS Battle
A Conversation With...
Touchscreen Avionics: Training Required
Sounding Off On Audio Panels
Member Profile
Advertisers Index
Aviation Aces
Business Basics
Meet the AEA Board
Theory & Practice
Legal Ease
Special Report
What's New
Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News January 2012 - Cover1
Avionics News January 2012 - Cover2
Avionics News January 2012 - 1
Avionics News January 2012 - 2
Avionics News January 2012 - 3
Avionics News January 2012 - Point of Communication
Avionics News January 2012 - 5
Avionics News January 2012 - AEA Now
Avionics News January 2012 - 7
Avionics News January 2012 - 8
Avionics News January 2012 - 9
Avionics News January 2012 - 10
Avionics News January 2012 - 11
Avionics News January 2012 - 12
Avionics News January 2012 - 13
Avionics News January 2012 - The View From Washington
Avionics News January 2012 - 15
Avionics News January 2012 - International News and Regulatory Updates
Avionics News January 2012 - 17
Avionics News January 2012 - 18
Avionics News January 2012 - 19
Avionics News January 2012 - Rockwell Collins' Fusion Upgrades
Avionics News January 2012 - 21
Avionics News January 2012 - 22
Avionics News January 2012 - 23
Avionics News January 2012 - Member Profile
Avionics News January 2012 - 25
Avionics News January 2012 - 26
Avionics News January 2012 - 27
Avionics News January 2012 - Where Are They Now?
Avionics News January 2012 - 29
Avionics News January 2012 - 30
Avionics News January 2012 - Before & After
Avionics News January 2012 - Next Step in the GPS Battle
Avionics News January 2012 - 33
Avionics News January 2012 - A Conversation With...
Avionics News January 2012 - 35
Avionics News January 2012 - Touchscreen Avionics: Training Required
Avionics News January 2012 - 37
Avionics News January 2012 - 38
Avionics News January 2012 - 39
Avionics News January 2012 - Sounding Off On Audio Panels
Avionics News January 2012 - 41
Avionics News January 2012 - 42
Avionics News January 2012 - 43
Avionics News January 2012 - Member Profile
Avionics News January 2012 - 45
Avionics News January 2012 - 46
Avionics News January 2012 - Advertisers Index
Avionics News January 2012 - Aviation Aces
Avionics News January 2012 - 49
Avionics News January 2012 - 50
Avionics News January 2012 - 51
Avionics News January 2012 - Business Basics
Avionics News January 2012 - 53
Avionics News January 2012 - 54
Avionics News January 2012 - 55
Avionics News January 2012 - Meet the AEA Board
Avionics News January 2012 - 57
Avionics News January 2012 - 58
Avionics News January 2012 - 59
Avionics News January 2012 - Theory & Practice
Avionics News January 2012 - 61
Avionics News January 2012 - Legal Ease
Avionics News January 2012 - 63
Avionics News January 2012 - Special Report
Avionics News January 2012 - 65
Avionics News January 2012 - 66
Avionics News January 2012 - 67
Avionics News January 2012 - 68
Avionics News January 2012 - 69
Avionics News January 2012 - What's New
Avionics News January 2012 - 71
Avionics News January 2012 - 72
Avionics News January 2012 - 73
Avionics News January 2012 - Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News January 2012 - 75
Avionics News January 2012 - 76
Avionics News January 2012 - Cover3
Avionics News January 2012 - Cover4
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