[OSM-newbies] Detect WAAS/EGNOS mode

[Andy Robinson (blackadder)]

Jeffrey Martin wrote:
>Sent: 25 April 2008 1:27 AM
>To: Iván Sánchez Ortega <ivan at sanchezortega.es>
>Cc: newbies at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Detect WAAS/EGNOS mode
>
>Wikipedia says WAAS is made for the western hemisphere. Maybe I'm picking
>up
>MSAS from Japan. (I'm in Korea.)
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-functional_Satellite_Augmentation_System

>


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Based_Augmentation_System 

The WAAS satellites service north America and EGNOS serves Europe (and parts
of Africa). As for the other services, yes these exist as the page above
shows, but I'm not at all sure if many consumer grade GPS receivers can
actually make use of them. For the Japanese service they state however:

"If the receiver is sold as "WAAS-compatible" or "WAAS-capable", the
receiver may or may not process the information from MSAS."

Garmin devices certainly work with both WAAS and EGNOS so it sounds like
they should be able to use MSAS too, but that’s as far as my knowledge on
the matter goes.

I didn't find the Coverage area for MSAS, so it's difficult to say what the
positional accuracy would be in Korea, or even if a usable signal extends
that far.

Cheers
Andy