Sats5 : Navstar-2A Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Granitic Intrusions: This cache is done now.
It didn't really fit in with the nice walk to the rest of the series anyways.

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Hidden : 3/17/2010
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

About the Sats series ....
We recommend starting this 10 cache series at Sats1 : Timation. That way you can find 10 caches on the way down the old wagon road and then enjoy the leisurely walk back up to Rossland. An alternative would be to arrange for a ride from cache #10 (at the old abandoned golf course entrance) up the highway back to Rossland. Please do not attempt to drive along the route as it is closed to motorized vehicles. Some sections of this old road are very rough and the lower end is blocked with concrete barriers. Parking coordinates are provided for the upper end of the trail. You could also park at cache #10. As with all trails around Rossland watch out for mountain bikes and bears !
Allow up to 3 hours for the whole series.
I really enjoyed learning about the history and workings of the GPS satellites and hope you find the write-ups interesting


About this cache ....
This cache is located about 400 metres down the wagon road from “Sats4”. After that you will need to walk back up as far as the paved (abandoned) road to continue with the series. The walk offers great views of the original 9 holes of the golf course. The cache is easily accessible. You could keep one foot on the wagon road and stretch to reach the cache. Some stealth may be required – golfers may be muggles !

Navstar-2A
Satellite info ....
The first of the Block IIA series was first launched Nov.26 1990. These satellites weigh 1816 kg and have a life expectancy of 7.5 years. They are greatly improved operational satellites and two of them are equipped with laser retro-reflectors allowing them to be tracked precisely from the ground without any signal from the satellite. A retro-reflector is a device that reflects light precisely back to its source. Tracking in this way allows operators to differentiate between minute onboard clock errors and "ephemeris errors" (ephemeris errors being errors in the satellites reported position in space). Don't forget time and position of the satellites are the two pieces of information that make the whole system work and they need to be incredibly accurate.One more bit of information from the satellites is the the pseudorandom code. The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that identifies which satellite is transmitting the information.(1-30)

Other than time and ephemeris data there is one more type of data that your GPS receives from the satellite constellation. This is the “almanac” data ... the almanac contains information that is used to predict the present location of every satellite in the constellation . Using this information your GPS saves time by not looking for satellites that are below the horizon Over a few weeks the satellite orbits can vary considerably. That explains why if you move hundreds of miles or haven't used your GPS in a few weeks it will take longer to get satellite reception as it downloads new almanac data.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ba trbpnpuref yrsg - Vafvqr bs snyyra pbggbajbbq gerr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

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