SET ME FREE!!! (Selective Availability Turned Off) Event Cache

On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, eastern savings time, the great blue switch controlling selective availability was pressed. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade.

Selective Availability on the signals from the Navstar constellation of satellites was turned off. Selective Availability was a deliberate degradation of the signals transmitted from the satellites, which incorporated errors in the time stamps, and therefore reduced the accuracy of positions determined by non-US military GPS receivers. Once turned off, the public had access to the unscrambled signals and improved capabilities of recording accurate locations derived using commercially available hand held GPS receivers.

The announcement a day before came as a welcome surprise to everyone who worked with GPS technology. The government had planned to remove selective availability - but had until 2006 to do so. Now, said the White House, anyone could "precisely pinpoint their location or the location of items (such as game) left behind for later recovery." How right they were.

The event is held between 08:00-08:30 at the designated coordinates.