Based on LíB's OTD series in South Australia. OTD means On This Day and Otago & Southland Geocachers are attempting to put out a cache for each day of the year. You'll see in the description that the cache owners will write in either some muggle, geocaching or personal facts/stories related to this day.
On this day.... 2 May
[BYOP - stealth required]
Shortly after 4:05 (UTC) on 2nd May 2000, Selective Availability was removed from the GPS satellite signals after a directive of President Clinton.
The GPS project was started by the US Department of Defence in 1973 with the first satellite launched in 1978. The full constellation of 24 satellites were operational in 1993. In 1983, President Reagen promised that civilians could use GPS but limited their use with Selectvie Availability - an intentional degradation of the GPS signals - to maintain the military advantage. Selective Availability added about 50m error horizontally and about 100m vertically.
With the advent of newer technologies, such as differential GPS (using 2 linked GPS receivers), civilians could correct the signal for more precise positioning. Because of this, President Clinton authorised that Selective Availability would be removed from GPS signals altogether, paving the way for better accuracy with hand held GPS receivers and allowing geocaching to begin and thrive. It is no wonder that the first geocache hidden, was the day after Selective Availablity was removed on May 3rd 2000.
Below is a timeline of the GPS signal accuracy when Selective Availability was turned off (measured with a Trimble SV6 receiver).
Source: www.gps.gov
Please feel free to include in your logs any stories you have regarding this date and if you are an Otago or Southland Geocacher intrested in the series contact Natalie247.
Geo Toroa - New Zealand's next multi day event. To be held on the 26-27th October 2024 in Dunedin. If you want to come along, visit GCA7ZHD to log your "Will Attend"