Info on Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

Did a little research on GPS and thought I would share this with you.

What's the signal?
GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.

A GPS signal contains three different bits of information — a pseudorandom code, ephemeris data and almanac data. The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that identifies which satellite is transmitting information. You can view this number on your Garmin GPS unit's satellite page, as it identifies which satellites it's receiving.

Ephemeris data tells the GPS receiver where each GPS satellite should be at any time throughout the day. Each satellite transmits ephemeris data showing the orbital information for that satellite and for every other satellite in the system.

To read more, please click here

Bok Kai 2009 Parade and Festival

Feb 28, 2009. Marysville, CA. Just returned from doing the festival up in Marysville. It was nice and the weather was great. Temps in the mid 60's and a few clouds here and there.

We spent Friday night in Motel 6...a very noisy place, to say the least. We began setting up for the festival around 6:45 on Saturday morning and by 9:00 we were ready to 'rock n' roll' or whatever you want to call it. People began arriving around then and most of them, were positioning themselves for the parade that would start around 11:00AM.

click here to read the story about the Bok Kai Festival and our review of the event