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San Francisco' hard plans for 2013 America's Cup

AMERICA | Business and Traveling
Thu, July 21, 2011 12:00:00 AM CDT

The America's Cup is expected to create 8,000 jobs and inject more than $1.4 billion into the region's economy when the world's fastest yachts take to San Francisco Bay in 2013. The anticipated 5 million spectators, however, with 500,000 on ...

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SF planning hurdles begin for 2013 America's Cup

AMERICA | Business and Traveling
Mon, July 18, 2011 12:00:00 AM CDT

The America's Cup is expected to create 8,000 jobs and inject more than $1.4 billion into the region's economy when the world's fastest yachts take to San Francisco Bay in 2013.SF planning hurdles begin for 2013 America's Cuphttp://news.yahoo.com/sf-planning-hurdles-begin-2013-americas-cup-150141547.htmlhttp://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=America&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrtAmerica - Yahoo! ...

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Will your GPS work when you need it?

http://www.capwiz.com/boatus/issues/alert/?alertid=51313591&type=ML

Will your GPS work when you need it?
Act Now!
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave conditional approval to a private company, LightSquared, to begin a nationwide broadband service right next to the radio spectrum used for GPS.  After concerns from user groups (including BoatU.S.) the FCC required significant testing and a report for potential conflicts with aviation, cellular, navigation, and four other GPS uses before this proposal could move forward.  In that June 30th report the navigation sub-team concluded  “that all phases of the LightSquared deployment plan will result in widespread harmful interference to GPS signals and service and that mitigation is not possible.”
 
Points to consider:

    * Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has become embedded in modern daily life.  Users include recreational boaters and commercial mariners, pilots, farmers, surveyors, construction workers, hikers, delivery drivers, dispatchers, lumberjacks, first responders, and emergency vehicles.
    * LightSquared should only be given approval if it can be proven that there will be no GPS interference.
    * In 2010 alone, 122 million GPS units were sold.  Retrofitting legacy units to accommodate LightSquared’s needs is not feasible.
    * Even if LightSquared moves to a lower spectrum, lab testing revealed many GPS devices still suffered from harmful interference.
    * American citizens rely on the FCC to protect the bandwidth as a national resource; compromising GPS compromises American lives.
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