This free of charge Spirent Application Note tells you how.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), the organisation which monitors and manages the difference between the atomic Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) and Earth-rotation-based time, UT1, has decided that a further leap-second will be inserted on 30th June 2012 at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. This insertion - the first since 2008 - is intended to compensate for the accumulated difference between UTC and UT1, and the fact that the Earth’s rotation is currently running slower than UTC. GNSS systems use time references based on atomic clocks linked to UTC, so it is beneficial to keep these time systems aligned with Earth-rotation-based time.

“We are in Testing Times” A phrase being used more and more these days in relation to many things. However ‘Testing Times’ is also a concern to anyone responsible for planning, resourcing and carrying out GNSS testing. We all want our products to be designed, developed and out to the market in ever-shorter timescales. The time taken to perform important testing is often significant. How great it would be to be able to reduce this time, make things more efficient?

Well, there is good news. Spirent recognises the problems faced by test programmes in reducing cost and time. Indeed our engineers have just the same problems as you do. So, we will soon be introducing a new way of automating the fundamental GNSS tests required for characterisation of GNSS devices.
TestDrive-GNSS is that new tool. It is a piece of software which controls your Spirent simulator and GNSS device under test. It provides a suite of test cases that enables fundamental characterization tests to be performed in an automated and controlled way. Examples of fundamental characterization tests include time-to-first-fix (TTFF), acquisition sensitivity, tracking sensitivity, re-acquisition time, and static and dynamic navigation accuracy. The tool also provides a formal test report at the end of the process.

Today, GPS applications and services are everywhere, and accessible to almost everyone.

In the UK you can now purchase a portable “SatNav” system, admittedly from a manufacturer you might not have heard of, for less than it costs to fill your car with fuel! This is great news indeed, right? Well, maybe … but then maybe not. When was the last time you opened your morning paper and did NOT find an article about a lorry blocking a country road or a car getting stranded somewhere remote? Many of us in this industry are concerned about how this bad PR about “SatNav” might end us all up in a bad place.