> An interesting new handheld instrument is
> at http://www.leica-geosystems.com/gpsgis/gs20/ . This one
> offers submetre
> accuracy, could be enough for your requirements. There's an interesting
> graphic of the relative accuracy of various handhelds in the pdf
> spec sheet
> linked to that page. Needless to say it favours their instrument. One
> again, not cheap but better priced than the full dgps setup.
Interesting, I hadn't realized that my former employer had packaged a beacon
receiver in a hand-held unit. However, as usual, their specs are so
confusing that no one knows what they mean (including the people that create
the units). The unit is capable of receiving those real-time external
corrections I mentioned, and probably does do 40cm navigation (2d RMS,
downhill with a tail wind), but only with high-quality corrections. The
"WoRCS" system they mention provides much lower quality corrections, and
only in specific coastal areas. The beacons are operated by the US Coast
Guard, which says they're only good to 2 meters.
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/dgps/default.htm
Somehow, I doubt there's one available in Salt Lake City.
Leica is working hard to bring out a WAAS-capable unit, with any luck it
should be shipping by next year. I suspect that when they have one, they'll
quietly drop the hand-held beacon system. They would have been to market
sooner, but for some reason they laid off almost all their GPS engineers.
Oh, and the price of the GS20 (the beacon receiver handheld)? Only $7500
(no, I didn't leave out a decimal point), unless of course you want that
interface for the external corrections (which adds another $2000 for a
serial port and a little dab of software).
Randall
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