Like last year OmniSTAR will be exhibiting at the Intergeo. This time in Munich, Germany.
INTERGEO is the place to be, to stay up-to-date in the world of geoinformation and geotechnology. This year OmniSTAR has planned to introduce our latest VBS/HP receiver platform, the 8200 receiver, and to present all the latest on decimetre level HP+ services.
Various team members of OmniSTARs Sales team will be present at the show, so please stop by and visit our stand where we will be delighted to give you an update.

Hall: C2
Stand: 2046

This easy-to-operate 10 Hz receiver with an LCD display is very suitable for a wide range of applications, from agriculture to surveying, from construction to aviation. Combined with the dedicated Z+ antenna and an OmniSTAR HP+ subscription it delivers worldwide decimetre real-time accuracy.

Brochure and other supporting documents for this new receiver (such as manuals and firmware etc.) are available on the OmniSTAR website.

• Leaflet
• Manual
• Firmware, etc.

Teams are warming up ahead of the prestigious Americas Cup Yacht Race to be held next year in Valencia Spain. In this highly competitive bi-annual event both crew and boat are pushed to the limits. To optimize their performance a number of teams have chosen to use Fugro SeaSTAR HP receiver platform and correction signals to monitor ship behavior during trials and races. The motion sensing system on board consists of a high quality L-band DGPS receiver in combination with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). With this combination of sensors, position, heading, speed, pitch, roll, yaw and xyz accelerations are measured to evaluate overall ship performance.

GPS Satellite status (satellite availability)

Most GPS users had noticed a recent reduction in the number of healthy satellites in the GPS constellation. Firstly, congratulations should go to the GPS team for the unexpected longevity of these satellites, having in many cases far exceeded their expected service life. However, the inevitable has finally happened and on the 28^th August three GPS satellites became unhealthy at the same time. This caused short periods with poor satellite geometry occasionally limiting the number of satellites in view and as a consequence limiting also the availability of L1 data for OmniSTAR to correct.

For a current update of GPS and ionosphere status see: http://www.omnistar.com/space/index.html

The current GPS status can be followed using the http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/gps/pdop.htm website. At the moment there are again 27 satellites available.

View OmniSTAR logfiles with Google Earth

With the application OmniKML file of your own logfiles. This means that you can view your logfiles in Google Earth. OmniKML now supports NMEA GGA, RMC and Bestpos logfiles.

• Download the application OmniKML
• Download other applications, firmwares, manuals from OmniSTAR or other compatible receivers

ViewAll PDA software

In order to better support customers that are in the field with OmniSTAR capable hardware, we offer the ViewAll program. ViewAll works with Trimble, NovAtel and Topcon OmniSTAR compatible receivers. ViewAll highlights the OmniSTAR aspect of these receivers.

With an active OmniSTAR subscription ViewAll allows logging of data in CSV Comma Separated, XGL and Google Earth KML format(s). ViewAll supports multiple languages as English, Dutch, German, French, Russian and Arabic (if the PDA has Arabic letter support). This software can be downloaded at
http://www.omnistar.nl/downloads/downloads.asp

Upgrade your receiver firmware before March 2007!!!

OmniSTAR has released a new version of its VBS algorithm (VBS2) to GPS hardware manufacturers that have embedded OmniSTAR technology in their receivers. The advantages of this new software version are improved handling of corrections with high age of corrections and an automatic selection of the best OmniSTAR satellite beam based on the location of the receiver.

Make sure to upgrade your firmware before March 2007.
Download the latest version by clicking on the logos in the table below.

You have been working for OmniSTAR BV for almost 3 months now. Can you tell us more about your role?

[RG] I was hired as Product Engineer after the departure of Alex Wolff. My responsibilities are diverse and extensive and I am getting acquainted with them a little bit more every day. My first project was getting familiar with OmniSTARs' latest receiver, the 8200HP. My work on this receiver involved writing the user manual from scratch, but it also involved a more practical side - which I enjoy very much - to test the performance of the receiver. Since I started working during the summer holidays, while most of my colleagues were on holidays, I had the opportunity to support customers by performing activations and giving answers to their technical questions, all of this with only two weeks of OmniSTAR training.

What is your professional background? What were you doing before joining the "OmniSTAR team"?

[RG] I graduated from Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) in 1996. For my graduation, I specialized in the behaviour of GPS receivers under dynamic conditions. After graduation I started working for TNO (The Hague, the Netherlands), mainly in the field of GPS applications.

What attracted you to OmniSTAR and your new function in the first place?

[RG] At TNO, the number of GPS-related projects was decreasing. Since I wanted GPS to remain my main focus, the work at OmniSTAR attracted me immediately. Moreover, I was looking for a function that would require not only academic but also practical skills. My new function involves both aspects and a lot of direct contact with customers, a part of my work, which I especially enjoy.

What would you like to achieve during your time at OmniSTAR?

[RG] At the short-term my goal is to get to know all OmniSTAR receivers and their possibilities. My longer-term goals include trying to find other, new receivers suitable for integration with an OmniSTAR DGPS solution and find new applications in which the OmniSTAR services could play an indispensable role.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us, about your hobbies for example?

[RG] I practice a GPS-related hobby called geo-caching. Unfortunately I haven't had much time lately, but I still try to find some time to go 'treasure hunting' approximately once a month. One of my other hobbies is my motorcycle, a red Honda Pacific Coast; in fact it is like a two-wheeled station wagon. Although the Dutch weather isn't always playing along, I enjoy riding my motorcycle to the office every day.

Disclaimer:
We hereby expressly declare that we have no influence whatsoever on the design and content of any web pages reached via links from this Newsletter. OmniSTAR BV hereby expressly disassociates itself from the content of any such linked websites and does not adopt their content.

OmniSTAR BV
The Netherlands * Phone: +31 70 317 0900 * Fax: +31 70 317 0919