VLBA RFI Bulletin 19:  GPS-L3 Downlinks Scheduled for Mid November

GPS-L3 RFI ALERT. . . GPS-L3 RFI ALERT. . . GPS-L3 RFI ALERT.
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The US Space Command (spacecom) has announced a series of GPS-L3
downlinks for mid November, 1998.  The increased use of the L3 (1381.04
MHz) frequency is the result of heavy data downlinks required to
monitor the effects of the Leonid meteor shower, which is scheduled to
peak on November 17th.

spacecom has indicated that their usage of the 1381.05 MHz GPS-L3
frequency would be extra heavy during the Leonid meteor shower, which
is at a max on Nov 17, 1998.  In addition, they will be checking out
their system & recording and downlinking) data for the preceeding week,
and the week after.

Their planned duty cycle is as follows:  During set-up and light meteor
activity they will be bursting data for a maximum of 10 minutes
duration, every 4 hours throughout the day.  At the height of the
storm, their memory will fill up more quickly, and they anticipate
dumping data for a maximum  of 10 minutes duration, every 2 hours
throughout the day.


Expect increased likelihood of 1381 MHz RFI during these days and times
throughout the world.  Plots of the entire L-band spectrum from
1250 MHz to 1750 MHz are available on-line at:

	http://www.nrao.edu/vla/interference/gsplots

Select the "SATK_gs_yyyymmdd.ps" file for the day of interest.  The