GPS World

Tag: public safety

  • Hurricane Florence impact revealed in Nearmap aerial imagery

    Newly captured aerial maps show before and after images to support cleanup efforts by public safety organizations, utility companies and insurance agencies.

    Aerial mapping company Nearmap has flown and captured aerial imagery in the areas in North and South Carolina impacted by Hurricane Florence.

    The imagery is already supporting the extensive cleanup and reconstruction efforts for public safety, utility companies, insurance agencies and numerous contractors in many industries.

    High-resolution captures from the Wilmington and Myrtle Beach areas are now online and available for immediate use with more areas scheduled to come online over the next several days.

    The post-hurricane coverage includes about 4,530 square kilometers around the coastline from Newport, N.C., to Myrtle Beach, S.C., covering a population of about 752,000 people.

    High-resolution imagery shows the impact of Hurricane Florence at Southport, North Carolina, comparing September 2017 to September 2018. (Image: Nearmap)
    High-resolution imagery shows the impact of Hurricane Florence at Southport, North Carolina, comparing September 2017 to September 2018. (Image: Nearmap)

    Before the hurricane, Nearmap had already covered more than 30,000 square kilometers in North and South Carolina with ortho imagery and more than 12,000 square kilometers with oblique imagery. With previous aerial maps taken at least once a year totaling over 140,000 square kilometers online, some of them dating back to 2014, users are able to compare current imagery with historical photos.

    “A key element to the recovery efforts is having access not only to high-resolution imagery from after the storm, but also to historical aerial captures from before the storm hit,” said Rob Newman, CEO and managing director of Nearmap. “Historical captures provide consistency and contrast, enabling crews to look at the current truth on the ground and compare it to previous time periods to help assess the damage along the coastlines.”

    All pre- and post-hurricane imagery can be accessed through a standard web browser using Nearmap’s MapBrowser, through Nearmap partners or via APIs to integrate with common GIS, CAD and other applications.

    All the Nearmap pre- and post-hurricane imagery is published at sub-3-inch ground sampling distance, which allows users to see great detail on the ground. At this resolution, they can clearly identify important ground conditions such as roof blow-off, property damage and flooding. The same is true for streets and all other ground features, providing details for users to complete analysis both pre and post storms.

    “Our thoughts are with the residents of North and South Carolina recently impacted by the hurricane,” Newman said. “We are pleased that Nearmap customers are using our imagery to help restore these neighborhoods, and help residents fix and rebuild after rooftop, flooding and other damage.”

    Nearmap customers use aerial imagery to assist in the following aspects of post-disaster cleanup:

    • Public Safety: Access to immediate, crystal-clear aerial imagery of areas affected by storm damage for emergency response routing and safety.
    • Utilities: View all areas where above-ground utilities have been affected and also see where infrastructure is down or damaged and causing hazards.
    • Reconstruction Efforts: Compare historical image captures with post-event imagery to see structure elements and provide proper measurements to rebuild.
    • Insurance: View impacted properties to see first-hand damage and potential structural damage.
  • FAA approves 9 new LAANC service providers

    FAA approves 9 new LAANC service providers

    FAA also warns about drones interfering with public safety.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced nine new partners to its Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) initiative, a collaboration between the FAA and the drone industry that provides near real-time processing of airspace authorizations for Part 107 drone operators nationwide who fly in controlled airspace.

    Following the FAA’s successful prototype, the initiative was simultaneously opened to additional air traffic control facilities and to new industry partners. The five-month onboarding process that began in April resulted in nine new LAANC partners — Aeronyde, Airbus, AiRXOS, Altitude Angel, Converge, DJI, KittyHawk, UASidekick and Unifly.

    The nine join five companies — AirMap, Harris Corp., Project Wing, Skyward and Thales Group — that have already met the technical and legal requirements to provide LAANC Services.

    LAANC uses airspace data, including UAS facility maps, which shows the maximum altitude around airports where the FAA may authorize operations under Part 107 in controlled airspace. The program gives drone operators the ability to interact with industry developed applications and obtain near real-time authorization from the FAA.

    LAANC, a foundation for developing the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management System (UTM), is now available at nearly 300 FAA air traffic facilities across the country, covering approximately 500 airports.

    The FAA next year will accept applications from parties interested in becoming LAANC service providers from Jan. 7 to Feb. 8 and from July 8 to Aug. 9. This is not a standard government acquisition; there is no Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposal (RFP) related to this effort.

    Interested parties can find information on the application process here.

    FAA targets UAS violators for enforcement

    In a different announcement, the FAA said that drone pilots who interfere with fighting wildfires, law enforcement efforts, or other first responders such as medical flights  now are more likely to face serious civil penalties, even for first-time offenses.

    Deterring interference with first responders is critical as drone use expands exponentially. Firefighting aircraft trying to contain a wildfire have to suspend flights when a drone enters the area to avoid a possible mid-air collision. A drone flying over a crime scene or accident site can hamper police or medical aircraft operations.

    Ultimately, interference by a drone can cost lives.

    The FAA has provided guidance for agency personnel who handle possible drone violations to refer all cases involving interference with first responders to the FAA Chief Counsel’s office for possible enforcement action.

    In July 2016, Congress authorized the FAA to impose a civil penalty of not more than $20,000 for anyone who operates a drone and deliberately or recklessly interferes with wildfire suppression, law enforcement, or emergency response efforts.

    Under FAA guidance, inspectors generally use non-enforcement methods, including education, for correcting unintentional violations that arise from factors such as flawed systems, simple mistakes, or lack of understanding.

    However, given the potential for direct and immediate interference with potentially life-saving operations where minutes matter, offenders will immediately be considered for enforcement actions. Enforcement actions can include revocation or suspension of a pilot certificate, and up to a $20,000 civil penalty per violation.

  • City emergency support improved with Nearmap imagery

    Nearmap aerial imagery in ArcMap. (Screenshot: Nearmap)
    Nearmap aerial imagery in ArcMap. (Screenshot: Nearmap)

    The Shelby County, Tennessee, Emergency Communications District has implemented Nearmap high-resolution aerial imagery to geocode and plot new addresses and developments into its 911 mapping systems.

    The mapping systems help fire and rescue, emergency medical services and law enforcement get instant access to updated maps needed to get to the right locations as soon as possible.

    The Emergency Communications District is responsible for establishing local emergency telephone service, providing the network call-handling equipment, and updating the geographic information systems (GIS) data for each Public Safety Answering Point within Shelby County.

    Nearmap provides frequently updated, high-quality aerial captures to ensure that the district’s GIS data, geocoding and the 911 mapping systems are up to date, providing public safety and law enforcement the most accurate information, the company said.

    Benefits of Nearmap aerial imagery for the Emergency Communications District include:

      • The imagery is delivered through the cloud as a subscription service, making it accessible to all team members via mobile and desktop.
      • Nearmap imagery is taken at least twice a year, both leaf-on and leaf-off to provide different views of locations in different seasons.
      • Aerial captures integrate directly into Esri ArcMap, ArcPro and ArcGIS Online applications, so GIS information can overlay directly onto the high-resolution imagery.

    Before Nearmap, Shelby County’s aerial image process required a contracted flight to photograph the county areas. Because of the high cost of capturing those images, the county purchased images once every two years, after pooling resources from various county entities.

    “With our old aerial imagery provider, there were issues with mosaicking separate images together, and since the imagery was taken every two years, many rural and unincorporated areas were out of date,” said Timothy Zimmer, GIS administrator for Shelby County’s Emergency Communications District.

    With out of date images, the county had to develop alternate methods to locate addresses for the 911 systems. Now, the combined impact of data services, base maps, Nearmap imagery and third-party data are improving all aspects of public safety, including law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services, Nearmap said. Even other agencies are using the district’s imagery and GIS data.

    “There’s a certain context and currency you can get from Nearmap imagery that you simply can’t get from any other imagery products,” Zimmer said. “Other agencies, such as the County Clerk and the Utility Company, are using our addressing data because Nearmap has helped enable us to be much more current.”

  • Floor-level positioning accuracy demonstrated for indoor mobile calls

    Floor-level positioning accuracy demonstrated for indoor mobile calls

    <b>NextNav Results: </b>Vertical accuracy delivered by various phone models using signals from an installed network of NextNav beacons. (Plots: NextNav, from ex parte FCC filing, Aug. 8)
    NextNav Results: Vertical accuracy delivered by various phone models using signals from an installed network of NextNav beacons. (Plots: NextNav, from ex parte FCC filing, Aug. 8)

    According to NextNav, its altitude service delivered floor-level accuracy in 94 percent of test calls in recent blind industry tests commissioned by the Cellular Telephone Industry Association.

    The Stage Z Tests were designed to develop a proposed Z-axis (vertical) metric for indoor wireless 9-1-1 calls, as required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

    NextNav’s Metropolitan Beacon System (MBS)-based services enable mobile phones and other devices to reliably determine their location and timing in indoor and urban environments where GPS signals cannot be received, the company said. NextNav’s 3D location services include accurate horizontal positioning, floor-level altitude precision, and context and visualization applications.

    <b>Polaris Results: </b>Vertical accuracy delivered by various phone models using signals from an installed network of NextNav beacons. (Plots: NextNav, from ex parte FCC filing, Aug. 8)
    Polaris Results: Vertical accuracy (Plots: Next Nav, from ex party FCC filing, Aug. 9)

    Delivered over a managed network on the licensed spectrum with carrier-grade dependability and metropolitan-wide coverage, NextNav’s services are designed for public safety applications, E911 and critical infrastructure as well as the multitude of consumer, internet of things and commercial applications that require reliable indoor 3D location or precision timing.

    According to NextNav, the Stage Z Tests evaluated the ability of various technologies to accurately locate mobile 911 callers in the vertical dimension in challenging indoor environments spread across an entire metropolitan area. The tests were conducted using popular off-the-shelf iOS and Android devices running a software client provided by NextNav. The tests included more than 70,000 emergency-style calls generating altitude fixes from more than 200 different test locations.

    “Our ability to deliver floor-level height accuracy has the potential to speed up emergency response time and save lives,” said Ganesh Pattabiraman, co-founder and CEO of NextNav. “The ability to precisely locate the exact floor is a significant breakthrough for wireless 9-1-1 location technologies.”

  • PCTEL announces Trooper II antenna for public safety

    PCTEL announces Trooper II antenna for public safety

    PCTEL Inc. has announced the next generation of its Trooper antenna, the company’s flagship multi-band platform for public safety fleets.

    The new Trooper II provides optimal wireless communications performance through the antenna’s 4-port 4G LTE connections and 4×4 802.11ac Wi-Fi MIMO capability, the company said. It also incorporates PCTEL’s newest high rejection multi-GNSS technology for high precision tracking and asset management.

    The Trooper II antenna. (Photo: PCTEL)
    The Trooper II antenna. (Photo: PCTEL)

    “The Trooper II antenna enhances PCTEL’s successful Trooper platform, with expanded multi-band RF and GNSS capability in a robust, aerodynamic housing,” said Rishi Bharadwaj, senior vice president and general manager of PCTEL’s Connected Solutions group. “Its slender new design with a single cable exit accommodates installation restrictions often encountered on modern public safety vehicles.”

    “Our Trooper antennas have been broadly deployed on public safety fleets, notably in support of  the leading FirstNet public safety broadband network systems. The Trooper II is also ideal for many Industrial IoT deployments,” Bharadwaj added.

    The rugged Trooper II (part #GL9X1AX-TRB) features PCTEL’s new proprietary high rejection multi-band technology, which supports GPS L1, GLONASS and Galileo for high precision tracking.

    In addition to public safety applications, the antenna is suitable for tracking and communications support for industrial internet of things (IoT) and other fleet management applications, including farming tractors for precision agriculture, utility service fleets and railway positive train control systems.

    PCTEL will display the Trooper II antenna Aug. 6-7 at APCO 2018, Booth 1719, along with its portfolio of antennas for the public safety industry and grid testing solution for in-building public safety networks.

    The Trooper II antenna is available for pre-order now. First shipments are expected in early fall.

  • Nevada launches Drone Center of Excellence to support public safety

    Nevada launches Drone Center of Excellence to support public safety

    The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) has launched of the Nevada Drone Center of Excellence for Public Safety (NDCOE), according to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

    NDCOE’s mission is to save lives and reduce air hazards from drone incursions by empowering a shared safety vision with the the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) integration of drones into the commercial air traffic system.

    Located in Las Vegas, with facilities donated by technology infrastructure company Switch, NDCOE will provide safety incursion research data, drone technology best practices and educational materials.

    The new center will conduct public workshops that promote and protect the public’s safety and privacy in an open and ethical manner.

    Over the last decade, UAS, more commonly referred to as drones, have experienced an unprecedented boom within aviation. Coinciding with the increase in popularity, incidents involving drones in tourist areas, as well as risks to larger manned aircraft are on the rise and present high-liability risks to property owners.

    Safe and successful UAS operations rely on quality training, end user education and maximizing public safety processes. To protect and educate residents and visitors, the center seeks to protect against drone users who pose a public safety hazard due to inexperience or malicious drone operations. Such hazards include drones hitting people or that have the potential to cause an airline disaster, and drone operations that violate safety, privacy or drone laws near high-traffic public places, at airports, near military bases or near critical infrastructure.

    NDCOE will also advance drone surveillance, detect and avoid (remote sensing), wildland firefighting, gas-leak detection, and time-sensitive medical delivery technologies for life-saving medical equipment and organs.

    “In addition to fostering major advances in UAS technology with testing partners like the FAA, NASA and Switch, Nevada is also home to the most registered drone users in the nation in Las Vegas,” said Paul Anderson, executive director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. “This dynamic makes such a program as the Nevada Drone Center of Excellence for Public Safety a natural step as drones increasingly become a bigger part of our daily lives.”

    In a recent state-wide Nevada Drone Industry survey by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and NIAS, the NDCOE received support to open the first center of its kind in the U.S. In the survey, almost 80% of respondents were concerned about a recreational drone hitting an airline and causing an airline disaster, and almost 90% were concerned about aerial drones illegally penetrating FAA airspace without authorization at outdoor events such as sports stadium, concert or at large events.

    “We are taking an aggressive approach toward solving the complex UAS Industry challenge of mitigating drone incursions into the National Airspace System — one of the toughest FAA challenges today,” said Chris Walach, senior director, NIAS and the FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site. “What we are doing in Nevada will be of immense value to the DOT, FAA, DHS, DOJ, commercial airlines, visitor venues, and the UAS Industry. This new center will help advance infrastructure protections, drone detection innovations, enhance air safety, and expand air commerce in Nevada.”

    NIAS and the FAA-designated Nevada Unmanned Aviation Test Site lead the growth of the Nevada UAS industry through business teaming relationships, collaborating with primary research institutions on UAS research and development, and enhancing the Nevada UAS Industry knowledge base to attract new and permanent business and create jobs in the State of Nevada.

  • Airgain fleet management antenna features GNSS + 6 Wi-Fi ports

    Airgain Inc., a provider of advanced antenna technologies used to enable high-performance wireless networking, has released its Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna, which can receive multiple GNSS signals.

    Designed for public safety fleet management, it provides high rejection GNSS technology with coverage for multiple satellite systems including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou.

    The new Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna will help improve public safety and fleet solutions with enhanced Wi-Fi capability, the company said. It includes 6 x 6 MIMO Wi-Fi, dual LTE and multi-GNSS technology antennas in a single enclosure.

    MIMO — multiple input multiple output — is used within LTE to provide better signal performance and higher data rates. With integrated 6×6 Wi-Fi antennas, the antenna provides support for full high-definition (HD) streaming video and other high bandwidth applications.

    The antenna is the first in an Airgain series designed to support state-of-the-art communications technology in fleet routers, including the Cradlepoint IBR1700.

    The Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna is equipped with nine ports, supporting tri-band Wi-Fi, LTE/MIMO (including Band 14 for FirstNet) and GNSS. With a single compact footprint, the antenna avoids multiple mounting and cable entry points.

    “Technology advances in routers, including enhanced Wi-Fi and expanded MIMO LTE, require enabling antenna technology to deliver an optimized end user experience,” said Reed Pangborn, vice president of channel sales for North America. “We designed a new antenna to support the fleet management applications required in today’s evolving mobile environment. The Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna demonstrates our commitment to providing leading antenna solutions for our mobility customers covering a wide range of vehicles, including police, fire, ambulance and other fleet assets.”

    The Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna complements Cradlepoint’s IBR1700 and supports all six of its Wi-Fi ports.

    Airgain will unveil the new antenna at the Cradlepoint Global Partner Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 11-12. The Ultramax MIMO 9-in-1 antenna will be available to order starting in June.

  • Esri acquires ClearTerra location data extraction technology

    Esri acquires ClearTerra location data extraction technology

    Spatial analytics company Esri has acquired technology from ClearTerra, a company that offers geospatial and activity-based intelligence tools.

    The acquisition will provide ArcGIS platform users the ability to easily discover and extract geographic coordinates from unstructured textual data like emails, briefings and reports, instantly generating intelligent map-based information.

    This capability will make mapping this elusive information easier across many industries. Defense, intelligence and public safety organizations tend to have massive volumes of unstructured data, as do other fields, such as petroleum, utilities and maritime, where locating information on the Earth is not as easy as searching for a street address.

    Esri’s acquisition of ClearTerra technology brings workflow-enhancing software technologies into the ArcGIS platform.

    “We have been close partners with Esri for a number of years,” said Jeff Wilson, former vice president of sales for ClearTerra, now an executive for defense and intelligence with Esri. “Esri has the platform and resources to provide a solid path going forward for our technology, allowing us to expand this capability to the global market.”

    ClearTerra LocateXT technology allows analysts to rapidly scan through documents without having to spend hours reading, copying, pasting and running spreadsheet formulas, placing the results instantly into geospatial features.

    Additionally, ClearTerra FindFZ technology provides enhanced search capabilities for the ArcGIS platform, incorporating the powerful techniques found in internet search engines, including a tolerance for misspelled words, as well as wildcard and Boolean logic searches.

    The LocateXT extension for ArcMap is used to extract locations from unstructured data (messages, reports, briefings) into a geodatabase feature class. (Image: ClearTerra)
    The LocateXT extension for ArcMap is used to extract locations from unstructured data (messages, reports, briefings) into a geodatabase feature class. (Image: ClearTerra)

    “We are excited to bring ClearTerra technology into the Esri family,” said Jeff Peters, Esri director of national government. “The unstructured data tools are powerful not only for those who have made use of this technology for a number of years, such as in the military, but it also has useful applications for so many more Esri users.”

    ClearTerra has been an active member of the Esri partner program, providing their software to ArcGIS users via desktop, server, and the cloud. Support and maintenance for the software will continue via Esri with no interruption of service, and is readily available for licensing.

    ClearTerra specializes in geospatial and activity based intelligence software products, custom solutions, technical services, consulting and training. ClearTerra is a business unit of ClearShark.

  • OnTerra offers new version of MapSavvy web map service

    mapsavvy-logoOnTerra Systems has introduced a new version of its MapSavvy aerial imagery service and a corresponding new website, www.MapSavvy.com.

    MapSavvy is an affordable Web Map Service providing OGC-compliant images for anyone who needs aerial images in the course of their work or research.

    The new version of MapSavvy offers users access to two versions of Bing Maps aerial imagery: original Bing Maps imagery and the recently updated aerial imagery updates introduced in 2017.

    Typical users of MapSavvy are GIS and CAD professionals from business, research, or government organizations that need to use aerial imagery as part of projects, presentations, reports, or visual analysis of trends.

    Examples of MapSavvy users include:

    • Architects and developers: Architects and developers use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to obtain aerial imagery of construction sites to incorporate into projects, proposals and presentations that show where new buildings or structures would be located in the context of an existing built environment.
    • Research teams: Research teams use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to access aerial imagery that will be incorporated into research reports, or to be able to spot trends by visually depicting information on top of an aerial image. MapSavvy is used for wildlife tracking, hydrology, environmental programs and a host of research activities.
    • Public safety: Law enforcement teams use MapSavvy to access base map where crimes are occurring, either to spot trends or to help solve a specific criminal case.
    • City planning: City planners use MapSavvy to see base map aerial views of cities, municipalities and unincorporated areas as part of their process of planning city infrastructure and new developments.
    • Oil and gas: Oil and gas companies use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to view aerial imagery  to plan for pipeline facilities placement.

    The new MapSavvy aerial imagery service offers the flexibility of access to original Bing Maps imagery as well as the new updated aerial imagery introduced in 2017. The original Bing Maps imagery offers the highest resolution. The newly updated Bing Maps imagery offers the most up-to-date imagery of developed areas that have undergone changes to streets and buildings, or wild land areas that have seen changes due to geological shifts or wildfires.

    “By offering MapSavvy users access to the original Bing Maps imagery and the new updated imagery, users get the best of both worlds,” said Steve Milroy, OnTerra Systems president. “This new version of MapSavvy lets users access original Bing Maps imagery if their application requires high-resolution images, or access recently updated Bing maps imagery if they require the most up-to-date images showing changes to cityscapes or wild lands.”

  • GNSS repeater company enables public safety connectivity

    Cloudstreet and Roger-GPS have successfully delivered a demonstration of the ability to enable any 4G/LTE network to support mission-critical connectivity for public safety.

    Cloudstreet calls itself a “network slicing company.” Network slicing allows multiple virtual networks to be created on top of a common shared physical infrastructure. Roger-GPS, a Nokia spin-off, is a GNSS repeater company.

    The two Finland-based companies presented the live proof-of-concept before a gathering of 50 public safety organizations participating in the Critical Communications Broadband Group’s plenary session hosted by Nokia at the Critical Communications Finland Conference on Oct. 27.

    The demonstration marks a watershed in critical communications proving the ability to support life-critical connectivity for public safety through “local control“ functionality, Cloudstreet said.

    Building toward this proof-of-concept, Cloudstreet has been working closely with the U.S. government’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) group overseeing FirstNet, a critical communications initiative in partnership with AT&T established following the tragedy and communications system failures of Sept. 11, 2001.

    Looking for a solution to the limitations of TETRA-style dedicated networks for public safety PSRC and Cloudstreet drew up a blueprint for local control functionality as an essential component of next-generation critical communications networks.

    Enabled by Cloudstreet’s Application-Aware Network Slicing platform, Local Control in the mobile network context provides public safety and critical communications operatives the ability to secure guaranteed, fail-safe connectivity to meet the demands of any data or communications applications required in the field.

    Coupled with Roger-GPS’s government-grade GNSS repeater, it allows signal base synchronization across limitless base stations, providing end-to-end QoS-adjusted mobile radio throughput for essential life-saving public safety applications.

    “We’re pleased to unveil this solution that is sure to become a critical platform for future public safety networks,” said Mika Skarp, founder and CTO of Cloudstreet. “The importance of delivering local control functionality for critical communications cannot be overstated. Leveraging our dynamic application-aware network slicing platform along with key radio signal support and synchronization gives public safety operatives the guaranteed service levels they need to meet their life-saving mandates. Together with our partners and a wave of innovative product developers, applications like real-time body camera video capture and situation analysis over unified commercial mobile networks suddenly become a reality, and these are but the tip of the iceberg. We’re proud to be playing our part in making this possible.”

  • PCTEL launches multi-band LTE/Wi-Fi/GNSS antenna with sub-inch profile

    PCTEL launches multi-band LTE/Wi-Fi/GNSS antenna with sub-inch profile

    PCTEL Inc. is offering a new multi-band LTE/Wi-Fi/GNSS antenna with a sub-inch profile. The antenna combines PCTEL’s high rejection multi-GNSS technology for precision timing and location tracking with high performance multi-band data connectivity.

    The antenna is also rugged and easy to install, making it suitable for covert public safety operations, precision agriculture and the industrial Internet of Things (IoT).

    “Complex, high performance antennas are critical for modern public safety communications, as well as for commercial applications such as mobile asset management,” said Rishi Bharadwaj, senior vice president and general manager of PCTEL’s Connected Solutions group. “However, vehicles and autonomous systems have limited space for antenna installation. PCTEL’s sub-inch antenna addresses these space limitations while delivering high performance multi-band coverage. PCTEL also offers external and embedded antenna system design services for customers with more severe antenna size constraints or other specialized requirements.”

    Within its ruggedized ultra-low profile housing, PCTEL’s new antenna supports multi-band LTE MIMO and dual-band 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi for data connectivity, as well as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo GNSS satellite technologies.

    All GNSS elements feature PCTEL’s proprietary high rejection technology to ensure reliable satellite connectivity in the presence of LTE signals or other interference. The antenna has been fully tested for use in extreme environments and on heavy agricultural equipment.

    PCTEL will display its new multi-band LTE/Wi-Fi/GNSS antenna along with other antenna solutions for public safety communications at APCO 2017 in Denver Aug. 14-15, in booth #1943. The antenna can be ordered using part number GNSMB-COV beginning Aug. 15.

  • Amtrak turns on positive train control for northeast corridor

    Travelers taking Amtrak between New York City and Philadelphia are now being protected by a new crash-prevention system.

    Amtrak, the United States’ national passenger railroad, has activated positive train control between New York City and Philadelphia, the last stretch of its tracks on the busy Northeast Corridor to get the system, reports the Wall Street Journal.

    Amtrak activated the system between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., earlier this month. It is meeting an original Dec. 31 federal year-end deadline. In October, Congress extended the deadline to December 2018.

    If it had been operating, the safety system could have prevented an Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia in May that killed eight and injured more than 200 others.

    Positive train control prevents train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursions into established work zone limits and a train going to the wrong track because a switch was left in the wrong position.