NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2015 Feb 4, 10:27 -0800
Don S, you wrote:
"Would this affect determination of location?"
It certainly shouldn't (but then again a broken device/algorithm can be broken in other ways, right?). This is a problem that has presumably been present and observable in some older GPS receivers for years. It's only now that it has been noticed. Here's another article from GPS World with the text of the original USCG notice. It has nothing to do with the navigation solution and only affects the displayed time and synchronization among devices that depend on the displayed time. I would bet that greater than 99% of devices containing GPS chipsets are immune to this issue.
A shorter version for those skimming: this issue does not affect the GPS navigation solution.
This case, by the way, is an excellent example of the problems that leap seconds can cause. I notice that the author of the article at the RIN web site states that the RIN is in favor of retaining leap seconds --a fairly stupid position.
Frank Reed
ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA
