[alberg30] Re: Y2K

[Gordon E. White]

    I haven't been all that worried about the year 2000 problem, but the
AOPA Pilot magazine this month (p. 99) describes the potentials very
clearly. They mention that older marine GPS units may have a problem
called end-of-the-week rollover, not actually Y2K, but similiar. It
seems that the counters on the GPS satellites can count only 1,023 weeks
or 19 + years. They then roll over and begin again. Older models may
have a problem and begin searching for satellites as they were 20 years
ago and have trouble synching up. The next rollover takes place August
21, 1999 at 23:59:47 Greenwich.  Apparently the receivers will sort this
out after a while - I don't know if minutes or hours - but may become
"lost" for a while next August 21st.
    The GPS manufacturers are working on this and some have posted
information on the web, however Magellan, which my unit is, has not
(www.magellan.com)   Others are Garmin www.garmin.com   Northstar
www.northstarcmc.com     Trimble (which seems to be going out of the GPS
business) www.trimble.com     Bendix/King  www.alliedsignal.com   II
Morrow www.iimorrow.com
    I have not punctuated these to avoid complicating the addresses.
    Some GPS will be inoperative on February 1, 2000 or read it as
January 32, 2000 because of a leap year problem. Seems years ending in
00 are not leap years, except those divisible by 400, thanks to the
horologists and astronomers who keep the faith of the Gregorian
calendar.
    There is more to this in Pilot than sailors may want to know. My
son, the Navy Commander, is very concerned over many shipboard systems
that used imbedded chips. The good news is that shipboard nuclear
systems pre-date the later stages of the microchip revolution and are
not affected.
                                                    - Gordon White
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