I have a problem concerning GPS units. I have been studying on a project for a weather balloon which will go about 30 - 40km up. Now I do know that some GPS units have a limit on how high they can receive/show you the location whether it is a limitation made by the military to stop random production of cruise missiles and others which just don't work above a certain height. This is a problem as my weather balloon does go to a height which could be considered as a "GPS fail zone". At the moment I am using a 50 Channel D2523T Helical GPS Receiver - http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9566 . It’s a great product but I am worried with problems with height etc. Could anyone give me some ideas on GPS units or give me advice....Any help is greatly appreciated....P.S - The unit has to have the standerd GGA protocol.
Answer
GPS Units are typically limited to controlled airspace (60kfeet, 18km), and 1000 knots. These are commonly known as the COCOM limits. For anything outside of that, you will probably have to go for a higher-end GPS unit and possibly some additional paperwork.
I believe that the uBlox module that is on that board implements the COCOM limits correctly. In the uBlox G5010 datasheet, it gives the operational limits as 972 knots and 50km.
The DoD specification (I believe) says that a GPS unit should not operate above 60kfeet and 1000 or knots, but most of the manufacturers don't actually implement it this way. The commonly cited list of high-altitude capable GPS receivers is here.
Some other companies produce GPS units to spec: most notably Inventek.
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