Special Guests including Sen. Pat Roberts - Visiting the GPS Maze exhibit

 We will have a few special guests on Sunday visiting the GPS exhibit at Exploration Place, Sen. Pat Roberts has a huge interest in GPS (the technology) and how it affects Kansas industries. He will come see the exhibit (quickly), starting at 4 p.m. or so. Then we will go into the Kemper Creative Learning Studio (it’s the auditorium seating venue that’s right next to the exhibit) and he will say a few words about GPS.

Three others will also talk about GPS for about after the senator (they will have about five minutes each):

1.       Chuck Reagan – Speaking about Aviation applications -1964 graduate of Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., Reagan received his master's degree from the University of Kansas in 1966, and in 1967 he became the first person to earn a doctorate in philosophy from KU.

Reagan has also had a parallel career as a commuter airline pilot, flight instructor and charter pilot. He holds an Airline Transport Rating and jet rated. He flies as captain of the university's Citation Jet and holds the title of professor of aviation as well as professor of philosophy. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Business Aviation Association and is the K-State representative to the Aviation Advisory Board at Manhattan Regional Airport. He is also a licensed railroad locomotive engineer.

2.       Mark Bergkamp – Sedgwick County producer and board member of the Kansas Farm Bureau.  He’ll be talking about precision agriculture and the important role GPS plays.

3.       John Cassat - Vice President, Communications for Garmin.  He’ll be talking about personal use navigation

Jon Cassat joined Garmin in 1993 to lead the advertising efforts of the company. Prior to joining Garmin, Cassat held a variety of creative and leadership positions at area ad agencies. As Garmin's manager of corporate communications and later as the director of marketing communications, Cassat helped establish a full complement of in-house advertising, communication, and brand-building services in furtherance of the company's commitment to vertical integration.

Cassat is a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University where he earned his bachelor's in business administration. He continued his education with graduate studies at the University of Kansas where he earned his master's in journalism.

Then we will end at about 5 p.m.


Exploration Place -  300 N. McLean Blvd., Wichita, KS 67203 (316)660-0600, fax: (316)660-0670


http://coord.info/GC38TRH

Roberts Applauds Decision to Protect GPS

FCC decision important to public safety and many Kansas industries ranging from aviation to agriculture
[and Geocaching]

Feb 15 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kansas Senator Pat Roberts who has led the charge to protect public safety, aviation, military and precision agriculture uses of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) from potential harmful interference today hailed the decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject a plan to create a new wireless network because it would have interfered with the GPS signal.
“Any Kansan with a GPS in his or her car was going to be affected by the interference this conflicting network posed,” said Roberts. “This is a particularly big win for public safety as well as precision agriculture, aviation and other industries critical to the Kansas economy that rely on seamless GPS communication.
“I’m pleased the FCC has agreed with my concerns and taken measures to block LightSquared's proposed network due to dangerous interference with GPS. While I remain committed to the continued expansion of broadband networks, there was simply too much at stake with this proposal that put our public and national security at risk. It would have been irresponsible to allow any network to interfere with a system so important to moving goods, defending our homeland and feeding the world.”
FCC’s decision late yesterday followed extensive testing by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other agencies, which concluded deployment of the LightSquared network would have caused irreparable harm to GPS dependent industries, such as aviation, defense, personal location devices and agriculture, because the spectrum used by LightSquared is adjacent to the spectrum used by GPS.

Senator Roberts worked with many Kansas companies and associations in this effort including Garmin, John Deere & Company, Case New Holland, FedEx, UPS, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, Caterpillar, Agricultural Retailers Association, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials among others.
In May 2011, Sen. Roberts and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, asking him to take all necessary steps to protect GPS.

In November of last year, Sen. Roberts introduced an amendment to prohibit the FCC from using any appropriated funds to allow LightSquared to build out a broadband network until the agency could prove the expansion will not interfere with GPS. Similar legislation, championed by Congressman Yoder, was signed into law as part of the consolidated Appropriations bill.

-30-

U.S. Senator Visits the GPS Adventures Maze in Wichita

--------------------------------------------------
U.S. Senator Visits the GPS Adventures Maze in Wichita
--------------------------------------------------

Join U.S. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas at the GPS Adventurers Maze Exhibit in Wichita on Sunday, February 19th. Sen. Roberts has championed the importance of GPS technology for aviation, precision agriculture, and recreation (geocaching, anyone?). The Senator is scheduled to tour the exhibit beginning at 4:15 followed by an event in the Exploration Place auditorium.

All geocachers who visit and log and "Attended" for the GPS Adventures Maze earn a unique icon on their Geocaching.com profile – but how many can say they've also met a U.S. Senator at the maze? Attend the event to show the geocaching community's commitment to free and accurate recreational GPS use.

GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit cache page:http://coord.info/GC3A5M4

Special Guests at GPS Maze

I have posted an event, hoping it will get published, since the notice is so short

http://coord.info/GC3CP24

Geocaching and Google maps

FYI

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/02/google-to-start-charging-for-google-maps/

Save the date - Special Guest

 I have just been informed we we have a very special guest here on Sunday Feb 19th, 2012 4pm-5pm at the GPS Maze event in Wichita, Ks.

 I can't divulge who the guest is until the press release has been sent out, but this person has a big interest in GPS.
I'll send out the press release as soon as I receive it on Thursday, just wanted give everyone as much notice as possible.
I plan on making a plea to try to get a geocaching event published, since the short notice was outside of my control.

Sometimes we roll out the red carpet

Sometimes we roll out the red carpet when we have visiting geocachers.  Other times, we just roll... 

Video:  

http://youtu.be/GaU_Azj6gTA

about to go after the cache

Yea, it's down there!