Earlier this month the first GPS III satellite (SVN74) was designated as healthy by the US Air Force Second Space Operations (2SOPS) and is actively transmitting a new GPS civilian signal identified as L1C.
As part of the future-proof technology, all LabSat units can record and replay the L1C signal (transmitted on the L1-band at 1575.42MHz) for receiver and device testing. The increased bandwidth offered by LabSat 3 Wideband enables the whole L1C signal to be captured which may be required for certain testing due to the difference in signal structure of the L1C compared to the legacy L1C/A signal.
It is planned that the L1C signal will eventually supersede the existing L1C/A civilian signal, and both are transmitted on the same frequency. However, the L1C codes are ten times longer than L1C/A, making it more resilient to interference, and it is the first GPS signal to be fully interoperable with Galileo.
