The GPS receiver is installed at the Maspalomas ground station, that is property of the spanish institute INTA. It is located in the southern part of the island Gran Canaria, municipal district of San Bartolome de Tirajana, Spain. The site is approximately 1750 metres from the coast.
On 22 June 1993 a Mini-Rogue SNR-8C was installed at the station. It was the first of the receivers deployed by ESOC in the ESA stations. The antenna was mounted on a monument from the spanish IGN, that participated in several geodetic campaigns with the marker name MPA1. For IGS the selected marker name was MASP.
ESOC constructed another monument (see monument diagram) and on 11/04/94 installed a new GPS system with a Turbo_Rogue SNR-8100. The marker name is MAS1. Both systems were operated in parallel for several weeks until the decommission of the old receiver, so that an eccentricity vector with mm precission could be determined and verified by the Analisys Centres.
In december 2000 an Ashtech Z-XII receiver replaced the TurboRogue.
All the equipment is integrated in the racks of the Main Equipment Room (South) of the station that is under temperature and humidity control.
The receiver is connected to the timing system of the station, a Cesium manufactured by OSCILLOQUARTZ.
The antenna is a Dorne Margolin T and is mounted on a monument located several metres east of the Main Equipment Room of the station.
The data are every day shortly after midnight (UTC) automatically downloaded to a PC that is connected to the receiver with a flat cable. The PC runs a remote control software that provides for communications with the control centre.
Currently the data retrieval is performed via Internet. In the past a Telebit T2500 modem and a P.A.D. that run over a 64 Kbits line have been used. They are currently available as back-up systems.
The automatic procedures that run in ESOC download every day the data, and then reformat, validate, and put them with ftp to the main IGS data centres with a nominal delay of less than 2 hours.
The Station Information Form (SIF) summarises the characteristics and development of the GPS site. The last version and more information are available from the IGS Central Bureau
And some photos of the site:
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Contact info. Last Update: July 2002