No, it shouldn't be turned on again unless you are in a war zone involving the USA. SA always existed to stop people other than the military targeting missiles and the like with it.
In fact if you looked at your GPS when the US went to war the SA could put you up to about 1km out!!!! (Had it happen to me in the Lakes when US invaded Haiti).
But it was switched off because they got a new system which could switch SA on over a limited area where they didn't want civvies getting an accurate fix, in warzones etc. Which with a bit of luck Europe won't be, although around the Balkans might be a bit dodgy for accuracy.
But it was never much of a problem, I heard people saying how appaling 100m accuracy was in one breath and then quoting a 6 figure Landranger grid (which is accurate to, yep you guessed it; 100m!). So even if it is switched on again it isn't really a major problem as you shouldn't be using it for precise navigation anyway!
Posted: 09/02/2001 at 18:40
