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Calgary, AB, Canada | I work for RavenCanada, and we started to make our dealers aware of the situation over the winter. Starting in mid-May, we gave our dealers instructions and dates, and in June we again informed them of the upcoming changeover. Many dealers had already informed their customers of the changeover. Late may, details and instrutions for the changeover were posted on our website for all to read. In July, we told the FAA that moving the July 31 date up by 2.5 weeks was going to cause us problems, (not insurmountable), as we had our program on track for the July 31 date.
As NebraskaFarm stated, the FAA worries about aviation saftey, not the myriad of other users. We (Raven and Hemisphere) were in contact with the FAA months ahead of last friday, but while they were sympathetic to our cause, there were many aviation saftey issues that they had to confirm would not be a factor if they extended the signal. Late friday afternoon, they confirmed that they could continue broadcasting PRN 122 and PRN134 with no danger to aviation.
Bottom line is that the FAA, especially D. Lawrence, WAAS Program Manager, really tried to help us in agriculture, and spent a lot of extra time and effort to accomodate us, which she was under no obligation to do. We owe her a great big "thank you!". Now let's all do our best to get all our customers ready for Aug 1.
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WAAS shutdown delayed
