Canadian Space Geodesy Forum
The Canadian Space Geodesy Forum (CANSPACE) is a computer-communications-based information dissemination and discussion group that was established in 1989 as an aid to improving communication among scientists and engineers working with the techniques of space geodesy. Messages consisting of news, comments, questions, and answers are exchanged among forum participants by means of a LISTSERV list. LISTSERV is an electronic mail utility that allows a message to be "exploded" (sent simultaneously) to a list of individuals simply by sending the message to the list address. The address of the Canadian Space Geodesy Forum is canspace@unb.ca.
Any topic related to the space geodetic techniques (Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS), GLONASS, Galileo, very long baseline interferometry, satellite laser ranging, satellite altimetry, etc.) may be discussed. Questions are particularly encouraged. The list features daily postings of GPS satellite constellation status reports (Department of Defense Notice Advisories to Navstar Users) and reports of significant solar and geomagnetic field activity. Information concerning satellite launches is posted regularly. Although initially intended to link Canadian geodesists and geophysicists together, CANSPACE now has a wide international subscriber list and is open to all.
How to Subscribe
To subscribe to CANSPACE it is necessary for you to send an e-mail message to listserv@unb.ca (NOT to the CANSPACE address itself) with the following text in the message body:
SUB CANSPACE your nameOnce you are a subscriber, you may post a message to CANSPACE simply by sending the message to canspace@unb.ca. The message will be automatically distributed.
Setting the Topics Option
CANSPACE makes use of the LISTSERV "topics" option. The subject headers of postings optionally contain a three- or four- letter designator. These designators are "topics" identifiers that allow you to specify which kinds of CANSPACE postings you would like to receive. You do not have to receive all postings from CANSPACE -- you can select which groups you would like to receive.
At the moment, there are five topics:
| DOD | for the GPS Constellation Daily Status Report from USNO (DoD NANUs) |
|---|---|
| IPS | for the geomagnetic warnings from IPS Radio and Space Services |
| TCG | for the postings of Tables of Contents in Geodesy (journals) |
| CSIC | for the postings of the GLONASS status reports (including NAGUs) from the Coordinational Scientific Information Center of the Russian Space Forces |
| OTHER | for everything else that is posted to the CANSPACE list |
Initially, CANSPACE subscribers are automatically registered for all five topics. If you wish to change the topics to which you are subscribed, you will have to send an e-mail message to listserv@unb.ca (DO NOT SEND IT TO CANSPACE!). The form of the message is as follows:
SET CANSPACE TOPICS: xxxxxxxxxx may be the list of all topics you wish to receive or one or more topics preceded by a plus sign (+) to add a topic to or a negative sign (-) to drop a topic from your current list. For example, to drop the DoD NANUs and keep the other topics, just send the following:
SET CANSPACE TOPICS: -DODSigning Off from CANSPACE
To remove yourself from the list, send the following message to listserv@unb.ca:
SIGNOFF CANSPACEMessage Archives
All messages posted to the LISTSERV-based CANSPACE mailing list are archived in monthly notebooks. You can request that a particular notebook be sent to you by sending listserv@unb.ca a message of the following form:
GET CANSPACE LOGYYMM F=MAILwhere YY is the year and MM the month. The file will be sent to you as an e-mail message. Warning: the notebooks may be several hundred kbytes in size.
Individual archived postings can be recovered using a Web archive interface or the LISTSERV database function.
All of the postings in each monthly notebook (from the first of 8 June 1989) can be examined and the whole archive can be searched for particular postings using keywords, subjects, dates, and/or the author's address. The URL of the CANSPACE Web archive interface is https://listserv.unb.ca/archives/canspace.html.
Postings can also be recovered using the LISTSERV database function. Here is an example of how to use this function. To get an index of the postings in the archives that contain, for example, the word "launch" as well as excerpts from the indexed postings showing the context of the search term(s), the body of a message sent to listserv@unb.ca should look like this:
Search launch in CANSPACEThe result of the archive search will be sent back to you as an e-mail message. You can substitute any other words or phrase for the word "launch". Phrases should be enclosed in single quotes. You can retrieve the full text of particular postings from those identified in the search by following the instructions in the return e-mail message. To find out more about the LISTSERV database function running on our Unix machine, consult the LISTSERV General User's Guide available at http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/userindex.html.
Other Information
UNB and CANSPACE maintain a Web-based directory of GPS Receiver Manufacturers, System Integrators, Equipment Suppliers, and Service Providers: http://gauss.gge.unb.ca/manufact.htm.
Other related public discussion lists maintained at UNB include GPS for Aviation Discussion Group (GPS-AERO) and GPS for Ionospheric Research (GPS-IONO). For information on these lists, send the following message to listserv@unb.ca:
INFO GPS-AEROor
INFO GPS-IONOCANSPACE is maintained at the University of New Brunswick as a free service by Richard Langley and Terry Arsenault. They can be reached directly by e-mail or by phone at (506) 453-4698.
If you have any difficulties in accessing CANSPACE or want more information on the use of LISTSERV facilities, consult your local computer communications resource person or contact us.
| Text version | 1991-May-25 |
|---|---|
| Revised | 1991-September-26 |
| Revised | 1991-December-16 |
| Revised | 1992-March-6 |
| Revised | 1992-July-4 |
| Revised | 1993-February-15 |
| Revised | 1993-December-1 |
| Revised | 1994-April-1 |
| Revised | 1994-August-6 |
| Revised | 1994-August-20 |
| Revised | 1994-October-1 |
| Revised | 1995-May-2 |
| Revised | 1995-November-17 |
| Reformatted | 1996-April-6 |
| Revised | 1996-July-1 |
| Revised | 1997-July-26 |
| Revised | 2001-February-17 |
| HTML version | 2005-December-16 |