Ontario GPS guidance down as satellite 135 offline for testing

An abrupt change in the availability of the main satellite used for GPS correction in Ontario threw farmers’ planting and combining plans into confusion.

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All of the satellites used for GPS correction for farming are owned by the United States military and administered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S.

Why it matters: Farmers have come to rely on GPS guidance to precision steer equipment and record accurate data and have built their planting and harvesting systems around the availability of that technology.

Many were caught by surprise when the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) satellite 135 went offline on Oct. 17.

According to an FAA website, it will be offline for testing until Nov. 6.

Farmers are recommended to try satellites 131, 132 or 133 until the more-accurate 135 is back online.

Chris Dahms, precision farming and technology solutions specialist with Robert’s Farm Equipment spent a very busy day on Oct. 17 answering phone calls and texts and they were still coming in on Oct. 18.

He says that Ontario farmers no longer had access to satellite 138 as of June 2022, but 135 works for most people in the province.

“When they took that (138) down, they didn’t replace it, they basically turned up and shifted 135 to be our new correction source satellite,” he says.

Then, 135 went down without notice.

“Basically they said they will be testing. I don’t know what the heck they would be testing. I don’t know why they wouldn’t do testing in January when people aren’t combining and planting wheat.”

Farmers need to find their satellite choice option on their monitor. It usually is either red, yellow or green. Dahms says that the 135 is now showing up yellow and on monitors with a level reading, similar to cell phone service, there are two bars of service, not the five that are usually available and more accurate.

They’ll have other satellite options and Dahms says to choose 131, 132 or 133.

Farmers across the province took to social media to express their frustration with a lack of signal.