GPS Jamming

[glojo]

On Thursday and Friday of this week the Ministry of Defence will be carrying out exercise on the North Cornish Coast and as a consequence GPS WILL BE JAMMED.

This is not a wind up, nor spam. GPS will not work in the vicinity of the Northern Cornish coast during the duration of the exercise (approximately 10 15 km inland)

Regards
John

 

[Sp!ke]

I must say that I am rather sceptical of this warning.

GPS is now so mainstream that it'd be like turning off all mobile phones... Many organisations and industries up in arms, emergency services stranded etc

There would be so many hoops to jump through, international negotiations and public awareness campaigns prior to 'the test' that the MOD would be better served doing it offshore.

I also wonder quite how they'd block GPS satellite signals but nothing else. What about Satellite TV or mobile phones for instance. If they blocked Sky for two days, it would cost someone (probably the MOD) many millions in compensation claims.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[GrahamC230K]

It's an interesting topic. Must refresh myself on who owns the system globally, why the accuracy level is as it is and what the theoretical measures that could be taken are in terms of national defense........google........

 

[BTB 500]

The military routinely operate GPS jammers, all warships have them for a start. Most cruise missiles and even some free-fall bombs are GPS-guided, so being able to jam the signals is a fairly basic defence requirement.

 

[GrahamC230K]

This just about covers it all for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

 

[glojo]

I must say that I am rather sceptical of this warning.

Hi Spike,
This is a subject I wouldn't joke about, warnings have been issued to the emergency services as I'm led to believe that all ambulances in Cornwall have GPS equipment.

You will only see it if you visit North Cornwall this Thursday\Friday, but can you see something that isn't there.

Sort of noticeable by their absence.

John

 

[Nibbo]

Good time to order pizza... they will never deliver it on time so it will be free.

I can see the anti sat nav headlines now... Girl ooops I mean person drives off Cornish cliff following instuctions from comand unit.

Seriously though, how could they do such a thing unless it is done at source; i.e. stop the satellites from transmitting the NMEA data for a given area.

 

[prprandall51]

This will be a great opportunity to see how well Comand continues to navigate successfully without GPS. In theory, the system should still operate correctly, in practice

Philip

 

[glojo]

I also wonder quite how they'd block GPS satellite signals but nothing else. What about Satellite TV or mobile phones for instance. If they blocked Sky for two days, it would cost someone (probably the MOD) many millions in compensation claims.

I'll believe it when I see it.

With the very greatest of respect your going way, way off topic, GPS is a single entity. For years the American military put in a deviation type signal to take out the accuracy. Then in times of war, again the US will control who uses it. They certainly will not switch off your Sky TV, electric kettle, CB radio etc. Without going too political it is a huge arguement when discussing our nuclear detterant. If the US don't agree with any military action we might take unilaterally, they can simply deny our military acess to the GPS signal, but we could still watch the war on Sky News.

There has just been an announcement on BBC South-West News confirming this report. I do find it extraordinary for this to happen, but who am I to reason why. It is again stated it will be an area of stretching inland for 15km along the North Cornwall coast on Thursday and Friday.

If you have Sky, then look on the South-West local news tonight from 6pm and hopefully they will repeat it. (I have no idea of channel number as it is our local BBC) I hate to admit to having just taken extra medication, but I can assure you I definetly heard what I heard.

John

 

[glojo]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Your wish is my command. It has now been reduced to 11km but includes the Cambourne area. I had best include Nibbo in my reply.

Oh ye of little faith. Just think if I had said,

"Duck!"

You would probably be the bloke that says, "Why!"

If the link fails then log onto the BBC Spotlight page and latest news.

Heading:
Military to jam Sat Nav
A military exercise in Cornwall will jam satellite navigation systems, including the emergency services'.

Edit:
Your wish is my command... Or should I have said COMAND?

 

[recycled]

Do not fear. It cannot be as bad a scare as the Y2K bug, can it?

 

[eGuru]

I remember during the second Gulf war my sat nav was out of action often. The reason given for this at the time was that the US forces required the full signal strength for the war. Not sure how true this was.

 

[BTB 500]

Seriously though, how could they do such a thing unless it is done at source; i.e. stop the satellites from transmitting the NMEA data for a given area.

Easy. The signal strength you pick up from the satellites is tiny, so they just need to transmit a locally stronger jamming signal on the same frequencies.

 

[Rose Chap]

I can believe this. I was coming back from Newquay earlier this year and the Comand 2.0 in my car didn't pick up a single satellite until I was on the A303, whereupon it picked up and retained between 4 and 8 satellites.

 

[prprandall51]

I remember during the second Gulf war my sat nav was out of action often. The reason given for this at the time was that the US forces required the full signal strength for the war. Not sure how true this was.

I saw this happen, too. The satellites are not geo-stationary so they can be moved around at will. The US military deploy them over areas where they need pinpoint accuracy. I remember looking at the deployment positions at that time and there was only a few satellites over northern Europe - the rest had gone down south to help the troops. Sat nav was all but impossible.

 

[glojo]

I remember during the second Gulf war my sat nav was out of action often. The reason given for this at the time was that the US forces required the full signal strength for the war. Not sure how true this was.

You are talking about extremely sensitive (military wise) equipment and you do not want the enemy being able to use your toys.

John

 

[Flasheart]

I remember during the second Gulf war my sat nav was out of action often. The reason given for this at the time was that the US forces required the full signal strength for the war. Not sure how true this was.

pretty much poppy **** I would imagine. So long as you have 4 sats above the horizon you will get a fix in all three dimensions. it doesn't matter how many recievers are switched on they don't draw power from the sats as such. But they will have moved them slightly to give more coverage to the Middle East - so not so much giving more power - just more observation of the sats themselves.

But as Glojo pointed out it is a wholly owned product of the US DoD, Galileo being the European version. Its only recently they have allowed access to the greater accuracy that only the military enjoyed in the early days, they deliberately put a signal in to increase the area of error.

The shutting off of GPS is part of the SCATANA plan - Security Control or Air Traffic and Air Navigation. This was seen during the first Gulf War where air navigation beacons in the GSFA( Great Saudi F**k All) were switched off and at one stage we had to use Astro to find airfields.

Nice to see mention of Omega in the Wikipedia entry - bane of my life for a while - great as an area nav aid - ie 2-10Nm but useless as a precision aid. There is one of the VLF transmitters at Rugby(well Crick just outside Rugby infact) you see it on the M1/M6 interchange.

 

[Godot]

As a former resident of Bude (North Cornwall) this is why & where the "problem" originates from


GCHQ & all that, with the Yanks stationed there as well, according to my sources.

Don't get too close or it's Guantanamo for You!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_CSO_Morwenstow:crazy:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.s...rchp=newsearch.srf&dn=716&ax=220228&ay=112713

 

[Flasheart]

How does a SIGINT centre which is recieving and not transmitting interfere with GPS signals?

 

[Godot]

I have a slight suspicion that they just may be carrying out a little bit more than receiving !