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Disastrous GPS Jamming from FCC-Approved


RGT

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http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/news/data-shows-disastrous-gps-jamming-fcc-approved-broadcaster-11029

....During the laboratory testing, GPS signals were simulated by a Spirent GSS 6560 GPS simulator, representing a constellation of 31 GPS satellites, the current configuration. LightSquared’s signal was simulated using a Rhode and Schwartz SMIQ-03S signal generator with digital modulation, amplified to achieve the relevant signal strengths. Full technical specifications and parameters are described in the Experimental Evidence document linked above.

The industry report concludes: “As shown by the Garmin testing described in this document, the proposed LightSquared plan to add 40,000 high-powered transmitters in the band adjacent to GPS will result in widespread, severe GPS jamming. This will deny GPS service over vast areas of the United States.”

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We might need to bring Kip out of retirement - I think he remembers how to do this? Grin-Nod.gif

Yup, still remember how to do GS check, Time and Distance, and Exact Tracking. When I was going through 'wings" training in the RCAF I happened to meet a friend who was about two years ahead of me, had graduated as a pilot and was now a an instructor at YPG and I was a student, (Flight Cadet)...but not his.

We were both single and we both had girl friends out west. As an instructor it was easy for him to get a T-33 every weekend so he asked me if I wanted to start going out west to see the girls ...we would leave every Saturday morning and I would get lots of " free IFR practice" and return sunday night...... I was all for it.

He loved "wobbly pop" so he was fairly well hung-over every Saturday morning so he would take the back seat, put me in the front and off we would go. He would brief me that he wanted to sleep and he would leave his "hot-mike" in his O2 mask on and if I failed to hear him breathing I was to execute and Emergency Descent.

On the first flight I had the mandatory IFR log card all figured out and showed it to him.....he laughed, tore it up and handed me a card encased in plastic that he said would get us there.

It was almost the identical route but instead of using ADF Bcns we were going to use commercial radio stations that I could track and we could both listen to music.......if he failed to nod off.!!!

He asked me to wake him up just prior to descent, over YVR, as we headed into YVJ for a great weekend.

I was in jet training for about 5 months and I think we made about 15 flights out and back during that time.......was a lot of fun and gas back then was only $0.40/gallon (JP4).

More experience to file in my memory bank and ADF tracking and approaches never seemed a problem for me after all that "practice":) .

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DATE:22/02/11

SOURCE:Flight International

USAF concerned about GPS interference from LightSquared

By Gayle Putrich

The head of the US Air Force Space Command expressed concern that a new mobile phone service in the US could interfere with GPS signals for military and non-military users.

Speaking at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Gen William Shelton says the 4G mobile broadband network in the works from LightSquared would spread 40,000 towers - and interference - across the US.

"Within three to five miles on the ground and within 12 miles in the air, GPS is jammed by those towers," Shelton says. "If we allow that system to be fielded and it does indeed jam GPS, think about the impact. We're hopeful we can find a solution, but physics being physics we don't see a solution right now. LightSquared has got to prove that they can operate with GPS and we're hoping the FCC does the right thing."

The company was issued a provisional permit by the Federal Communications Commission in late 2010 is already testing the system for GPS interference. One of the conditions of the provisional permit is that LightSquared's network does not interfere with other signals.

The FCC told the company to work with the federal government and the GPS industry to find answers to jamming questions. The FCC process starts with a 25 February initial report - which Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared's executive vice president for regulatory affairs says the company is currently working on - followed by monthly reports and a 15 June final report. After that, the FCC will confer with other agencies, including the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, on the results.

Carlisle says LightSquared has invested $9 million to keep its L-band signals from interfering with the already-weak GPS signal through a series of filters, and that the problem - if it even exists - would only be with certain, highly sensitive GPS receivers.

"There's a wall between us and GPS," he says. Independent tests by GPS receive companies, to which Shelton may have been referring, likely used only a simulation of the filters and not the actual protections in which LightSquared has invested, Carlisle says.

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