Image: Wikimedia Commons Emilii_Plater_w_Warszawie_radek_kołakowski
Blog Editor’s Note: We periodically check the US Coast Guard Navigation Center’s website for interesting GPS disruption reports. The USCG NavCen is the reporting point for GPS users around the world having problems receiving GPS signals. The reports are just a small sample of what is going on in the world as users have to 1) know that they are having a GPS problem, 2) know how and where to report the problem, and 3) take the time to file the report. Here are a couple recently posted and some of our observations:
Warsaw, Poland
Just days after the European Navigation Conference departed Warsaw, Poland came a report of thousands of GPS receivers used in transportation. The report states:
Since Sunday 16.04.2019 [SIC should be 14.04.2019] our devices have a problem with number of satellites in Poland. At the moment, more than a thousand devices can see only 2-3 satellites. Can you tell us where the problem is?
Interestingly, the annual European Navigation Conference concluded several days before (on the 12th) in Warsaw.
Normally the Coast Guard and Air Force confer and a likely cause for the problem is posted on the site within 24 hours. As of this writing, three days later, the status of this incident is still listed as “investigation on-going.”
Iran
A problem lasting at least a week (beginning on 7 April) and spanning the whole country was reported from a user in Tehran, Iran.
It is something like a big noise. Since one week before all off car GPS modules involved. The problem is the date, location and clock is correct but date is 2099. today it is 29-8-2099. This strange mistake was reported from lots of cities in Iran.
On the surface this seems like it might be a GPS week rollover problem since the prime day for that was the 6th of April and this problem was first noted on the 7th. The report was filed on the 14th of April and as of this writing on the 18th, the website still lists it as “investigation on-going.”
