Image: U.S. Dept. of Transportation
What’s New: U.S. DOT’s Karen Van Dyke gave a great presentation to the PNT Advisory Board on the 5th of December. It included information about a multi-source, global GPS interference display being developed.
Why It’s Important: Awareness of a problem is the first step to fixing it. Sure, we in the PNT community have known about this for years, but these kind of government-generated visuals can have real impact on those outside the community.
What Else to Know:
- Three things are needed to govern a space or sector. Sufficient awareness, rules, and operational capability.
- Awareness – The information DOT is compiling and making available will greatly increase awareness. SPD-7 calls for the ability to “monitor, identify, locate, and attribute” disruptions. We hope this new capability will be able to locate and attribute sources well enough that they can be eliminated – perhaps too harsh a word, let’s say “mitigated” – quickly.
- Rules – The Communications Act of 1934 might actually be enough, if properly interpreted and enforced. One possible improvement might be making possession of a jammer or spoofer illegal. Right now you have to be caught importing, selling, or using one.
- Operational Capability – It seems only federal agents are empowered to enforce the Communications Act. And among federal agents we are pretty sure the only ones who understand the law and have the needed training and equipment are a handful of folks at the FCC. This is a real limitation on the law’s effectiveness. We have suggested to the FCC several times they consider ways to delegate and empower state and local law enforcement to also be able to act against offenders.
- This awareness display should be available to the public sometime next year.
- Video of the PNT Advisory Board meeting on 5 Dec 2024 includes Karen’s presentation and is available here.
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