Vulnerabilities of GPS is a big concern: Dana Goward By Anusuya Datta 09/05/2020 Satellite systems have become an integral part of our businesses for precise navigation and timing services. Yet GPS/GNSS jamming, spoofing, and other forms of interference appear to be...

Image: Shutterstock RNTF Report Very few people know how to report problems with GPS reception. And few of those take the trouble to do it. So the listing that the US government maintains of GPS disruption reports really represents the tip of the iceberg. Likely only...

NASA Image Blog Editor's Note: An excellent article from the NASA website below. And another example of how difficult it is for people to learn from the past and prepare for the future.   As we are fond of pointing out, the US knew aircraft hijacking was a problem...

Image: RNT Foundation In September we reported how airline and pilot groups had raised the issue of GNSS disruption to the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The body decided it was an urgent issue (airplanes have almost crashed because of GNSS...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's note: Much of this item in Aviation Policy News relates the announcement of a group seeking a public-private-partnership with the government to build an eLoran system. Something we have already reported on. The author makes some...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog editor's note: We received this update from the relatively new UK national Timing Centre and thought it would be of interest to our readers. The centre has three objectives: Objective 1  Deliver a resilient UK national time infrastructure...

The RNT Foundation is grieved to convey the passing of a member and friend, Dr. Terry McGurn, yesterday at Reston Hospital. His wife, June was at his side. Dr. McGurn retired as an analyst in the Senior Executive Service from the Central Intelligence Agency. His...

Image:  Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: We have espoused similar opinions often. It is good to see others taking up the call. The author advocates for establishment of an eLoran system. The National PNT Advisory Board has recommended this multiple times, and the US...

Image: US DOT Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is the RNTF president.   No silver bullet for US PNT: Many sources needed   August 18, 2020  - By Dana Goward Many PNT sources from multiple providers needed “We cannot have GPS signals be a single...

A document issued by the federal government yesterday outlined over 18 laws and regulations that can be used to punish activities to detect and/or counter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), more commonly referred to as 'drones.' The Advisory on the Application of...

Image: Chinese Fishing Vessels Far From Home - Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Another example of how GPS spoofing and jamming is used for malicious activity. Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported fishing is likely one of the biggest threats to the global environment and...

Loran Tower Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Notes: Another chapter in the on-going saga of GPS backups and eLoran. The original version of the article can be read as Hellen Systems already having a partnership in place with the federal government. They have...

Image: Launch of 55th BeiDou Satellite courtesy of BeiDou.gov.cn Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is President of the RNT Foundation.  Our friend Prof. Todd Humphreys at Univ. Texas, Austin was one of the industry experts consulted for this story....

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: There are a number of good things about this year's Executive Order (EO) on responsible use of PNT.  This effort by OSTP is one of them. We do wish, though, that, in addition to this laudatory R&D effort, the executive...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  A great article by Greg Milner, author of "Pinpoint - How GPS is changing technology, culture, and our minds." Long time RNTF members will recall that Greg spoke at our 2016 annual meeting at the US Naval Observatory just after...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: I posted this item last week fairly soon after first seeing it. Having had more time to think about this, and discussing it with a variety of satnav experts in the US and elsewhere, I am re-writing my notes. I now have to...

Image: Department of Defense Blog Editor's Note: We are providing two links here. The first from BBC has a bit of insightful analysis.  The second is the official statement from US Space Command. This should be of interest to our readers even though kinetic attack on...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  We posted on this incident several days ago, but this article provides more detail on the event that should be of interest to our readers.  Things like services impacted, the nature of the attack, etc. It also makes the point...

Blog Editor's Note; Here is another in our series linking you to articles about the FCC's decision on Ligado Networks. We freely admit that we are not re-posting pro-decision items. That's because we find most all of the "pro" arguments either misguided or patently...

Graphic: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  Bad break for Garmin, our best wishes for a quick recovery. In total, these kinds of things can be far more damaging than "traditional" crimes. Also they transcend all borders. Federal administrations should take an active...

Image: ESA Blog Editor's Note: Great to see the EU addressing this issue! It is something the US has needed for years, but has failed to act on.  And the US, with its greater suspicion of government and focus on individual freedom, likely has more problems with...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Notes: An interesting article by Fox News that raises some interesting points, but also conflates several issues and gets some things a bit wrong. Perhaps understandable for a popular news outlet dealing with a very nuanced technical...

Photo: UrsaNav Blog Editor's Notes:  Jamming by the North North Korea has jammed GPS signals in South Korea almost as much as Russia has jammed northern Norway. Fortunately these episodes have been relatively low power and of short duration. But certainly enough to...

Photo: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The author is the President of the RNT Foundation FCC’s Ligado decision broadens, deepens opposition July 21, 2020  - By Dana Goward Last week, 27 members of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee sent a letter to Federal...

Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. GPS interference crashed a survey drone in the UK. Will the debate resonate in the US? By Dana A. Goward An expensive drone crashed into a house in December when it lost GPS signals due to...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: PNT is an invisible, silent utility that underpins most of first world society. Yet signals from space are weak and easily disrupted. In the case of GNSS, signal characteristics are also well known and the signals are easy to...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: An interesting article in an outlet we had not accessed before.  Thanks to several alert readers for sending this our way. A number of issues raised wrt GPS including the FCC's decision on Ligado, vulnerabilities, DoD's need to...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. Congress makes moves against FCC’s Ligado decision July 13, 2020  - By Dana Goward At first it was a flurry of letters and public statements from U.S. senators and members of the...

Image: USAF Photo Staff Sgt Robert M. Trujillo Blog Editor's Note: We just ran across this article and thought our readers might like to see it. It makes perfect sense for the pilots to do this (we would do it). But the revelation is clearly a PR loss for the US and a...

Image: Shutterstock Blog editor's note: Several interesting aspects of this story. With Brexit, the UK was cut out of the EU's Galileo GNSS project to which it had contributed greatly. We are not sure why that had to be as Norway, not a member of the EU, has been a...

Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is the President of the RNT Foundation   Capt. Sullenberger, PNT board against Ligado decision   July 6, 2020  - By Dana Goward Opposing the FCC’s Ligado Decision Not surprisingly, the primary topic at the July...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note:  The author is the President of the RNT Foundation American Journal of Transportation International Trade US DOT acting to protect GPS, add more navigation signals By Mr. Dana A. Goward Editor’s Note: Dana A. Goward is the...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Today's post is by Mr. Jens Hoxmark, an RNTF member, electrical engineer, and concerned Norwegian citizen. For reference, we have listed and linked to some previous posts about jamming in Norway below his post. Afraid of...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note - A very interesting development reported by Breaking Defense. The "share with civilians" language is significant as DOD has said before (and documented in their strategy) that they don't like the fact that civilians use GPS....

Tromso, the administrative center of Finnmark, Norway - Shutterstock Blog Editor's note:  We have posted numerous press items about this already. It has been a while since the last, so just an update that it is still going on.  As the police chief says "This has been...

US Capitol: RNT Foundation   Well, we have gone a couple days without talking about this, so here goes. Two big items since last time: Senate Armed Services Committee Senator Inhofe, Chair of the Armed Services Committee, plans to introduce the "RETAIN GPS and...

The site Briefings for Britain reported today; "...the UK is revising plans for its independent satellite navigation system to replace Galileo, from which it was vindictively excluded by the EU following the Brexit referendum. New, lower cost, proposals being...

NASA Photo The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board, will conduct a virtual meeting on 1 July. On the agenda are: Updates on emerging U.S. Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) policies; Status of Global Positioning System...

Image: RNT Foundation We really don't want to become your one stop shop for the latest news on this long running controversy. On the other hand, there continues to be a lot to talk about. And it is clear that lots of our readers are interested in significant...

Image: RNT Foundation   Transportation depends upon the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) pretty much everywhere, according to the US Department of Transportation's (DoT) Acting Deputy Secretary. While this may...

Dana A. Goward's Note: I was on an Aviation Week Webinar panel today with Doug Smith, the CEO of Ligado. The title was "5G - Threat to Aviation or the Future." Of course it was really about the FCC's decision on Ligado and the impact it would have on the aviation...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is the RNT Foundation President. Lawmakers slam DHS for late, error-filled PNT report June 9, 2020  - By Dana Goward DHS report cover Members of Congress were not pleased with the new U.S....

This very informative webinar was held on the 25th of June 2020. It can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/5T6v1HK-a6s?list=PLy5WTVyT9eJL3MURZxe8c-2gypR-e6ZIt  

RNTF Photo Blog Editor's Note: The author is the President of the RNT Foundation. US senators question FCC on Ligado decision June 5, 2020  - By Dana Goward Eight senators sent a letter on June 4 to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Ajit Pai asking a...

Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is RNTF President Dana A. Goward. ESA project calls for terrestrial navigation systems to reduce risk June 3, 2020  - By Dana Goward Webinar to discuss MarRINav project results In 2018 the first-ever European...

Chairman Pai, FCC Official Photo Blog Editor's Note: The more we read materials from each side of this issue, the more the opponents seem to be talking past each other. They might as well be speaking different languages. Everyone sees themselves as doing the right...

Image: SkyTruth Blog Editor's Note: The author is president of the RNT Foundation.   New GPS ‘circle spoofing’ moves ship locations thousands of miles May 26, 2020  - By Dana A. Goward New research by Bjorn Bergman of the environmental non-profit SkyTruth has...

The RNT Foundation Annual meeting was held via Zoom this year and recorded on video. First up was new RNT Foundation member, Mr. Bjorn Bergman of Skytruth with a presentation about some really weird GPS disruption incidents he has observed of late. RNTF President also...

Image: Shutterstock   Yesterday was the deadline for filing Petitions for Reconsideration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding their decision on Ligado Networks. The National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) NTIA filed a...

A U.S. airman uses a GPS to load coordinates at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on Nov. 19, 2015. (Airman 1st Class Derek Seifert/U.S. Air Force) Blog Editor's Note: The author of this piece has some serious creds in the cyber and intelligence spaces. He is spot on in...