Blog Editor's Note: We were very encouraged to see the announcement of this effort by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. We are sure that it will contribute to the PNT community's overall knowledge base. Yet there is a lot of science and technology available...

DOT Ignoring GPS Vulnerabilities — Again November 30, 2018  - By Dana Goward The U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent document preparing for the future of self-driving cars almost entirely ignores positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) needs, according to...

On the 14th of November the Senate passed the Frank LoBiondo US Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018. Included in that bill was the National Timing Security and Resilience Act of 2018.  The bill was initially proposed last year in the House by Congressmen John...

Blog Editor's Note: This two-part report by Katherine Dunn has reached many in business who have not been aware of such problems heretofore (see some of the comments on her article on line). It is a good reminder that, while such things may seem matter of course to...

Blog Editor's Note: This bill, which passed the Senate on the 14th of November, requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish a terrestrial national timing signal to provide a backup for GPS timing.  It originated in the House of Representatives several years...

Blog Editor's Note: Maritime GPS disruptions have been reported elsewhere, but seem to be particularly common in this part of the world. Electronic navigation signals from the Saudi Arabian Loran-C system and the Russian Chayka/Loran-C system are available for use...

Blog Editor's Note: Russia has been jamming and spoofing GPS repeatedly and over broad areas since at least 2016.  In the below "Inside GNSS" article about their most recent jamming events, RNTF President Dana A. Goward is quoted about the reasons:  "Russia has very...

Blog Editor's Note: This presentation at the SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) conference caught our attention. Speaking with the author we learned that SITA tracks a wide range of cyber issues with aviation on a weekly basis. We would...

US Marine Corps pilots fly a MV-22B Osprey during Exercise Trident Juncture near northern Norway, November 6, 2018. US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Cody J. Ohira   Blog Editor's Note: The last few reports of this have been associated with Russian military exercises....

Blog Editor's Note: We were very happy to see this headline. Apparently the Secretary made these remarks at the SINET conference in Washington, DC this week. We have already heard some comments that hearing from the Secretary on this is good, but that little seems to...

Blog Editor's Note: The introduction of Pokemon Go in July 2016 introduced the idea of location spoofing to the consumer market and provided a training ground for people to practice it. While most of this kind of spoofing is done by a phone app, we also saw an...

Blog Editor's Note: This piece from KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, is a good popular summary of the challenges faced by America and other nations without a terrestrial backup and augmentation system. While not everything that uses GPS fails as soon as the...

Photo Peter Wong Blog Editor's Note: In May a drone show in Xi'an, China was disrupted by GPS jamming. About one third of the 1,300+ drones were affected and unable to keep their positions in the display formation. In the Hong Kong show reported on below, only 100...

Blog Editor's Note: When evaluating claims like this, we like to use the "NCIS Rule" - ask if the accused had the means, motive, and opportunity. The US military certainly has the means to spoof GPS, GLONASS and every other satnav system that drones might use. In an...

Blog Editor's Notes:  FCC rules require the licensing of non-federal receive-only equipment that operates with foreign satellite systems, including navigation systems. They also state that a waiver may be granted for non-US satnav signals, if the provider so requests....

Spoofing GPS – Now you see it, now you don’t! Thursday, November 8, 2018 14:00 until 15:00 EST ABOUT Russian EW ops have “relocated” over 600 vessels from their coastal waters to airports. Gamers have convinced Pokémon Go that they are thousands of miles away in...

Two recent reports to the US Coast Guard document persistent GPS disruptions within seven or eight nautical miles of the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah. These follow well documented problems in the Black Sea, around Cyprus, off-shore of Syria, and in the vicinity of...

Blog Editor's Note: This is a good reminder of the importance of designing in cyber security.  Also the vulnerability of GNSS signals, and that no one is immune to disruptions. . . October 18, 2018 By Inside GNSS . A recent General Accountability Office (GAO)...

Blog Editor's Note: Bob Poole is a regular contributor to the respected industry journal "Air Traffic Management." He has often observed that a navigation and timing system that serves ALL modes of transportation would be much less expensive for the United States, and...

Reports of recurring GPS reception problems near Tacoma, WA in the US and the port of Plymouth in the UK have been received by the US Coast Guard Navigation Center, the agency that collates such reports from the public. See reports for 9/27/2018 and 10/2/2018. The...

Blog Editor's Note: NASA is rightly concerned about the future of space and keeping it usable. The immediate problem and the focus of much recent attention has been Low Earth Orbit (LEO). GNSS fly about ten thousand miles above LEO in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), so it...

Blog Editor's Note: The US Coast Guard recently published its "Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook." As the service looks forward, it recognizes maritime's dependence upon GPS for a wide range of things far beyond simple navigation. "MTS" is "Marine Transportation...

Blog Editor's Note: Guy Buesnel is an RNTF member who is an expert in GNSS disruption. We strongly commend and recommend his work and that you follow him on Linkedin.  Guy has graciously allowed us to re-post his work on our site. Published on October 8, 2018  ...

Blog Editor's Note: It was a privilege to participate in this event and meet with the attendees. A fascinating mix of experience and expertise from the US, Europe and Middle East. Selective Availability, IoT, Suez Canal Visit, Featured at Arab Institute of Navigation...

Blog Editor's Note: There seems to be a lot of talk these days about systems to complement and backup GNSS. We think that establishing a good set of criteria that focus on protecting a nation and its citizens by helping establish a rock-solid PNT architecture is a...

Blog Editor's Note: PNT is a worry for all navigation systems and navigators, especially for systems like drones and interconnected vehicles. This issue has not had a lot of public visibility in this industry. This may be partly due to an expectation that government...

At the Arab Institute of Navigation Conference, Cairo, Egypt Several themes have emerged from among the many and varied technical and policy presentations at this annual conference. First and foremost, of course, is that GNSS is a wonderful utility that provides the...

Blog Editor's Note: We are always glad to see government officials engage with an important issue. At the same time, 2018 marks the 14th year the US government has failed to act on its own mandates to protect and augment GPS signals. Studies and analysis do little to...

Blog Editor's Note: An excellent article that reflects an important shift in the way people are thinking about this problem. We have recently been talking to very senior officials at the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the White House.  All...

Blog Editor's Note: Authentication is a real and important issue, whether its something we hear on the news or PNT information. In a world where purported data is ubiquitous, how do we know what is real. The United States Air Force vouches for the quality of the...

We depend upon GPS signals for so many important things, it's often difficult to think of them all.  We were reminded of just how important some of these uses are when we read this problem report on the US Coast Guard's website: "My son wears a GPS watch due to the...

Blog Editor's Note: The below article from Inside GNSS discusses an issue that many are trying to get their heads around. Europe has started to address it with their Radio Equipment Directive and the STRIKE3 project. This is going to be an issue to follow closely as...

Blog Editor's Note: GPS disruptions have brought down networks, disabled end use devices, and provided bad data to users which has been used and stored. Yet few in the cybersecurity field see it as something they are responsible for worrying about.  Good to see this...

Blog Editor's Note: Standards for Loran-C were effectively set by the US Coast Guard. This enabled receivers world-wide to use signals whether they came from Russia, China, Europe or the USA. SAE has assumed this role for eLoran. With South Korea implementing its...

Blog Editor's Note: Spoofing seems to have become the concern of the moment, almost eclipsing jamming/denial of service in the public consciousness. Certainly the idea of hazardously misleading information is more disturbing than no information at all. Interestingly,...

Blog Editor's Note: BZ (Well Done!) to the US Coast Guard for posting GPS problem reports on the internet for all to see and learn from. Reports from 2018 are available now (we counted 43), new ones will be added, as will reports from previous years. Members of the...

Blog Editor's Note: We just ran across this article from 2016. While it is a couple years old, it has some tidbits we had not seen before. For example that the Russian government is spoofing both GPS and GLONASS in Moscow. Also confirmation that this is related to...

Blog Editor's Note: Protection of GPS satellites must be a national priority. Probably even more important is protection of GPS signals. The nation has had policy for 14 years to do just that, but very little has been done. We are glad that Space Force, according to...

Blog Editor's Note: This article from the most recent Institute of Navigation Newsletter reflects the widely held belief that the current governance system for GPS/PNT in the US, which was established in 2004, has not been able to protect, toughen and augment GPS as...

Blog Editor's Note: Dag Pike is a navigator of note from both the old and new schools. We have always found his insights helpful on a variety of issues from boat handling to GPS.  The Daily Telegraph requires you subscribe to their site to access much of their...

Blog Editor's Note: The most disturbing parts of the below article: "The failure to understand and plan for the probability and severity of loss [of space capabilities] may well lead to the culmination of the United States during war." "Combatant command staffs must...

Blog Editor's Note: We came across this paper at the IEEE website. It discusses DME/DME, Multi-DME, the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communication System (LDACS) and eLoran as alternatives. The abstract for the paper is below and a full copy is available for a modest...

Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article from "Inside GNSS" is the President of the RNT Foundation. The Death of Old Time? – NIST Cutting WWV August 20, 2018 By Inside GNSS The deck of a tall ship rolled heavily beneath me as a freshening wind whistled...

Blog Editor's Note: The South Korean eLoran project has been delayed several times over the last five years, we understand due to changes in administrations and government focus on other issues. It is good to see some progress in this resilient PNT effort. - Full...

Blog Editor's Note: "Domestic Preparedness" published this article by RNTF President, Dana A. Goward, yesterday.   RESILIENCE Combating the Single Point of Failure by DANA GOWARD  Wed, August 22, 2018 On 25-26 January 2016, many first responder radio systems...

Blog Editor's Note: Last week we reported on and linked to a debate about whether or not the US military should "double down" on space. The below two stories seem to come down on the side of relying less on space and increasing resilience by establishing complementary...

Blog Editor's Note: The US Coast Guard issued the below warning last week. Seems the power conversion circuitry on LED lights, especially inexpensive ones, can generate a broad spectrum of electromagnetic interference.  As one of the experts we contacted said "It's...

Blog Editor's Note: We have heard conflicting reports about GPS effectiveness at high latitudes. Also that Russia's GLONASS satnav system is specifically designed to provide good coverage to the Arctic. This makes sense as the Arctic is a big area of investment and...