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1,800 Balloons a Day!
Image: National Weather Service Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article below by Tony Murfin in "GPS World" last week. We had no idea in this era of satellites and instrumentation there were so many balloons being launched. The National Weather Service site says they...

GPS Backups/ Alternatives Too Hard & Costly? – GPS OCX delayed again, now at $6.1B
Image: Shutterstock What's New: Raytheon just discovered new flaws in its OCX ground control system for GPS. Why it's important: The US needs OCX for a number of reasons. It greatly improves the cyber security of America's most important civil/military asset that...

UK Investing in Quantum PNT – Gov.UK Funding Competition
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: We understand the UK government has invested a billion pounds in quantum tech and established four hubs. It is not so clear what the U.S. government has done or is doing. The PNT Advisory Board had a presentation on quantum at...

Musk Blocks Ukraine Drones (CNN) – Threats to PNT are Threats to Sovereignty
Image: Starlink Satellite / Shutterstock Editor's Note: This post was modified from its original to more clearly identify speculative content. What's New: SpaceX is blocking Ukraine from using Starlink for some military purposes Why It's Important: Starlink...

One GPS Mystery Solved, Another Remains – GPS World
Image: GPSJam.org Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below is President of the RNT Foundation One GPS Mystery Solved, Another Remains February 7, 2023 - By Dana Goward Est. reading time: 3:30 Ever since it came on-line in February 2022, the website...

Enter the hunter satellites preparing for space war – ArsTechnica
Image: Shutterstock What's New: Commercial entity building satellites for remote proximity operations (RPO). Why it's Important: Until now, only militaries could do. RPO can inspect, disable, or destroy other satellites without creating hazardous debris. There are...

RNT Foundation advisor Logan Scott honored by ION
Image: Institute of Navigation Congratulations to RNT Foundation International Advisory Council member Logan Scott! He was honored by the Institute of Navigation last week with its 2022 P. V. H. Weems award "For over 40 years of sustained contributions to GNSS...

Does AI understand GNSS issues better than policy makers?
Image: Shutterstock & USAF The folks at GPSPatron used artificial intelligence programs to write the below article. It's eerie how well it came out. Perhaps it isn't that policy makers don't understand GNSS issues and needs, but rather they haven't yet asked the...

US Satnav, global leadership, fell further behind this week.
Image: Galileo Satellite - EUSPA What's New: On Tuesday Europe's Galileo satnav system began a free high accuracy service. Why It Matters: EU's Galileo and China's Bei Dou (BDS) satnav systems are newer and have more desirable features than America's GPS. GPS could...

GPS could have high accuracy and counter spoofing, if… – GPS World
Image: Shutterstock What's New: The US has the technology and systems in place to greatly improve GPS accuracy and security It could be done fairly quickly and inexpensively The lack of an empowered federal leader for civil GPS and PNT issues will make it very...

GPS Jamming hurts aviation safety, DOT must do better – See GAO Report
Image: Shutterstock What’s New: A recent GAO report says DOT could improve responses to GPS jamming incidents and increase protection for all forms of transportation. Why it matters: GPS is essential to safe and efficient transportation, especially aviation. A...

Russian jamming fed Norway record ammo buy
Image: Norway Defense Minister visiting with troops - Marita I Wangberg Norway Armed Forces What's New: Norway made its biggest ammunition buy ever ($260M) as part of a defense build up over worries about Russia. Norway has sent $60M worth of ammunition to Ukraine and...

It’s About Time – Presentation at NY Stock Exchange
Image: Lauren Layman, ATIS It’s About Time - For a National Resilient Timing Architecture Presentation by RNTF President Dana A. Goward ATIS “Time and Money,” NY Stock Exchange, 17 January 2023 “It’s about time.” Have you ever noticed that...

$1.5B to Boost 5G! – NTIA needs your input on national timing infrastructure
Image: Shutterstock What's New - NTIA is asking for comments about how to spend the $1.5B Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation (PWSCI) Fund. Establishing a resilient national timing architecture will provide underlying tech infrastructure needed to support;...

DHS Report on Denver Airport Jamming – More questions than answers – GPS World
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Notes What's New: A recently released DHS document on GPS disruption. It uses the January 2022 Denver event as an example. The report does not say: Why it took 33 hours to find the source of the disruption Why only aviation users were...

GNSS Signal Spoofing White Paper – Spirent
Image: Shutterstock Spoofing can be a real problem. We have seen reports of it being used to steal pharmaceuticals in the U.S. and, without a doubt, it is being used in other cargo heists. Mexico has determined that 85% of cargo thefts involved some kind of deliberate...

Europe & eLoran – A Reconciliation?
Image: ESA Blog Editor's Note: It was 2015. Despite fervent pleas from the UK, the rest of Europe and Scandinavia terminated Loran transmissions (the UK has kept its lone eLoran transmitter on air as a timing signal). The conventional wisdom is that keeping Loran...

Time & Money at NY Stock Exchange – 17 January
Hope you can join me at the New York Stock Exchange in a couple weeks! ATIS' "Time and Money" is happening again, and it promises to be more interesting than ever. Not only is yours truly, Dana "I-never-met-a-microphone-I-didn't-like" Goward speaking, but there are a...

Prof. Terry Moore, PNT Expert, Honored by King Charles
Image: GPS.gov & UC Berkely Blog Editor's Note: We were very pleased to see our colleague Terry Moore, also a member of the U.S. President's PNT Advisory Board, honored by King Charles. News release from the University of Nottingham where he is a professor...

Precise Timekeeping Essential to 5G, More So for Next G – ITU
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: If the International Telecommunications Union, a UN body that can't say anything unless EVERYONE agrees, says something, it must be true! The best way to ensure any nation, especially one as large and diverse as the U.S., has...

Russian Jamming Intensified on 29 December
Image: GPSJam.org Blog Editor's Note: Interesting post on Twitter by John Wiseman of GPSJam.org https://twitter.com/lemonodor/status/1608634342703771649/video/1

Jamming about 90% Effective Against Drones- MSN – Forbes
Image: Russian State Media Photo Blog Editor's Note: A couple of articles, one emphasizing the glass is 10% full, the other that it is 90% empty. You choose which view you like. We have seen other reporting that Ukrainian defenses against Russian drones and missiles...

Norwegian Pilots Report Record GPS Jamming – Barents Observer
Image: GoogleMaps Blog Editor's Note: Aside from the middle east and Ukraine, northern Norway might be the most jammed place in the world. Just search our site for "Norway" to find numerous mentions. Several quotes from the recent article below that are of particular...

Ukraine attacks changed Russian GPS jamming – GPS World
Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. Ukraine attacks changed Russian GPS jamming December 20, 2022 - By Dana Goward Two Russian airbases deep inside the country were attacked on December 5: the Engels-2 base...

GPS Signals Are Being Disrupted in Russian Cities – Wired
Images: GPSjam.org Blog Editor's Note: When the writer of this piece called for an interview, we took a closer look at GPSJam.org depictions. A couple of interesting things. Though Ukraine's attacks on airports began on the 5th of December, the increased jamming did...

Experts urge jamming detection network – Free webinar shows easy method using smartphones – GPS World
Image: NASA - PNT Advisory Board Nov 2022 Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is President of the RNT Foundation Experts urge jamming detection network – Free webinar shows easy method using smartphones December 14, 2022 - By Dana Goward By all...

The role of atomic clocks in data centers – GPS World (A National Timing Architecture & the heartbeat of America)
Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: An interesting article by David Chandler from corporate member Microchip. We were struck by his mention of the need for simultaneity across the nation. This very much aligns with our 2020 paper "A Resilient National Timing...

In Memoriam – Dee Ann Divis, Award Winning GPS, PNT Journalist
Image: Navigation Outlook We were greatly saddened today to hear of Dee Ann's passing. She was a colleague and friend. The write up for her 2012 Watchdog award said: “Dee Ann Divis has recognized a threat to the general public, disruption of the GPS services that so...

Framework proposed for resolving conflicts over interference – Policy Tracker
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: "Silicon Flatirons" is a program of Colorado Law at the University of Colorado that focuses on the digital world. The publication "Policy Tracker" reported on the most recent Silicon Flatirons event and its recommendations for...

Delivering security through systems engineering – GPS World
Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: A thoughtful piece from RNTF member Mitch Narins. This might a good time to reproduce several PNT, system of system graphics we have laying around. One was done by DOT & DOD in 2008, RNT Foundation did two, one is from...

China rapidly building space arms to ‘blind and deafen’ U.S. military, Pentagon says – Washington Times
Image: CASC Blog Editor's Note: Yep. And they can probably 'blind and deafen' the homeland as well. The report mentioned below is "2022 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China." A couple of quotes: "PLA EW units routinely...

Remove Barrier to Anti-Jam Antenna Development & Sales – PNT Advisory Board
Image: Dr. Brad Parkinson - Showing effectiveness of beam steering antenna in combatting GPS jamming Adaptive antennas are very effective at protecting GPS/GNSS receivers from both jamming and spoofing. At the recent PNT Advisory Board meeting Prof. Brad Parkinson...

Telecoms networks could provide next-gen GPS services without the need for satellites – The Register
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This project has gotten a lot of press in the last couple weeks. The below report in the Register is the first one, though, that points out some of the challenges to implementing it on a broad scale. They list: No coverage in...

Establish a High Accuracy Service for GPS – Advisory Board Recommendation
Image: Shutterstock Folks in the US government used to like to say that "GPS is the gold standard" for GNSS. Today, Bei Dou and Galileo are newer systems with capabilities not currently available to GPS users. Long lives for GPS satellites, extended lead times to...

Protect, Toughen, Augment – 10 years, little change
Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: I think of myself as a pretty optimistic, upbeat kinda guy. At least most of the time. After all, humanity's arc - over the long run - has been improving. People are living longer and healthier, globally fewer are dying in...

The Leap Second Has Jumped the Shark – CNET
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Time and timing are becoming increasingly important. Per the article below, anything that upsets that is increasingly bad. Synchronizing locally, relatively, is good, nay necessary. But what we really need is for everyone to be...

FCC Creating Space Bureau – Implications for Ligado Decision? – GPS World
Image: FCC Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. FCC Creating Space Bureau – Implications for Ligado Decision? November 17, 2022 - By Dana Goward Speaking at the National Press Club on November 3rd, Federal Communications...

DOT Must Warn Public During GPS Disruptions – PNT Advisory Board
Image: Shutterstock The US National PNT Advisory Board adopted a recommendation at its meeting last week for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to warn the public as soon as possible when GPS services were being disrupted. The recommendation is being finalized for...

PNT Security is Part of Cybersecurity – Pending Advisory Board Recommendation
Image: Shutterstock The President's National Space-based Positioning Navigation and Timing Advisory Board concluded it's 27th meeting yesterday with a slew of recommendations to be refined and forwarded to government. One of these struck to the heart of how PNT and...

RNT Foundation Members Speak at Day 1, National PNT Advisory Board Meeting
NASA Image Blog Editor's Note: Kudos to four RNT Foundation corporate members who gave presentations today to the President's National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board. In the order of presentation: Patrick Shannon of Trustpoint spoke...

GNSS/GPS Expert Logan Scott Joins RNT Foundation Advisory Council
We are very pleased to welcome Logan Scott to our International Advisory Council. He has long been one of our most trusted sources and we are very glad to make the relationship a bit more official! Logan Scott has over 40 years of military and civil GPS systems...

NIST Official Warns Against Device-only Approach to Securing IoT – Nextgov (PNT & cybersecurity)
Image: FBI.gov Blog Editor's Note: We need to be careful to not just have good devices, but also need to ensure the devices are accessing valid information? Maybe timing and location information, for example? PNT security is a key component of cybersecurity. And much...

‘I stopped counting jammer websites when I got to 100.’ – Charles Curry
Image: Shutterstock We heard from our friend Charles Curry of Chronos Technology over the long weekend. He had a "yes and" to last week's post about a jammer company with a new product line. - Full disclosure, Chronos has long be an RNTF corporate member. Charles is...

PNT Advisory Board Agenda 16 & 17 November – NASA
Blog Editor's Note: If you can't attend in person you can always live stream. Proud that our corporate members Xona, Trustpoint, Cold Quanta, and National Assn of Broadcasters are all presenting! UPDATE: Link to meeting slides and videos here. ...

Jammerall Co., Limited Update its Signal Jammer Collection – Digital Journal
Image: Jammerall Co. Blog Editor's Note: Our members often send us things like this. Sometimes we just can't resist posting. If you are concerned we are spreading information that shouldn't be out there - the bad guys and gals already know. We are trying to inform...

UK PNT: Royal Institute encourages government, Parliament slams it – GPS World
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is President of the RNT Foundation. UK PNT: Royal Institute encourages government, Parliament slams it November 8, 2022 - By Dana A. Goward Est. reading time: 4:30 RNT...

Hundreds of Future Satellites May Get GPS-Type Payloads – Defense Daily
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: More is better, diversity of sources is better still. In fairness, satellites in LEO add a bit of diversity compared to having them all in MEO. And there are a lot of advantages to focusing on space. Global coverage for sure....

U.S. warns Russia that it will respond if it attacks U.S. satellites – MS 360 News
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: There is a lot to unpack in this short news item. NCS spokesman Kirby's response to the Russians was established U.S. government policy. The "National Space Policy of the United States" issued in 2020 says: "The United States...

National PNT Advisory Board to Meet 16 & 17 Nov in Redondo Beach – Federal Register
Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: Not sure how we missed this formal announcement until now, but here it is. This is always an interesting event for those interested in PNT. We highly recommend you attend in person or on-line! We also want to let you know...

Is Elon Musk Expanding Starlink to Include Satellite Positioning and Imaging Services? – Location Business News
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Now that UT's Professor Todd Humphreys has figured out how to use Starlink for PNT, this seems a natural pivot for Musk. Why fight it when you can leverage it for another income stream? It will be interesting to see how...