Blog
Home »Ligado investors should be scared of its future – Defense News
Image: Office of Senator James Inhofe Blog Editor's Note: An interesting take on the FCC/Ligado Networks issue. Commentary Ligado investors should be scared of its future By: Sen. Jim Inhofe By now it shouldn’t be any surprise that I oppose the decision by the...
Sketchy “Tech Times” Tells Teens How to Spoof GPS on iPhones
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: One of our alert readers sent us a link to this item (always appreciated). We discussed a similar article about Android phones in 2018. One of the first things with this item we were struck by was that, while the "Tech Times"...
Garmin GPS Hack Makes Wired’s “Worst of 2020” List
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Normally we report about jamming and spoofing. But GPS receivers are really computers with radio receivers attached. So we have to also worry about more conventional cyber security issues. This event had a big impact on...
Local Nashville Explosion – Outages in Seattle, San Fran, elsewhere
Image: DownDetector.com 25 Dec 2020 Blog Editor's Note: It looks like the blast itself only impacted a block or two of downtown Nashville. Yet telecommunications customers in Seattle, VA and Vancouver, Canada were impacted as were those in other far flung cities....
Thousands of GNSS jamming and spoofing incidents reported in 2020 – Guy Buesnel
Image: U.S. Air Force photo by Paul Ridgeway Blog Editor's Note: Guy Buesnel is a widely recognized and insightful observer of GNSS issues, especially impacting the aviation sector. This is an interesting review of the year showing impacts across sectors and the...
Russian and Chinese space weapons could plunge West into DARK AGES with crashed economy and mass blackouts, experts warn – The Sun
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The Sun is a British tabloid known for its sensational take on most things. Sensationalism aside, we need to ask ourselves, what in this article is not true or likely true? . 'UNLEASH HAVOC' Russian and Chinese space...
The military is scrambling to understand the aviation crash risk from a new 5G sale – Defense News
Image: Department of Defense Blog Editor's Note: We have posted on this before and, while it is not in the center of our normal lane, it is worth raising the issue again. And, with the Ligado decision, the PNT community has certainly had to contend with the challenge...
DHS Believes Our Reliance on GPS ‘Poses a Risk to National Security’ – Vice
Image: James Caverly, Department of Homeland Security Blog Editor's Note: Good to see a major news conglomerate picked up on this. We reported about it in 2015, and have been hoping it would come to the attention of others. The report was actually drafted in 2011 -...
DHS PNT Conformance Framework – Important Step in “Toughening” Users
Blog Editor's Note: The community and government have long struggled to define "resilience" when it comes to GPS/GNSS receivers. While it does not provide the "procurement language" so many have called for, this is a huge step forward for the community. We will likely...
Galileo 6 Hour Outage 14 December – Update Posted
Blog Editor's Note: We greatly admire the Galileo project, all they have achieved and are still achieving. As a civilian project focused on economic and public benefits, the system has been designed with features not available in older and military systems such as GPS...
GNSS Disruption in Aviation Getting Worse – EUROCONTROL
An Orolia sponsored webinar yesterday "Resilient PNT - The European Perspective" included a presentation by EUROCONTROL. Gerhard Berz discussed the greatly increasing number of reports of GNSS disruption his organization has been receiving. EUROCONTROL has an...
First Fix: National timing architecture needed now – GPS World
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is president of the RNT Foundation. First Fix: National timing architecture needed now December 14, 2020 - By Dana Goward Dana Goward, President, Resilient PNT Foundation The Empire State...
Cheap GPS jammers a major threat to drones – ZD Net
Image: UK Aircraft Accident Investigations Branch Blog Editor's Note: We are not sure the drone and autonomous community have really come to grips with this issue. The article mentions interference with a display involving hundreds of drones. There have been other...
GPS Backup Finally Moving Closer – Aviation News from the Reason Foundation
Blog Editor's Note - Toward the end of the article, Bob Poole discusses FAA's failure to refresh the aviation terrestrial navigation system consisting of VORs and DMEs. He also suggests the Department of Transportation should focus on, not just a backup system for...
U.S. Already 0-1 in Tech War With China – National Defense
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: A disturbing Op-Ed discussing China's dominance in rare earths and progress on 5G, quickly suggesting that the score might already be 0-2. Or maybe 0-3 if you throw in AI. However you are scoring, the U.S. is another point down...
DoT Maritime Spoofing, Jamming Workshop Slides Posted
Image: University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Lab The Department of Transportation's Virtual Workshop on GPS Jamming and Spoofing in the Maritime Environment was held on the 3rd of December. Over 200 attended the afternoon session that had a recurring theme of...
More GPS Warnings About Solar Flares
Images: NASA and Shutterstock It's never a good idea to bet against Mother Nature. Though it looks like we might have won this time. Solar flares have always been a threat to technology. In 1859 and 1921 flares (more correctly - coronal mass ejections, or CMEs)...
FCC Chooses a bit more 5G over aviation safety. Again.
Image: US Coast Guard, Petty Officer John Masson Blog Editor's Note: It was a dark and eerily calm night. The worst-case scenario for a helicopter rescue of someone from the water. On dark and stormy nights at least the pilots can at least see the waves. That night...
‘LEO is an orbital junkyard’ NASA – The Tragedy of the Commons & Losing Access to Space
Image: European Space Agency "LEO is an orbital space junk yard. There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of space craft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets,...
GPS Jamming & Spoofing, 2020 Year in Review – Spirent’s Guy Buesnel
Vessels from around the world report they are off Pt. Reyes and sailing in circles in newest location spoofing phenomena. Image: Skytruth Blog Editor's Note: This is a repost of Guy's excellent article on Linkedin. We are reposting on all our social media to help...
Solar Flux at New High, GPS Problems Possible – Space Weather News
Image: Space Weather News, Millersville University (State University of Pennsylvania) Blog Editor's Note: Last year saw the sun reach solar minimum, the period of the least amount of activity (sunspots, flares, coronal mass ejections), We are now heading toward solar...
China Research Paper on Differential eLoran – Sensors Journal
RNT Foundation Image: Existing Loran service areas in eastern hemisphere with recently announced expansion of Chinese system. Blog Editor's Note: The paper cited below was published three months after another Chinese paper in the same journal that discussed China's...
South Korea partners with broadcaster on eLoran and 10-cm GPS – GPS World
Image: South Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is President of the RNT Foundation. South Korea partners with broadcaster on eLoran and 10-cm GPS “Fourth industrial revolution and advanced technology” for all...
3 Dec – U.S. DOT, MARAD Convene Panel on GPS Jamming and Spoofing – Maritime Executive
Image: Spoofed AIS signal tracks off (and on) the coast of California (illustration courtesy Skytruth) Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is President of the RNT Foundation. U.S. DOT, MARAD Convene Panel on GPS Jamming and Spoofing BY DANA A....
Can I Trust These Signals? – Galileo’s Proposed Authentication Services
Image: Qascom Authentication seems to be the challenge of the age. Can you trust information you find on line? What political "leaders" are saying? Or how about those signals from space? The folks over at the EU's Galileo program are trying to do something about the...
Air Force Secretary “We need to protect GPS” – Forbes
Image: US Department of Defense Blog Editor's Note: An interesting interview by Steve Forbes with Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett. In the interview Secreatary Barrett discusses the importance of GPS and says, quite correctly: "And I would put forward the GPS...
South Korea discusses decision to combine GPS and eLoran – Geospatial World
Image: South Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is President of the RNT Foundaiton. South Korea discusses decision to combine GPS and eLoran By Dana A. Goward 11/17/2020 Citing requirements of the evolving...
GNSS Access is the Mainstay of Modern World – Geospatial World
Image: NASA Blog Editor's note: Interesting interview with Guy Buesnel from Spirent. Readers may find this bit from the article particularly interesting: "With spoofing, even if a system is not a target, even if the attack does not fully succeed in taking over a...
Solution to GPS Hacking – Sea Technology
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Co-author Dana A. Goward is President of the RNT Foundation. Solution to GPS Hacking Space-Terrestrial Hybrid Navigation Combats Security Threats By RAdm Nick Lambert, Dana A. Goward In March 2017 NATO’s Exercise Joint Viking in...
Europe seeks alternative PNT services, deadline Jan. 13 – GPS World
Image: European Commission - JRC Ipsra Italy Test Site Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundaiton Europe seeks alternative PNT services, deadline Jan. 13 November 10, 2020 - By Dana Goward “In some specific cases, e.g., for critical...
Multipath GNSS signals are a threat to timing receivers in 4G and 5G networks – Spirent Blog
Image: Septentrio from tech paper at https://www.septentrio.com/en/apme-multipath-mitigation-technology Blog Editor's Note: An interesting blog post from Spirent that was also a paper and presentation at the recent International Timing and Synchronization Forum. ...
Timing is Everything – Geospatial World
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. Timing is Everything: To Protect Geospatial and the World, We Need Bullet-proof Time A resilient national timing architecture will do more than just making today’s GNSS systems more...
UK Getting National GNSS Disruption Monitoring System – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: The United Kingdom is far ahead of some other countries with PNT resilience. It has taken a while, though, and still things are moving slowly. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were added to the UK risk register in 2012. CMEs like the Carrington...
Planes continue to fly into a GPS dark hole over the Mediterranean, puzzling experts – Fortune
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: No category of user is immune from interuptions to GPS/GNSS. Signals are attractive targets because they are so important and widely used. They are easy targets because they are so weak and most receivers are unsophisticated. ...
US Energy Future Needs Resilient National Timing
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: OK, we get it. Everyone sees things through their own lens. And if you specialize in hammers, you see nails everywhere you look. We have been doing a lot of work recently with timing. But it is REALLY easy to see the need for...
GPS Jammers Used in 85% of Cargo Truck Thefts – Mexico Has Taken Action
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Thanks to RNTF member Omer Sharar, CEO of InfiniDome, for calling this item from January of this year to our attention. Several interesting things about the below article from "El Economista." First that folks in Mexico are...
GNSS From LEO Commsats – UT Paper
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: A relatively recent paper from the University of Texas Radionavigation Laboratory (Peter A. Iannucci and Todd E. Humphreys) on leveraging a communication constellation in low earth orbit (LEO) for positioning, navigation and...
“We Need More Than GPS” – New NIST Efforts
RNT Foundation Image: Historic High Accuracy Clock on Display at NIST Blog Editor's Note: Interesting two-in-one press release from NIST. First they are looking for comment on their draft cyber security profile for PNT users. This document seeks to identify: Gaps in...
Evidence-based Spectrum Policy: Video of Conference at University of Colorado Law School
Shutterstock Image: Flatiron range near Boulder, CO. Blog Editor's Note - Most of our readers are already saying to themselves "this is about Lightsquared/Ligado." Yes. Yes it is. Couple things to remember about "evidence based": Different people can look at the same...
Precise time for all: Paper calls for resilient national timing – GPS World
Blog editor's note: RNT Foundation member DR Pat Diamond, and foundation president Dana A. Goward were two of the co-authors for the paper discussed below. Precise time for all: Paper calls for resilient national timing October 19, 2020 - By Tracy Cozzens A new white...
OneWeb LEO PNT: Progress or Risky Gamble? – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: Interesting arrticle on the challenges facting use of OneWeb for LEO PNT. We have heard others suggest the best path could be to modify future OneWeb payloads rather than try to leverage existing on-orbit assets. Note that the on-line version of...
Under Attack – Receiver Response to Spoofing: Robustness vs. Resilience – Inside GNSS
Image: Russian Jamming Signal Detected by Norwegian Communications Authority Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article co-authored by RNTF Advisor Guy Busenel (his employer, Spirent, is also a corporate member of the RNT Foundation). From the Merriam Webster on-line...
Norway/ESA Study Reports on GNSS Jamming/Spoofing
Blog Editor's Note: The European Space Agency (ESA) is worried about GNSS jamming and spoofing. So it established the Navigation Innovation Support Programme (NAVISP) to foster innovations in satellite navigation and terrestrial forms of PNT. We were priviledged to...
ESA seeks proposals to demo 5G positioning, timing – GPS World
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This is a really interesting idea that could add greatly to a comprehensive PNT architecture. The key will be ensuring the foundations upon which 5G infrastructure is built, things like timing, are rock solid. Right now a lot of...
China expanding Loran as GNSS backup – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. China expanding Loran as GNSS backup October 12, 2020 - By Dana Goward An August 2020 paper published by the journal Sensors revealed China’s plans to expand coverage of its terrestrial Loran...
GNSS Openness a Two Edged Sword – Jules McNeff in GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: Good thought piece from our friend and former colleague Jules McNeff. Hard to disagree with him. And it is understandable that the DoD PNT Strategy says they plan for future PNT development to be increasingly classified. Yet if someone is now in...
What would the world do without GPS? – BBC Future
Image: NASA Blog Editor's Note: A good article by David Hambling with whom we have worked. Not only a high level overview, but some good insights into additional technologies to augment GPS/GNSS. Also some good quotes from our friends Todd Humphreys and Charles Curry....
FCC Spectrum Giveaway Aids China, Hurts U.S. Military, Domestic Safety – The National Interest
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Two items below from The National Interest's Kris Osborn outling another example of how a COMMUNICATIONS Commission might be making decisions on SPECTRUM issues with only the desires of communications concerns in mind. The FCC...
Ligado impact on Ag – Conf Call w/ Congress Tomorrow 1 Oct 2020
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Passing along the below from the Keep GPS Working Coalition. media advisory Sep 29 KEEP GPS WORKING COALITION TO HOST CONFERENCE CALL HOW THE FCC’S LIGADO DECISION HARMS AGRICULTURE: A CONVERSATION WITH INDUSTRY LEADERS AND...
US Army launching new PNT Modernization Office and Open Innovation Lab – Defense News
Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Notes: Good to see ever-increasing focus on this important area. Many see the CMOSS effort as a lynchpin to realizing DoD's vision of ingesting, validating, prioritizing, and integrating all kinds of PNT information so as to...