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Fake Your Location if Your Parents Installed a GPS Tracker on Your Android Phone – Android.gadgethacks.com
Blog Editor's Note: Tracking and peoples' reaction to it is an entire field of study on its own. While reading "Pinpoint - How GPS is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds" we were surprised to come upon an entire chapter devoted to behavioral science. On...
New, More Convenient GPS Jammer Available
Blog Editor's Note; If you don't want to give up your car's electrical outlet to power your GPS jammer, this new device uses the On Board Diagnostic (OBD) port. We like that the vendor is very careful to explain the limitations of the equipment. It only impacts L1,and...
Can’t/Won’t Fly Without GPS
Blog Editor's Note: There are those in the FAA and the aviation industry who, when asked about the importance of GPS to aviation claim that they have backups and can do without.* Never mind that the entire system would slow down, become less efficient and more...
Protecting autonmous grids from potentially crippling GPS spoofing attacks – UC Santa Barbara
Blog Editor's Note: Whenever we have spoken to folks from the electrical grid sector, their position on GPS vulnerability has been "we can operate the grid without GPS, we just can't manage it." This has always seemed a strange way to approach the issue to us. Who...
“Replacing GPS” – Lots of Hype, Lots of Shortfalls
Blog Editor's Note: We love interesting articles that talk about new PNT technologies. But when they talk about "replacing GPS," well, that's a bit of hype too far, in our opinion. Especially since, while all the systems described seem interesting, all fall short...
SCREWED IN A MILLISECOND – Bloomberg Business Week
Blog Editor's Note: More recent incidents and concerns tend to make many of us forget about the lessons of the January 2016 GPS timing glitch. I wonder how much we learned and how much different things would be today if it happened again. This article first...
DHS Cyber Summit to Address GPS/PNT Vulnerabilities
“PNT vulnerability very much top of mind” says Assistant Secretary We were misinformed that the DHS Cyber Summit was not going to include discussion of PNT issues. DHS’ Acting Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, Bob Kolasky told us that PNT issues will...
US National PNT Advisory Board Meeting 6 August
The National PNT Advisory Board will meet by teleconference/WebEx at noon EST on the 6th of August. Agenda items are: Finalize and Approve the National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board Topics Paper Finalize and Approve the National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board...
Resilient GPS for Small UAS – DHS Request for Info
Blog Editor's Note; It is good to see DHS concerned about this issue. We wonder why, though, they are focusing only on GPS sensors as GPS/GNSS signals are inherently NOT resilient ... 2018 Resilient GPS Equipment Demonstration for sUAS ...
27 Organizations’ Concerns about Ligado – FCC Filing
Blog Editor's Note: The RNT Foundation has filed several items with the FCC concerning adjacent band interference with GPS/GNSS. Subsequent to Ligado's most recent modification to their application, we joined a number of other organizations expressing continuing...
“Design out GPS” – Part of MITRE’s Approach to Vulnerability
Blog Editor's Note: A recent "Inside GNSS" article discussed broad efforts being made across organizations and companies to address increasing concerns about GPS vulnerability. One of the events cited was a NIST workshop the RNT Foundation helped develop. A MITRE...
Spoofing GPS & Your Maps – Next Level of Danger – “Forbes” and “BleepingComputer”
Blog Editor's Note: First they said "It's really hard to spoof GPS." Then hackers made it easy, and reduced the cost to nearly nothing. Next they said, "Use multiple GNSS constellations because it's almost impossible to spoof them all at once." Then hackers showed how...
NASA Chief – “Space Force to Guard GPS” – Bloomberg
Blog Editor's Note - We are really, really good with guarding GPS. But the real threats to are to the signals, not the satellites, and come from the ground not space. Perhaps we should worry about that first... Bloomberg Politics Trump’s Space Force Will...
“Jamming is Big Business” – Market Report
Blog Editor's Note: We aren't suggesting you pay $5795.00 for this market analysis report. But it is interesting to see that the jammer market is big enough to warrant such an effort. Also that all the companies cited as feeding the market are major players,...
DoD Exercises Increasingly Jamming GPS, Interfering w/ Air Traffic – RTCA
Blog Editor's Note: Everyone agrees that the DoD needs to exercise to stay ready and defend the nation. At the same time, commercial aviation companies have businesses to run, customers to serve, and costs to control. Aviation operations are not as efficient, and some...
Securing PNT Workshop Looks at GNSS Back-up Options – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: A couple interesting things about this. First, while the event was put on by the Royal Institute of Navigation, it was sponsored by two government agencies. Further evidence of the UK government's seriousness in addressing this issue. Second, the...
Old GPS Antenna Turns Into a Jammer – Chronos Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: It's interesting that the rouge antenna was about 60ft away from the antenna it was jamming. Also that fixing the problem automatically improved service to the company's customers. The Equinix LD4 Data Centre in Slough had been suffering...
Answering the Russian and Chinese Threat – Space Force or Deck Chairs?
Blog Editor's Note: Improving the way we are organized to better focus on space is a good idea. But the real underlying threat to the nation is not that we are poorly organized. It's that we critically depend on our space systems, and they are very vulnerable....
Timing & Electrical Grids – Two Views
Two perspectives on the role and importance of timing in electrical grid operations were on display in San Jose the week before last. One presentation was at the NIST Assured Access to Accurate Time Workshop and was by the Electric Power Research Institute. It said...
DHS Holding Another Jam Fest
Blog Editor's Note: The Department of Homeland Security is hosting another opportunity for equipment manufacturers to evaluate their equipment's performance during live disruption conditions. This could be a valuable opportunity for some to...
Truck GPS Jammers Impact Major Data Center – Orolia
Blog Editor's Note: A good case study below from Orolia. Of particular note is the comment that: "Though the timing system used time servers that had internal atomic clocks and could operate through a temporary loss of the GNSS signals, this datacenter was critical...
Qulsar Sees About 3 Signal Jamming Events a Day Near San Jose Airport – Impact Unknown
Blog Editor's Note: Why do we keep posting these things? Doesn't everyone know that there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of GPS signal jammers out there being used by everyone from delivery drivers to Mafia bosses? So what? No one has died! Nothing really...
South Korea to Make Waze, other Navigation, More Efficient with eLoran – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: Whenever there is a new IT utility, it seems there are always a lot of very beneficial unintended uses that were not originally contemplated. This is an excellent example. South Korea to Make Waze, other Navigation, More Efficient with eLoran 25...
Drunk driving, shoplifting, jamming GPS… – Chronos Technology Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: GPS jamming is illegal. And if you are willing to engage in one illegal activity, you are more likely to engage in others. Especially if the first is GPS jamming and it will help cover up your use of the company van for personal business. But for...
Jammer Defeats Fleet Tracking, Only Disturbs Mobile Teleco – Chronos Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: Here is another good case study from Chronos Technology. Lessons learned: Monitor your systems Have multiple sources of time for networks Be able to detect and geolocate disruption sources Thanks again to Chronos! GPS Jammers used to defeat...
High Horizontal Dilution of Precision 22-23 June 2018
Notice from US Coast Guard Users of the Global Positioning System (GPS) may experience a short period of high Horizontal Dilution of Precision (HDOP) / Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) in the locations below at the times indicated due to satellite maintenance...
Jamming GPS to Leave Work Early – Chronos Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: GPS is an invisible utility that underpins most every networked technology. All nations must get better at preventing, detecting and stopping these kinds of disruptions. In Europe the STRIKE3 project's limited sampling has discovered 300 "jammer...
Easily Spoofing Them All at Once – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: There are some in the GNSS community who think that the only answer needed for resilience is use of multiple GNSS frequencies and/or constellations. This is problematic as all constellations use the same frequency band and can be easily jammed at...
“The problem with GPS in the modern military” – Army Technology
Blog Editor's Note: While this article does not provide our readers a lot of new information, it is a good reminder and summary of the current state. It is also an indication of the growing awareness of this vulnerability and the need to address it. And, if this is a...
Parked Car Disrupts GPS Reception – NovAtel Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: In a recent GPS World article on it's interference detection system, NovAtel included three examples of GPS signal disruption that have been detected by its system. We enthusiastically support broad sharing of these kinds of case studies to...
GPS Jamming & Spoofing on the Rise – Aviation International News
Blog Editor's Note: This report coincides with information being developed by Europe's STRIKE3 project. See, for example, the information they presented at the most recent PNT Advisory Board Meeting in Baltimore. AIN On Line GPS Jamming and Spoofing On the Rise...
Your Presentation/ Paper Wanted – Resilient Navigation, Japan, 28 Nov – 1 Dec 2018
Come to Japan for a global conference on Resilient Navigation - papers and presentations wanted! The quadrennial World Congress of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation is happening this year in Japan and the theme is Resilient Navigation. Both...
‘Deter Attacks on GPS, Fund Terrestrial Systems Like eLoran’ – Heritage Foundation
In a paper dated the 29th of March 2018, Washington, DC's conservative and influential Heritage Foundation discussed deterrence, the U.S., China, and space. One of the key points of the paper (highlighted on the first page) is: The United States needs to demonstrate...
Drone Video Xmitter Disrupts GPS Reception – NovAtel Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: In a recent GPS World article on it's interference detection system, NovAtel included three examples of GPS signal disruption that have been detected by its system. We enthusiastically support broad sharing of these kinds of case studies to...
Weather Station Disrupts GPS Reception – NovAtel Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: In a recent GPS World article on it's interference detection system, NovAtel included three examples of GPS signal disruption that have been detected by its system. We enthusiastically support broad sharing of these kinds...
50,000 Euro Fines for Trucks with Jammers
Blog Editor's Note: Government authorities around the world have been slow to address the problem of small GPS jammers because the negative impacts - dropped cell phone calls, temporary disruption of tracking and navigation services, slower networks - while...
S. Korea to use eLoran for Autonomous Vehicles, Drones
Blog Editor's Note: A recent article about South Korea's budding eLoran system and a presentation at the recent IALA Conference in Inchon is only available in Korean. The Google Translate version quoted from below clearly skews a couple ideas moving them from Korean...
Another Way to Find Jammers, Spoofers, Disruptions – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article from GPS World on NovAtel's method of locating GPS/GNSS disruptions. The article also has three great examples of use cases which we will feature, each in its own post. NovAtel's is one of several such products and services...
Russia, China Upgrading Loran/ eLoran Systems?
Western governments have generally shown little concern about GNSS vulnerabilities and their countries' critical dependence upon them. Not so for some others. Iran has announced that it has a Loran system to prevent its dependence on space. Saudi Arabia has had a...
AF Looking to RF for PNT – 19 to 21 June Event
Blog Editor's Note: This could be an interesting event. It seems as thought it is structured around signals of opportunity, re-purposing existing RF wave-forms, and discovery of new signals for PNT. These certainly seem less expensive and more resilient that putting...
eLoran in S. Korea – Status Report to IALA
Blog Editor's Note: The attached paper presented at a recent IALA meeting shows South Korea's eLoran project on schedule. While the UK eLoran system found 6 - 7 meter positioning accuracy, to date the S. Korean project has calculated 10m or less for many areas, but...
The Adjacent Band Compatibility Assessment: What it means and why it matters – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: The author comments in the below story that this report has been "long awaited." Very true. The administration is proceeding very slowly, though hopefully deliberately, on this issue. The FCC seems to move even more slowly on issues related to...
Why We REALLY Need GPS
Blog Editor's Note: Wishing everyone a wonderful Memorial Day holiday. Keep in mind the sacrifices of the fallen and, if you are on the road, safe travels.
Y2K for GPS in 2019? – Not if you are ready!
Sure, there was a DHS announcement last month, but this is info worth repeating. Help us make sure it gets out as far and wide as possible: Get your GPS systems ready now for the rollover event in 2019! Many folks will think "Oh, gosh, this seems complicated and...
“50,000 GNSS Denial Events, 300 Jammer Families” – STRIKE3
The European Union's STRIKE3 project briefed the PNT Advisory Board last week about their on-going work to detect and identify GNSS disruptions. Through limited sampling, the project has come up with some disturbing results showing the vulnerability of GNSS signals....
‘We need better PNT!’ – Unmanned Aviation
Smart Sky Networks hammered home two points at the PNT Advisory Board last week: UAV/UAS and On Demand Mobility are on the verge of being huge social and economic enablers They can't do it with easily disrupted PNT signals The United States has been a world leader in...
‘8 Airports + 30 Days = 4,243 GPS Denial Events’ – STRIKE3
The European Union's STRIKE3 project reported at the US PNT Advisory Board meeting last week that their study of GPS/GNSS jamming in Europe and elsewhere has shown that jammers are evolving to become more sophisticated and prevalent. The results of measurements at...
‘Only at the Highest Levels of Government’
'Resilient PNT efforts suffer from the tragedy of the commons. Every government department and agency wants it, but each think it's the responsibility of another. it can only be done at the highest levels of government and that's what's happening in the UK' This was...
Defense Department Moves to Augment GPS with Alternatives – FedTech
Blog Editor's Note: 99%+ of GPS users are not in the Department of Defense. We are reminded of a comment at a recent workshop on GPS and critical infrastructure. After a presentation about DoD's extensive Assured PNT program, one participant asked "Where's the APNT...
Europe – ‘GNSS Alone Not Good Enough for Critical & Fail Safe Ops’
In March the European Union released its Radionavigation Plan calling for non-space backup systems for GNSS. Late last month the European Commission announced an effort to identify user requirements for such backup systems. In a memo dated the 26th of April Galileo...
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Impact of L-Band MSS ‘Direct-to-Device’ Operations on GPS – NTIA request for comment
Image: Shutterstock Blog editor's note: This is important. If you have expertise in this area, you really should comment. Below are excerpts from the NTIA notice in the Federal Register. Access the full notice here. Impact of L-Band MSS ‘Direct-to-Device’ Operations...
Farmers Say the Sun Turned Their John Deere Tractors Into ‘Demon-Possessed’ Machines – Popular Mechanics
Image: Shutterstock What's New: Some feedback on how solar activity disrupted GPS signals and impacted farmers. Why It's Important: 80% of farmers use GPS in some form or fashion to raise their crops. About one third of the food produced in the U.S. is from highly...
Dozens dead, GPS interference a factor – Flight Radar 24, Wall Street Journal
Image: Shutterstock What's new: A commercial passenger aircraft was shot down in an area where there was GPS jamming and likely spoofing. Why it's important: GPS is essential for (1) safe aircraft navigation and (2) ADS-B the system that let's air traffic controllers...
Researchers Identify Air Navigation to Pair with GPS – EIN Presswire
image: Shutterstock What's new: Report from Zurich University of Applied Sciences identifying eDME, eLoran, and LDACS-NAV as three systems that should be implemented to ensure promptly achieving safe and efficient Performance Based Navigation. Why it's important:...