GPS At Risk

[Larry Caldwell]

LightSquared telecommunications plans to build a rural broadband network using 40,000 high power transmission towers at the same frequency as GPS satellites. This will overpower the weak satellite signals, and make GPS receivers useless.

Farmers fear new network may jam GPS navigation signals | capitalpress.com

 

[Western]

Interesting article, I also saw a segment on Fox news I think it was.

I think they will end up having to find a new frequency, this would effect to many industries like, hunting, fishing, truckers and travelers, airlines, shipping and possibly military and the list could go on.

Sounds like a good program if they can get the "kink's" worked out though.

 

[ragkar]

Are these farmers descendants of the farmers that thought telegraph limes would sour the milk? Or power lines would do it? Or nuclear power?
I read the article and it looks like the FCC knows of the problem and will withhold licensing until the tech problems of interference are solved.

Maybe these are the farmers opposed to daylight saving time.

 

[MMagis]

Are these farmers descendants of the farmers that thought telegraph limes would sour the milk? Or power lines would do it? Or nuclear power?


Maybe these are the farmers opposed to daylight saving time.

You say you read the article, but you didn't understand it apparently. Or, perhaps I'm not understanding what point you're trying to make. The article is not about farmers.

 

[retiredmgn]

GPS is so much a part of the military they ain't going to let anyone mess it up.

 

[juandigital]

I am surprised that the FCC would allow that since anything sending a signal has to get approved by the FCC to make sure it wouldn't interfere with other devices. I guess you will have to use cell tower triangulation :thumbsup:

 

[JB4310]

GPS is so much a part of the military they ain't going to let anyone mess it up.

It's so much a part of everything and everybody, nothing is gonna mess with GPS.

Somebody got their wires crossed or is jumping to conclusions.

"The ultimate decision will probably be influenced by an upcoming report from the U.S. Department of Defense, since GPS has implications for national security, Leibach said."

I doubt there will be anything allowed to even get close to the frequencies used for GPS, if there is the slightest chance of interference.

JB.

 

[MicroPilot]

Sounds like another corporate scam to get government grants for rural broadband services. Typically they collect a bunch of money, then go out of business. Also note that this appears to be a minority owned company which would put it at the top of the list for that government money.

http://www.lightsquared.com/

 

[MMagis]

Isn't this old news? Seems I first heard about this 3-5 years ago. Maybe I'm mistaken. But, we all know they'll never allow GPS interference, it just makes interesting news articles.

 

[dodge man]

As a land surveyor, this problem is very real for me since we use GPS all the time.

First off, it doesn't work on the same frequency as GPS, but very close to it, so it does cause interference. Depending on the GPS equipment, this can be a few hindered feet to several miles from the lightsquared tower.

Second, farmers are heavy GPS users, so it could impact them.

Third, the military has access to parts of the GPS signal that civilian users don't. I don't know this for a fact, but I would guess that it impacts the military less than the civilian users.

There are a lot of people putting pressure to stop the lightsqaured thing, but we will see, nothing would surprise me.