GPS Jamming

[Aaron Addison]

Something that may cause impact to anyone using GPS for locating caves:

http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/new ... ster-11029

AA

[Anonymous_Coward]

I knew this GPS fad wouldn't last. Time to dust off the Silva Ranger!

[trogman]

Not to worry-there are way too many folks who use GPS units to navigate in their cars to allow this to cause any major problems. If it was just us cavers and hikers and such then they may be inclined to ignore us. The article does talk about perhaps an upgrade for current GPS units. I wonder who would be paying for that.

GPS is here to stay, at least until something better comes along. I know some cavers who still don't use them, and when they turn in new caves the locations are generally off by anywhere from 300' to infinity. (in other words, we are still looking for them! ) The newer GPS units are capable of accuracy of 3 meters, and that's just for the lower end consumer models. Gotta love modern technology!

Trogman a

[NZcaver]

Thanks for sharing.

This could be a big problem. There are so many applications which use GPS-based navigation these days, and not just the consumer GPS receivers in our backpacks, vehicles and phones. I very much doubt this will be allowed to go ahead and jeopardize navigation. I predict huge objections from industry giants, not to mention the surveying, boating, aviation, and military communities. Oh, and the geocachers are gonna be pissed!

[David_Weaver]

Wikipedia discusses the interference problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightSquared#Interference

[Aaron Addison]

Let the field trials begin:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/02/ligh ... rs-john-d/

[NZcaver]

Bad. Very bad. Hopefully somebody will come to their senses and bury this whole LightSquared nonsense permanently.

[wyandottecaver]

yea john deer is mad, but when the yuppies with car GPS and daddies in congress start being affected trying to find Macy's, thats when the coffin nails will get driven in.

[NZcaver]

Now if we could just find a way to manipulate the CBD into suing over this....

[wyandottecaver]

well obviously its a wildlife hazard. I mean thousands of animals are monitored with GPS collars/receivers every year. This could cause moose to wander aimlessly through town, pumas to wander into the suburbs, and even cause whales to run aground all due to having their GPS devices fail.

A wildlife tragedy waiting to happen......

[tncaver]

I knew this GPS fad wouldn't last. Time to dust off the Silva Ranger!

Thank goodness us old school folks can still read a map.