back to article GPS jamming rife, could PARALYSE Blighty, say usual suspects

Technical experts are once again predicting imminent doom caused by interference with Global Positioning System (GPS) sat-nav receivers. A nationwide UK network of detectors has reportedly discovered widespread employment of GPS jammer devices, and calls are being made for a harsh crackdown on users of such devices. "Today's …

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  1. Chris Miller

    Bob Cockshott*

    is a Challenge Delivery Manager at the government's Technology Strategy Board ICT Knowledge Transfer Network. I bet his business cards are something to behold. Does anyone know where I can apply for such a non-job (or should I just join the local lodge)?

    * No sniggering at the back

    1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Bob Cockshott*

      Robert was the quiet one. It were his brothers Richard and Harold who always had the room in stitches.

  2. Arnold Lieberman
    Joke

    All they have to do to get the cash

    is to somehow link it to AGW.

  3. Valerion

    60 times in 6 months

    How do we know it wasn't the same bloke driving past each time?

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: 60 times in 6 months

      It probably was. I guess that isn't the point. If you are relying on GPS for something, it gives you an idea how often it won't work.

      My SatNav occasionally goes completely mad when I'm driving around. I put that down to it being a rubbish mobile phone receiver, but maybe I was driving past someone who was jamming the signal. I don't use it when I'm going somewhere where I know the route, and that is most of my journeys, so I don't have enough data for reliable statistics.

      1. DJ 2

        Re: Re: 60 times in 6 months

        Put the sat nav into a different language, and learn while you drive your local routes.

        Niki des!

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    A British solution

    A network of town criers positioned every 400m in a grid across the country.

    They would simultaneously ring their bell every minute, each bell would have one of four different notes, a microphone would detect the arrival time of the sound from each of the notes and calculate your position. Speed of sound is around 300m/s so you would only need millisec level pf timing accuracy to achieve a better than 1ft position fix - easily obtainable with a BBC micro.

    These scheme will promote full employment, avoid harmful brain destroying microwave radiation, be immune to solar flares and bring a level of oldy-worldy charm to the process of finding your way around strange towns.

    1. frank ly

      Re: A British solution

      How is the simultaneous ringing of bells achieved?

      1. M7S

        Re: Re: A British solution - Timing the bells

        Easy - Change the distance to 1126 feet* and the frequency to once per second. You ring your bell to coincide with the chime of the ringer next to you, your ring will seem to coincide with his, although in reality it will be his last ring**. The increased grid density would also further assist with solving our current unemployment issues.

        You might have to have some kind of dispersal issue to cope with the alteration of the speed of sound with changes in atmospheric density, particularly moisture, but I expect navigating in thick fog in Old Londinium Towne (sorry, recent Batman episodes refer) would be quite a hoot.***

        *Assuming of course that we can maintain the UK at 20c and dry.

        **A wag might point out that with ringers in such a close grid and the frequency up to 1Hz that the last ring might be quite soon for a great many campanologists. Perhaps I should have used previous instead.

        ***unless hoots are used as an alternative during inclement weather. There's a pun involving the term bellwether but as it apparently involves a castrated ram I'll stop there.

        1. Shonko Kid
          Devil

          "...maintain the UK at 20c and dry."

          I like it. That way a bit of bad weather will completely mess it up, and allow a little bit of snow to cause even more carnage and chaos on the roads. Good work that man.

        2. Peter Simpson 1
          Pirate

          Re: Re: Re: A British solution - Timing the bells

          This is beginning to sound far too similar to the proposals made to the Longitude Board before Mr. Harrison invented his Marine Chronometer.

          //Longitude -- great book!

        3. frank ly
          Facepalm

          M7S: Re: Re: Re: A British solution - Timing the bells

          I was hoping that someone would suggest a network of national broadcast radio signals, with accurate timing information encoded in it (so the bell ringers could listen to it and sync to it).

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Up

          Re: Re: Re: A British solution - Timing the bells

          M7S - Brilliant solution, well played sir. :-)

          But what about nefarious types who use a jamming device such as another bell to interpolate the 1Hz ringing with an offbeat? This could be used to lure the unwary to their doom (or perhaps arrive at their destination twice as quickly <with due deference to the Royle family and things being farther away in Km argument>). The government would have to control the illegal possession and use of unauthorised bells, perhaps setting up monitoring stations all around the UK to detect just how widespread the use of these jamming devices is. Oh, wait...

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Elmer Phud
      Boffin

      Flat Earth Society?

      There may be a few lumps for the sound to negotiate on the way.

      A few echos here and there plus some valleys to do some mixing.

      For a true British solution there should be a friendly copper within hailing distance who would politeley inform you of your whereabouts and if there are any ruffians in the area.

      In busy areas such as cities poor and dishevelled but somehow spotlessly clean and unbearably cheerful urchins will be installed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Flat Earth Society?

        Ahh, there's already a system for that, you just need to become a member of parliament, then everywhere will be wheelchair accessible and there'll always be a handy police officer to advise you of your location and the presence of members of the public or, as they're known parliament, undesirables.

    3. Simple Si
      Paris Hilton

      Re: A British solution

      Great idea, although the government would then have to regulate the bell marketplace. Perhaps offering licenses to organisations that produce bells of particular frequencies. The costs will have to cover the policing of the black-market for those unlicensed fake town crier bells produced in eastern markets. More jobs, lots of back slapping politicians, surely this plan can't fail - hazzah!

      Paris? 'Coz she loves bell ringing.

  5. RayG

    Didn't we have a long discussion after a post about Iran's alleged drone theft in which it was suggested that GPS spoofing is actually quite difficult? Is it, or isn't it?

    1. EddieD

      That depends on which viewpoint is trying to be proven.

    2. Christian Berger

      Well you could make spoofing _really_ hard by using steerable antenna arays. Since you know where the satellites are supposed to be, you can use beamforming to just receive them and not the background. Not sure if that is done. It would increase the hardware price by an order of magnitude. (then again $500 is afordable for a GPS receiver in many situations)

    3. Chris Miller

      Spoofing a passive receiver is not that difficult. The article suggests you can record an actual set of signals and play it back (timestamps would give this away, of course). Spoofing an active receiver so that instead of a drone flying to point A it goes to point B instead looks much more difficult, if not actually impossible.

    4. Steve Evans

      @RayG

      We did indeed, and IIRC the outcome was that it was trivially easy to block (simple RF interference would do it), but more complicated to spoof.

      60 block/spoofs in 6 months isn't much. That could almost be due to accidental interference, or depending on the locations of these listeners, be down to the spooks and their anti tracking measures.

      If the 6 months happened to included a visit from Mr Obama, I'd put money on the latter.

      1. RayG

        Hurrah for the paranoia industry

        I read the article as saying blocks had been found and proven, but not spoofs, which are indeed far more difficult. So let's all fear spoof attacks!

        It's not someone's funding review time by any chance?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spoofing eh?

    Could come in handy for pay as you drive insurance policies.

    Well, until you magically crash your car miles from where the box of tricks thinks it is.

  7. M7S

    And a more mundane consequence of jamming

    http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/20/boy_dies_after_satnav_fault_delays_ambulance/

    No I'm not suggesting that this is the cause in this particular instance. Its just an illustration of the potential real world consequences of such japery.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And a more mundane consequence of non-jamming

      is even more ambulance drivers relying on GPS, thus more chance of someone dying, because

      a) we don't know how to use a f... map to find that b(..) postcode!

      b) sorry guv, OS stopped selling those maps 20 years ago so it's like... tough. Don't blame me, blame the "system"!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: And a more mundane consequence of non-jamming

        Postcodes are not on the maps we're issued. Standard A-Z plus some others and usually I can cope using those as a backup. If you've a physical map with a full postcode that I can use whilst in the Big White Taxi please post details.

        Rather than start over I'll refer you to the comments section in that thread about the amount of local knowlege you can realistically expect of crews from services but given the huge geographical area we have to cover and the varying quality of location information we get from callers, its not really realistic. We're going to mostly rely on something electronic, even if we're given lattitude and longitude, unless you want me hanging out of the door using a sextant when providing cover out of my "patch" (Lewis can probably give a view on the training and regular requalification times required for this). Or we could go back to the 1960's if you want.

        1. Mike Banahan

          Re: Re: Re: And a more mundane consequence of non-jamming

          Using a sextant isn't going to be easy to navigate an ambulance. It might get you close enough to ask a local for directions - in anything other than ideal conditions and your watch being spot-on, you do well to get a fix to about 3-4 nautical miles and based on my own experience, even that's a fairly ambitious ask. Without a natural horizon you need to use an artificial one (a bed of mercury or a bubble spirit level seems popular) and that doesn't help the accuracy either.

        2. sam bo
          FAIL

          Re: Re: Re: And a more mundane consequence of non-jamming

          Yes , local knowledge is a desirable attribute. For a real world example, my wife called a "Big White Taxi" after I passed out on the floor and vomited about a litre of blood.

          Unfortunately, the government in there wisdom had decided to centralise the ambulance centre call-centres. So, instead of a local call-centre despatching a local ambulance the central despatcher 700klms away took the call and sent an ambulance to an address with the same street name but 120klms distant from me. After waiting an hour for the ambulance which did not arrive, she bundled me into the car and we drove to the hospital 20mins away in town.

          Needless to say, I survived, no thanks to the ambulance.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And a more mundane consequence of jamming

      All it would need is a dodgy lorry driver following exactly the same route as an ambulance tearing down the road with it's lights flashing and staying in close contact. And hope nobody noticed.

      Might be handy if you fancied joy riding a security van mind.

      Just wait until the GPS jammer detector jammer hits the market. Then worry

  8. spencer

    GPS

    Why not use it as a compliment to the many other methods of finding out where you are.

    E.g, Road signs, a map, asking someone, stars, compass, etc etc.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: GPS

        Back when I worked in financial services we generally didn't use GPS signals for timing (as we didn't trust them) and when we did, they were used together with other reliable clock sources (eg what was know as the the Rugby transmitted, now changed).

        Accurate timing was critical to the successful execution of trades, but if one of the involved parties had the wrong time, the transaction would just fail. Given there was no 'standard' clock source, the changes of us all getting skewed by the same amount was very unlikely. There were/are much easier ways to abuse the market.

  9. Irongut

    Personally I've never used GPS or Sat Nav, even when going places I've never been before. I find it sufficient to look the route up on a map, ask people who've been there before and if I get stuck phone the destination when I'm nearby. The GPS on my smartphone is permanently turned off to save battery.

    Maritime uses are understandable but the reliance of modern car drivers on GPS isn't.

    1. bazza Silver badge

      @Irongut, how about these?

      3G phone networks; the doors on a lot of trains; aircraft navigation; the national electricity grid. I bet you've relied on one or two of those at some point in the past, and would have been seriously annoyed if they stopped working.

      GPS has wormed its way into a lot of things that we count on everyday and take for granted. If GPS jamming became a major thing it would cause a lot of problems.

      Those engineers who have built highly important systems that rely solely on GPS (I don't know if that's completely true for the list above) are lazy idiots. Either that or their management are cheapskates. The trouble is that GPS is just so damned convenient for many things. And to have to fall back on something else when GPS packs up is difficult. But it is necessary if you're building something that really matters like trains, planes, grids and comms.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's perfectly understanadable

      They're a useful tool.

      They mean you've effectively got maps for wherever you need to go and they mean you don't have to have a big mission-planning exercise before you set out somewhere new. I find both of these things very worthwhiile and the atlas in the boot means I needn't fret about total failure.

      As a person who hates arriving late, I also find it valuable to have a second opinion as to when I'm likely to arrive. Before I got myself a tomtom the traditional options were indeed sufficient, but this tool is definitely an improvement.

    3. Chris 3

      Good lord man...

      ... you use maps? Isn't that rather effete? You should be judging North from the moss on trees or possibly using a compass and sextant. And using a *car*?? Whatever next?

      Personally I find a sat-nav extremely useful, especially when ferrying two chatty under-eights to somewhere obscure in the London suburbs.

  10. BristolBachelor Gold badge

    Mopeds

    knock out just about anything within a few hundred yards. Yeah, I know that GPS is below the noise floor anyway, but when the noisefloor moves up because the local pizza delivery goes past blatting out about 300W E.R.P, it stands no chance!

    1. MrT

      On the plus side...

      ... 300W sounds enough to keep the pizzas warm...

  11. Z80

    I just skimmed through the article but I think what you're basically saying is that LOHAN's GPS autopilot system will definitely work perfectly and you'll have no excuses if it doesn't?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    no new laws or regulations are required...

    See Section 1 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. Radio Frequency Jammers, being unlicenced kit, are therefore illegal apparatus as noted in the act. Offenders can be fined or stuck in jug on conviction - if not both - especially if the jamming interferes with emergency services crews.

    Of course, to convict them, you gotta catch 'em first.

    Might be an idea to have the boys in blue fit yet more high-tech taxpayer-money-draining kit into their cars, then.

    Donughts and coffee, anyone?

  13. Anomalous Cowherd Silver badge

    Worse than just teh boats!!!

    According to this morning's Metro front page, the entire financial system could be brought to a grinding halt! Our learned friends reported that some banks rely on GPS timing signals for trading. For calibrating NTP perhaps, but it's perhaps "a bit of a stretch" from interrupting that calibration to pwning the market.

    http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/891008-gps-jammers-could-make-criminals-millions-on-the-stock-market. Try not to snort out your coffee in derision like I did. The Metro is overpriced.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Richard 12 Silver badge

      That bit made me laugh out loud on the Tube this morning

      I did get a couple of funny looks.

    3. Martin Gregorie

      Relying on just GPS for timing is stupid

      Apart from GPS there are at least three alternative time sources:

      - NTP. You DON'T need to connect your highly secure financial system to the net to use it. Run an NTP server on a 'net connected box and let it pretend to be a GPS receiver: every second it sends an NMEA GPRMC sentence to your secure network via a serial (RS-232) connection.

      - MSF60 (UK) and DCF77 (German) low frequency time signals

      - WWF and other short wave signals. The noticeable absence from this band is the UK

      If accurate timing is critical for your application then you're an idiot to rely on just one, especially when receivers are relatively cheap (MSF60 receivers are cheap enough to fit in a 15 quid wall clock), so use at least two and plumb them into a local ntp time server - this way you won't be caught out by jammers or the big one if when a solar flare takes out GPS, Galileo *and* GLONASS.

      Keeping LORAN alive as a GPS backup would be a smart move for shipping and airlines too.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Relying on just GPS for timing is stupid

        Pffft.... NMEA sentences? You don't use those for time keeping, they're just time stamps. Some GPS receivers have a 1PPS output but phase relationship to the actual time is not a given unless it's an expensive receiver.

        Out of MSF60 and DCF77, only DCF77 gives you actual millisecond precision. As well as the low baud rate time stamp, more precise time information is encoded into phase shift keying of the carrier signal. Either of those systems is arguably easier to break/spoof than the Navstar signalling is though.

        NTP (via a wire) calibration of a reliable local clock is easily FTW, unless you happen to be mobile.

    4. MrT

      Metro has news...???

      ... Nemi FTW - everything else is chip wrapping.

  14. Andrew Jones 2
    Alert

    It was once proposed that WiFi transmitters could be installed in lamp-posts to flood an area with internet - if this were done - one of the many WiFi location databases could be used to provide a backup to the GPS signal - if the GPS signal was massively different to where the WiFi databases suggested you were - some authority could be alerted? If the vehicle in your general vicinity was screwing with the GPS signal - a large amount of surrounding vehicles would be reporting that there was something up.

    Even without installing WiFi everywhere - there are enough Android phones out there using Google Maps for navigation. Android phones by default (providing the option is checked in Wireless and Networks) scan for WiFi MAC addresses while Google Maps is running - and report MAC addresses and GPS positions back to Google. They do it this way now because of the uproar caused by the Street View vans collecting WiFi data. So - a simple software update would actually enable Android phones to perform this automatic reporting that the GPS signal and the WiFi location do not match.

    (Yes I know the WiFi location is not always accurate - so X number of samples would have to incorrect before any automatic reporting was started)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Irresponsible and Dangerous

    "GPS jammers can be bought on the internet for those wishing to defeat tracking systems which might be installed in vehicles........ and by people who fear that they may be under covert surveillance or who wish to avoid inadvertently generating records of their location by other means "

    Then these means MUST be provided and catered for, else SENTINEL are erroding personal privacy and have NO RIGHT to do so!

    ALSO, why are we relying on such a flaky tech for such serious matters? Cop out, thats what it is!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So their best result is 1 hit in 3 days on average and they aren't going to be monitoring some dirt track in the middle of nowhere they are most likely monitoring our busiest motorways.

    So 1 jammer travels along the M1 every 3 days and there's no reason to think isn't the same one each time.. Oh yes, this is a huge problem.

    I think Mr Cockshott is nothing but a scaremongering media whore.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >>So their best result is 1 hit in 3 days on average and they aren't going to be monitoring some dirt track in the middle of nowhere they are most likely monitoring our busiest motorways.

      So 1 jammer travels along the M1 every 3 days and there's no reason to think isn't the same one each time.. Oh yes, this is a huge problem.

      >>I think Mr Cockshott is nothing but a scaremongering media whore.

      Spot on Sir.

      M1, 6, 25, 42 or whatever (A303 eg) - they all see rather a lot of vehicles passing through in three days.

      Frankly I'm surprised that the incidence is so low. We are obviously a pretty law abiding country. A good argument to bin some of the more intrusive anti terrorist surveillance stuff.

      Cheers

      Jon

      1. fridaynightsmoke
        Boffin

        Traffic stats

        The last time I looked, a properly busy stretch of motorway has something in the order of 150,000 vehicles per day; so if there's one GPS jammer 'hit' in 3 days on average, that gives 1 in 450,000 vehicles having a GPS jammer.

        Or ~2 in a million.

  17. David_H
    Stop

    France

    Can I use one of these to allow my car to go to France. The in-built SAT-NAV is capable of displaying speed/safety camera information, and so my car is illegal in France. In fact, as my phone is capable of downloading a SATNAV apllication, does that mean that I cannot take my phone to France either?

    1. 4ecks
      WTF?

      Re: France

      Not What but Where TF.

      I've noticed that whenever I go to St Ishmaels SA62 Pembs., my HTC phone GPS suddenly decides that SW Wales has moved to northern France, but my TomTom is ok. If you do go to France you just use the excuse to the police that you were following SatNav directions from St Ishmaels to Milford Haven - perfectly believable, 'cos no-one ever doubts the GPS voice!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: France

      the consensus of my French colleagues is that under EU privacy laws, the inside of your car is like your home, even or especially in France. A nice French Motorway cop with a gun might stop you and ask if you mind him having a look inside your car - to which it seems that you can legally say "Non" to him.

      The French are doing this in order to stop French motorists speeding, (they've recently removed the previously helpful signs saying "Radar Ahead in 100 metres" ) - in order to bring the high level of road deaths down.

      Of course, a few years back it was routine to stop all UK cars entering France and check if you had that week's obligatory safety equipment - 5 x Yellow vests, or get the €60 fine. I hope that UK motorists will have the balls to use EU privacy laws and say 'touche pas ma bagnole" when leaving the ferry/tunnel this summer.(*)

      (*) I wouldn't try this in CH land where satnav radar guides are also illegal, as the cops have _no_sense_of_humor_ and can fine you up to 10% of your annual income for simple speeding/motoring issues. Strangely the local adherents to the Touring Club Suisse (=AA/RAC) newsletter get a monthly pull-out guide to where the 'random' radar speed checks will be, so tho' TomTom won't tell johnny foreigner when and where to drive at the 'safety' speed - the burgers of Vierwaldstättersee and other regions drive like how they always have, whilst the state is allegedly enriched by foreign criminals doing their 3 kilometers over the limits.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    An alternative solution

    In order to lessen our reliance on these GPS signals and help avoid an electronic arms race between jammers and counter-jammers, how's about this for an alternative:

    Large metal boards could be erected at intervals alongside major roads, listing place names of locations the road leads to. Numbers placed next to the place names could give an indication of your current distance from that location. At junctions, the boards could employ arrows to indicate alternate destinations along each route leading from the junction. Again numbers printed beside the destination names could indicate the current distance from that location.

    On a more localised level, these boards could be replicated at a smaller size at the ends of streets and could, in these cases, give the name of the street in question. In order to avoid the motorist having to memorise each of these smaller street-naming boards, diagrams could be published online, or on paper, showing the arrangement of streets within a locality.

    The motorist could also be issued with half a brain-cell and or a piece of paper and a pen, to aid making a note of the location of the desired destination, for future reference, rather than relying, in every facet of their lives, on electronic gadgets to wipe their fucking arses for them.

    I propose to call my invention the "Trouser Press".

    1. Will's

      Re: An alternative solution

      No way that would work, metal thieves would have them away in no time.

      And students, who could resist owning the "corby" trouser press?

  19. MrWibble
    WTF?

    What the hell is a "Challenge Delivery Manager"?

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Much the same as an Equality and Diversity Co-ordinator. A civil service non-job.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Challenged e-Livery Manager

      Give or take a trypo or two.

      No, wtf.

      Is it something to do with Extremely Agile Scrums or something like that?

      That advertising delivery engine finds several pages with Challenge Delivery Manager on. All are references to Bob.

    3. PJ 1

      Worse than a solutions delivery manager

      "What did your team achieve this week Mr. Cockshott?"

      "On Monday I bet Dave in accounts he couldn't eat three tablespoons of coffee granules without being sick and then on Thursday I had my team nail shut all the fire doors and set fire to the reception desks. Next week I'm going on a FUD splatter rampage about GPS."

      "Excellent have a bonus."

    4. Roger Stenning
      Trollface

      I've been watching period drama again, it seems...

      ...as I've now got a mental image of a "Challenge Delivery Manager" as being a leather glove in the face *snort*

  20. Jim Carter
    Coat

    Cockshott's spurting outburst, surely?

    Yes, I'm already wearing the damn thing.

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    So, more dangerious than giant solar storms destroying the power system

    Or less?

    Just asking.

  22. DryBones
    Pirate

    Spoofing with a simulator you say...

    Think they sold any to Iran?

  23. cosymart
    Happy

    Keep it up guys

    This comments forum is the funniest for a long time, been chuckling all the way. (strange looks from SWMBO though)

  24. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    Tin foil to the ready

    But will my anti-GPS systems (tin foil attire) also be banned?

    <-- Made of the best aluminium foil money can buy.

  25. geejayoh
    Mushroom

    Bob Cockshott, who is a...

    Challenge Delivery Manager at the government's Technology Strategy Board ICT Knowledge Transfer Network.

    And they wonder why our economy went to hell in a handbasket. How does he justify his existence?

  26. mfritz0
    Alert

    What happens when everyone has computer driven cars?

    Hopefully this stops before Google starts producing driverless cars. I could see a world full of driverless cars suddenly thrown into chaos by some miscreant with a grudge against his neighbor. This just cannot be allowed to continue.

  27. JaitcH
    Meh

    Most of the Jammers around can't go far, even with the wind blowing the right way

    Most of the cheaper jammers are only good for a few yards, if conditions are optimum.

    I have a GPS/cell jammer on my motorcycle - the traffic cops use cells as 2-way radios hereabouts - a model with separate antennae for each frequency band, and on perfectly clear, flat terrain it's good for 200 metres tops, enough to envelope the vehicle in an impenetrable cloud and to stop nearby idiots who SMS/Text whilst driving to be put out of service.

    In countries that allow licenced low-power transmitters, there are many schematics on the InterNet.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Tom Clancy Plot & Countermeasure

    Imagine some evil evildoers (terrists or something) launch 100W jammers on balloons in a certain area (say London). Shortly after that they detonate some bombs to inflict heavy casualties.

    GPS-guided ambulances (and probably also some Police) would be out of action, as airborne jamming clearly is very effective to blank out the weak GPS signals over hundreds of square kilometers.

    The countermeasure is not that difficult: Have the navigation systems record wheel movements vectors and integrate that. Of course that introduces uncertainty, but that can be corrected at any non-trivial corner or curve, which are easy to detect. Combine it with a cheap inertial nav system and a compass and you don't need GPS at all. The key is that mapping information is already fully stored in consumer navigation devices and the maps themselves allow for obtaining positioning information. With some Google-grade software one could even initialize this system w/o entering the starting point, but just drive for something like 20 kilometers and let the software perform the matching on the complete map.

    Much more complex stuff (thing terrain contour matching for cruise missiles) has been done decades ago with good success.

  29. John Sturdy
    Boffin

    Counter^n-measures

    So what's going to stop someone who's jamming GPS from jamming eLORAN too?

    Evidently they'll have to propose some taxpayer-funded counter-counter-counter-measures.

    Won't somebody think of the children?

  30. Alan Brown Silver badge
    Coat

    spoofing vs jamming

    Spoofing is hard

    Jamming is simple - at its simplest you can make a wideband radar jammer with a trembler coil, a sparkplug and an old-style round headlight (parabolic mirror). For added fun high power IR leds will blind l most LIDAR units.

    Just don't expect to be able to listen to BBC r2 as you drive along with it operating. Don't be terribly surprised if a nice policeman pulls you over and offers to search the vehicle (virtually all radar guns have jammer detectors on them)

    Locating GPS jammers shouldn't be too hard given 3-5 detectors in close proximity and a camera setup. Cars can only be in a limited number of places so triangulation is straightforward - but should we bother getting all bent out of shape about moving GPS blackspots that are ~10 metres in diameter?

    Mines the one with a portable GSM jammer in it (for use in movie theatres or when Mr Noisy starts shouting on the train.)

  31. FordPrefect

    60 times in 6 months is hardly a problem. And given the limited range of these things I cant see them interfering with the boeing 747s at 20,000+ft. Granted in certain positions it could be a bit tricky ie near airports but seriously your sat nav goes funny do you a) continue along the same road or b) turn off the road go thru a field and wrap your car around a tree?

  32. FordPrefect

    Besides this is a technology the US government could disable at any time with no notice for any or no reason whatsoever. Why are people using it to the point of criticality when it could be disabled at anytime?

  33. John 62
    Mushroom

    It's an Olympics issue!

    On New Year's Eve the BBC talked to a man in the crowd who had worked on the London fireworks the previous year and he said they used GPS for timing the fireworks. The SENTINEL had better do a sweep before the Olympics!

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