Internet jammer can be bought for $55, can bring down plane, say experts

Fox News via Herald Sun ^ | 18 March 2010 | John Brandon

[Aussie Dasher]

AN electronic device small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and big enough to bring down an airplane can be easily bought over the internet for just $55. Fox News reports that all a terrorist needs is a credit card and $55 to buy a GPS jammer used by car thieves in the UK.

Jammers transmit a low-power signal that creates signal noise and fools a GPS receiver into thinking the satellites are not available.

They can be used to confuse police and avoid toll charges and some pranksters use them to nettle unsuspecting iPhone users.

Experts say it's only a matter of time until terrorists in the United States catch on and use them to disrupt GPS reception on airplanes or in military operations.

The devices pose serious societal risks and they are illegal to buy and use in the United States.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. The Federal Communications Commission is bullish about pursuing anyone who buys a GPS jammer and will prosecute and jail anyone who uses one.

Yet they're easily bought online, and their proponents say they should stay that way.

Fox News was able to buy GPS jammers for as little as $55 from numerous online sources.

[ALPAPilot]

It would make a Boeing 777 fly like a Boeing 767. If the 777 lost GPS, we’d get a message in the cockpit, then go back to drinking coffee and finishing the crossword.

[MediaMole]

Zero chance this works on military GPS. ...and very little chance it will work on mission critical aviation grade GPS in general.

Yeah, it’ll screw with the tiny chip and antenna in an iPhone, but that wasn’t designed to keep an airplane on course.

[Star Traveler]

[Never on my watch]

Let’s see, since we have the hardwire phone lines at the Capitol jammed, let’s jam all of the cell phones there too. ;)

[dragnet2]

You guys use those little kitchen timers to avoid passing up your destination airports?

[Domandred]

There are so many different ways of navigating an aircraft losing GPS would warrant maybe a shrug and a “well that sucks”.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The radar appears to be...JAMMED!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcArnepkhv0

[seastay]

This would be a short range jammer, so it would have to used in close range to an aircraft GPS antenna to jam. The GPS antenna would be on the outside and the jammer would be on the inside of the metallic or graphite fiber conducting cabin which would attenuate the jammer signal, so it might be in doubt the wild claims of being able to bring down an airplane from a weak signal that is just used for navigation, its not like the noise would cause a nose dive. Furthermore the whole idea that cell phone emissions can bring down an aircraft is false as well, although true there can be noise that could effect electronics, the attenuation is high, cell phone bans are as much or more a reason for keeping people quite as much as a safety issue which is blown out of proportion. IMHO

[njslim]

Last night had moron drive car into flooded street next to Pasaic River. Cops asked why he was driving there and
avoiding barricades. Said GPS told himt to go that way...

[ALPAPilot]

You guys use those little kitchen timers to avoid passing up your destination airports?

Only if the flight attendant on are lap doesn't have an alarm on her wristwatch.

[RobinOfKingston]

The counter measure is just as simple, If it emits a signal it can be found with an inexpensive hand held directional receiver.

And effective action can be taken with a .40 directional ... transmitter.

[ALPAPilot]

You guys use those little kitchen timers to avoid passing up your destination airports?

Only if the flight attendant on our lap doesn't have an alarm on her wristwatch.

[steve86]

How would jamming the Internet bring down a plane?

I guess they are talking about online flight simulator games here.

[chooseascreennamepat]

No one said anything about jamming the I’net. It jams gps signals.

[steve86]

I flew for years with no GPS at all and never once did I crash. Didn’t even have LORAN, for that matter.

[steve86]

What does the TITLE say, bonehead?

[NonValueAdded]

But what about Blonde*star?

[dragnet2]

Only if the flight attendant on our lap doesn't have an alarm on her wristwatch.

Hmmm...

The last flight attendants I saw were all homo's with attitudes.

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

“There are currently GPS instrument approaches but not at commercial airports.”

There are numerous GPS approaches at commercial as well as rural airports. I am an Instrument Flight Instructor and I’m PIC daily in a Cessna Citation jet.

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

GPS approaches are becoming the norm in the aviation industry.