Posted on 12/16/2004 7:04:56 AM PST by crushelits
The military maintains exclusive access to the more accurate "P-code" pseudo random code. It's ten times the frequency of the civilian C/A code and much harder to jam. When it's encrypted it's called "Y-code" and only military receivers with the encryption key can receive it. This code is modulated on two carriers, making it harder to jam.
I don't know about immediately, but as soon as the inevitable timing hits started, you're absolutely correct, it would deteriorate rapidly. A surprisingly large amount of DoD traffic goes over the Telco lines.
Where did I ever say anything about getting rid of GPS navigation? I'm the #1 fan. I've crossed oceans with it.
I'm just explaining why the feds are announcing they may have to interrupt it, if they detect a boat or aircraft possibly containing expolisves etc. heading for NY or DC. They may only have minutes to decide to "shift" the GPS system locally to throw the weapon into a vacant area.
According to some reports, something like this was done in Gulf War One, when GPS was "spoofed" to interfere with Iraqi agents directing SCUDs into Kuwait.
There needs to be an understanding that your GPS might be subject to wartime control or alteration in the event of inbound weapons which appear to be using GPS guidance.
(not sarcasm) Why stop there, the U.S. military show be ready to jam the wavelengths used by ham radios to prevent them from be used in a similar manner by terrorists.
Well, I'm thinking they "shot the stars". Every see those little bubbles on the top of aircraft in WWII? Those were for checking the position of the stars to determine where you were. Of course that doesn't help when it's overcast so they used ADF or RDF. In the early days of the airlines before they set up VOR stations they actually had lights set up at intervals every few miles on the airline routes. Of course transatlantic routes would be radio direction and compass plus stars.
Sextants, compasses, lights on hills (Like lighthouses)...it seems like such a distant time in the past, compared to what is used today.
I know I'm amazed everytime I shove off in my 31 footer and head right to the latest and greatest fishing hole. And navigate precisely to it.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge Thursday dismissed a civil rights lawsuit against an FBI agent who administered a lie detector test to an Egyptian exchange student detained in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Abdallah Higazy claimed that FBI Special Agent Michael Templeton violated his civil rights by threatening him and his family during a polygraph exam on December 27, 2001.
During that session, Higazy admitted possessing a hand-held pilot's radio allegedly found in his hotel room across the street from the World Trade Center. The radio, known as a transceiver, allows pilots to communicate with other pilots in the air or with people on the ground. It later was determined to belong to another hotel guest.
A security guard told FBI agents he found the aviation radio inside a locked safe in Higazy's room on the 51st floor of the Millennium Hotel, across the street from where the twin towers stood.
Higazy, who began a computer engineering graduate program at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn September 4, 2001, had been assigned by the school to the hotel until he found housing. He evacuated the hotel with the rest of the guests after the second hijacked plane slammed into the towers. He was arrested December 17, 2001, when he returned to the hotel to retrieve belongings, including his passport. The security guard, Ronald Ferry, later confessed that the aviation radio had been planted in the room. The radio belonged to an American private pilot who was staying in a room one floor below Higazy's.
Charges against Higazy were dropped and he was released from custody in January 2002. Ferry was convicted in March 2002 for lying to federal agents and sentenced to six months worth of weekends in prison.
Abdallah Higazy, a 30-year-old Egyptian student, arrived in New York City to study engineering at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn on August 27, 2001. Since he could not find student housing, the Institute of International Education — the U.S. government foreign aid program that was paying his bills — put him up at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, next to the World Trade Center. After the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, Higazy hot-footed it out of the hotel. After the terrorist attack, the hotel was sealed.
Three months later, guests were allowed to retrieve their belongings. When Higazy went to the hotel on December 17, he was arrested and accused of possessing an aviation radio. (A hotel security guard reported finding the radio in a safe in Higazy’s room.) Higazy denied owning the radio. He was arrested as a material witness and locked up in solitary confinement.
Higazy wanted to clear his name so he agreed to take a polygraph test. An FBI agent wired him up for the test but then proceeded to browbeat him for three hours until he finally admitted owning the radio. Higazy said the FBI agent warned him, “If you don’t cooperate with us, the FBI will ... make sure Egyptian security gives your family hell.” The FBI refused to permit Higazy’s attorney, Robert Dunn, to be in the room while he was given the polygraph.
After the interrogation, Higazy was “trembling and sobbing uncontrollably,” according to his lawyer. Dunn observed that Higazy “insisted that he had no connection to the device but felt he had no choice but to make some kind of admission relative to the radio in an effort to remove his family from harm’s way.” Newsday noted, “Prosecutors initially denied any threats were made, but now decline to comment on what happened and on the permissibility of using such threats as an interrogation technique.”
On January 11, 2002, Higazy was indicted for perjury. Link to Article
At altitude, this could have been 60+ miles. On a clear night, I've picked out a/c landing lights going into Cleveland from a plane over Wheeling WV.
How would we follow another Scott Peterson as he wanders around chasing an Amber Fry?
In such absence of information, cable news would also have to shut down.
If you don't have Zone Alarm, I strongly recommend installing it. It's free for home use and it lets you control what programs are coming in or going out.
Like ships, transoceanic pilots had long stretches of absolutely no radio communication. If the airliner went down, often we never found out where or why. They used mostly, and sometimes only, ded reckoning, short for deduced reckoning, using only a compass, airspeed indicator, and clock. This is accurate if the math is done carefully, though winds aloft can push the airplane hundreds of miles off course. At night they could use celestial navigation to check their positions the same as ships. Radio automatic direction finding to islands was used but required someone on the ground. Later they could sometimes use Loran, which stands for long range navigation, somewhat similar to GPS but the transmitters are ground based, a few on small deserted islands, using large amounts of power. Many Loran stations are still operating. Expensive inertial guidance systems were developed and are still used but these become inaccurate over time. This is what JAL 007 was using when they strayed into Soviet airspace and got shot down, though due to a pilot programming error. Ships use these same technologies but also increasing rely on GPS. What makes most of the world nervous is that the US pays for and controls the GPS satellites. The Europeans and other countries are trying to develop their own systems because of this.
Airliners never use VFR once they reach controlled airspace. They are assigned IFR airspeeds, altitudes, and headings, and must fly specific highway in the sky routes. GPS will enable airlines to get off the airways, making for direct routes and added traffic capacity, but this requires new computer systems on the ground to coordinate everything.
Only if you are connected to the internet....just turn off your link.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.