Maybe this info will get the attention of the "What do we need Loran for" crowd.
IIRC, the GPS isn't really "shut down" it's encrypted to ensure authorized use only.
I could be wrong but I'd swear that was what I was taught in 1992 when I first trained on the GPS.
OnStar ain't gonna like this!
<><
It's always great to be extra cautious, but I have a hard time believing that terrorists are smart enough to utilise GPS. I mean, the 9-11 attacks were a very crude undertaking. Effective, unfortunately, but crude. It is good not to underestimate the enemy though.
I still maintain the west will win this war because we are, and always will be, smarter than these people.
How will I ever find my fishing numbers. ;)
Always know how to use the map and compass - they will never fail.
This would result in chaos among those aircraft aloft. More and more pilots are using GPS as their sole navigational device.
GPS was supposed to have been a add-on nav device. Predictably, it has become the sole nav device for most pilots.
I make my living selling GPS systems. Publishing old news like this to spook people will not help me make a living.
This kind of thing won't just cause some "minor inconvinences". It will shut down entire industries.
Government DOES NOT want to do this.
It's like closing all streets and roads, ALL OF THEM, because terrorists used roads to deliver truck bombs.
Here's is some data Art Bell should know about..
Completely disabling the GPS signal would also disable the majority of Digital Telecommunications within approximately 24 hours.
All digital telecommunications today require a "timing reference source" to keep terrestrial and "over the air" things in sync. Before GPS, extremely high tolerance clocks were used. With the advent of GPS, timing is largely derived via the matrix of signals emitted by GPS satellites, which is a much cheaper source (free) than expensive stratum clocks.
A shutdown of the GPS signal would not immediately disable the network as a hierarchy of the clocks remain and are still installed in telecom equipment. The most important components such as the largest telephone switching computers highest in the hierarchy of the telephone network will remain on-line indefinately however equipment at the edge such as Cellular Telephone base sites could be off-line in an hour or less. Especially those that use the CDMA air interface standard (Verizon, Sprint PCS). Network connections to smaller telephone switching computers would start to fail in 24-48hrs.
Hate to be landing a 747 in fog when GPS gets turned off.
Or much worse, if it is spoofed or bent, to cause a GPS guided missile heading for a building to land in the countryside.
This is a nifty technology that has wonderful civillian applications, but in my opinion, it probably should never have been expanded beyond the domain of the military.
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.
(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.
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.