MoD boffins in Cornwall GPS-jamming trials

UK gov defence boffins will carry out GPS-jamming trials in Cornwall today and tomorrow. Jamming transmissions will be made at the Portreath MoD site, a remote radar station operated by the RAF's Air Surveillance and Control Systems Force Command. The old airfield was once used (low down on page) as an outstation of the former …

[Anonymous Coward]

Way to go there military-matters desk

Surely any self respecting vulture on the military matters desk would know that spoofing data for a civilian GPS systems simply requires beating the internal RAIM system and hence is at least a real possibility.

Meanwhile providing incorrect data to a military system using the encrypted L2 signal is a different kettle of fish.

Hence you can cause civilian GPS receivers to misread while only denying availability of the military system. As the NOTAM is for civilian users it all makes sense...

[hugh]

Murdoch

Wasnt Rupert Murdoch using something like this to start a Sino-British war on the telly last night ?

Some guy from Vauxhall Cross messed up his plans.

[spezzer]

Anything to do with

the bunch that got caught in Iraqi waters the other month? - maybe they were spoofees?

[Arnold Lieberman]

Someone to blame

Next time some plonker decides to take a wrong turn into a river/up a train line "because the satnav said so", the PR bunnies at TomTom et al. will be able to put it down to spoofed GPS signals from the black helicoper brigade.

[Anonymous Coward]

GPS is useless in Cornwall anyway...

From past experience of using GPS in Cornwall it seems that ether they have been testing this stuff for years of they have picked a location where they are odds on for success.

GPS is useless in Cornwall at the best of times....

[Anonymous Coward]

No contradiction

NOTAMs are part of the official aeronautical information service used for all (non-military) flight planning and as such they're conservative as hell. What the NOTAM is saying is that it is pretty much absolutely guaranteed that _no_ interference will occur _outside_ the limit. This is completely different from saying that interference _will_ occur _within_ the limit. The range actually likely to be effected is going to be quite a bit smaller that the range mentioned in the NOTAM, otherwise they wouldn't be able to make a guarantee like that for the NOTAM.

The same goes for the other part (spoofing), GPS simply doesn't lend itself towards reliable "flag" information that would tell you not to trust the position information, instead you'll just get an incorrect position indication. Indeed this is one of the major issues preventing aircraft from using unassisted GPS as the sole means of navigation. So the NOTAM is basically just stating that GPS navigation can be affected, period. No conspiracies implied.

[Anonymous Coward]

Map and Compass

Don't forget how to use your map and compass. So many of my younger friends only know GPS and in the event they needed to navigate across enemy territory they would be screwed once the Queen overtakes the GPS.

Compass and map can actually deliver better results than consumer GPS anyway.

[Neil Jones]

Off the Plot

"Any satnav-using readers near Portreath who notice interesting effects over the next couple of days..."

...especially if they're actually in Yorkshire at the time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sat Nav

Are we going to get a host of "My GPS told me it didn't know where I should go, so I was late for my meeting/couldn't pick up Tabetha from school" stories?

[Rob Moss]

6 nautical miles...

...is 11.112km. So aircraft within the area specified by the Beeb could in theory be affected. Of course, it doesn't take an aeroplane a very long time to fly 6 nautical miles, but it is annoying when your aging radar starts trying to emulate a spirograph.

[Dillon Pyron]

IFR landing

I've made a GPS assisted IFR landing before (clouds down to 75 ft). Here's hoping for VFR weather, otherwise there will be a lot of planes going to alternates. They should probably plan on that, in fact.

[Lewis Page]

L2 encryption

Us self respecting vultures have heard of military encrypted GPS signals, ekshually. We who have used it know that the US grants such p-code access to its chums including the UK. Thus in fact the DSTL could spoof military GPS as well as civvy.

Not saying they are, mind, just that they could be.

[Ian Ferguson]

Iranian waters

Did their last test occur just within Iranian waters, perchance?

Still, probably quite a wise military test, seeing how dependant they are on GPS nowadays (as are we - it seems we can't even take notice of a rail crossing or cliff edge nowadays without the GPS shouting at us about it)

[Colin]

I'm about 5km away

So I'll get out the TomTom One tomorrow and see what happens.

(If TheReg wants to send me some kit to test, I'll be more than happy to do so ;-)

[druck]

Road Pricing means bye bye GPS

Hopefully they'll find out just how easy it is to block GPS, and perhaps realise that if GPS based road pricing is introduced and everyone has an incentive to jam it, it wont be long before all users of GPS will find it just doesn't work any more.

[Al Amet]

Foil foils GPS

You don't need something as sophisticate as a psudolite to affect your road tracking GPS (although the MoD will probably be doing some spoof testing with them). I use a piece of aluminum foil to suppress satellite tracking when I do testing. You also don’t need to do L2 decryption to get centimeter accuracy in your measurements, there are other easier ways that are currently available. I’d imagine they’re looking at ways of corrupting the data received by the enemy. For a military action this would be better than disabling GPS in an area since it would tip off the fact that something is about to happen.

[Tony]

Good Lord

How did civilization get along before GPS came about?

It is not like GPS erased all previous knowledge of navigation and location methods.

Perhaps so in the case of TomTom users and others who cannot fathom map-reading. Have to look into the effects of RF emissions from said devices ;)

[Jim Hunter]

Off on a GPS Tangent

Is it me?

But why do people who use Tim Tims and the like have to stick them to the middle of the windscreen and block a big chunk of their view of the road ahead?

Personally I'm not keen on taking instructions from a box the size of (soon to be illegal) Fag Packet. Sorry-Cigarette Packet

[Jasmine Strong]

GPS is very useful...

...because it's really hard to turn the pages of a map when you're riding a motorcycle. The TomTom just whispers "turn left" in my ear, which is much more relaxing than trying to read an OS map in five second bursts, and probably safer too.

[Teddie]

Scary though as we are directly under a major flight path.

I guess that's what the big black bubble they built the other year was for, rumours were it was part of the echelon network.

At 11.26pm no apparent jamming

1.5 miles from Portreath

Scary though as we are directly under a major flight path.

[Rob]

Don't tell me....

"But why do people who use Tim Tims and the like have to stick them to the middle of the windscreen and block a big chunk of their view of the road ahead?"

...your one of those 22% that don't know where bacon and a sausage come from.

Me personally I have my TomTit device on the floor of the passenger footwell to ensure I take my eyes off the road to look at it !!!!

[Jim Hunter]

Jasmine & Rob

Ooooh!

It look's like I have hit a nerve!

When I'm out on my Speed Triple the last thing I want to have is something telling me I have to turn left into the next field.

As for not knowing where "bacon and sausage come from..." I tend to plan a little ahead, so I know where I am going. So I am well aware of where the "bacon and sausage" come from

Remember "Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance". Eh, Rob?

My comment was aimed at those users who assume that the machine is right, and that it takes priority over the other things that you need to do, while driving,such as looking out for other road users. I use a GPS based accident blackspot warning device when I'm driving, but its located out my field of vision. That way I'm not going knock Jasmine of her motorcycle.

We are in the honeymoon period with these devices. Just wait for a number of RTI's (Road Traffic Incidents) to be attributed to distraction caused by Sat Navs. Then the "Ban It or Tax It" Mentality in Whitehall will be on the case.