Posted on 09/17/2011 9:10:30 PM PDT by dickmc
“GPS receivers were quite purposefully designed to operate in a portion of the radio frequency spectrum deliberately maintained as a “quiet neighborhood,” with neighboring frequencies primarily occupied by signals of comparable power levels, all based on widely accepted understanding of previous FCC rules and intent. The proposed LightSquared transmitters will produce received signal strengths five billion times stronger than the GPS received signal.”
"Some have suggested GPS equipment can be redesigned for greater filtering to mitigate the interference, but even if this is possible, we believe it would involve substantial financial cost and likely degrade the accuracy of high performance receivers, which is critical to many key GPS users."
“We believe the signal strength proposed as 'lower power' is actually the same as in the originally published LightSquared plan—and was the power level upon which the NPEF (these) tests were based....”
“Emperical test results indicate the originally planned LightSquared network does not preserve existing GPS service in representative environments for most users.”
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The pdf of this Shelton testimony is at http://www.gpsworld.com/defense/shelton-testimony-12083
The link to the related GPS World article is here.
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(Excerpt) Read more at gpsworld.com ...
Wouldn’t surprise me that Dems are backing their own favorite telcoms. In the long run though it sounds like the GPS system is going to need to be hardened in a number of ways before wireless technology gets even more popular than it is. I doubt that means more satellites, as they’re probably the most expensive part of the system.
True. It’s much easier than reading a map.
Is this the same guy that Obama set back the digital switch over for TV signals when he first took office costing us a couple of billion?
...but don’t count on the FCC, despite all of their activism, to help matters very much.
“True, the government can shut it off anytime, but they haven’t and in the meantime the service has been well worth the cost of the receiver.”
I agree...just too many people dependent on it. A friend of mine works at a gas station and once in a while GPS-types come in for directions (because their GPS stopped working, maybe ran out its batteries, and no cord) - these people barely know what state they’re in, much less have any clue where they are in that state. Those are the ones that I worry about.
Here is some specific info from the tests:
“In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, General William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, detailed the results of tests from earlier this year intended to quantify the effect of LightSquared’s forthcoming network on GPS.
“Aviation receivers operating as far as 7.5 miles from LightSquared transmitters completely lost GPS and were degraded out to distances of more than 16.5 miles,” Shelton said. “High precision GPS receivers such as those used for surveying and geological study requiring precise measurements were adversely affected out to 213 miles and totally lost GPS out to 4.8 miles.”
Shelton noted that the State of New Mexico believes the LightSquared network could “jeopardize 911 and public safety.”
He cautioned that Air Force Space Command’s testing was modeled from the results of a single transmitter. However, that modeling showed that the complete network of high-powered base stations envisioned by LightSquared would degrade or completely kill GPS “at distances out to dozens of miles and even extending out to operations in space.â€
The Obama administration is willing to destroy the use of the GPS system, on which civil and military navigation is critically dependent. THAT IS TREASON. Crippling our military systems for $$$$ for Obama campaign. This is an impeachable offense.
Not a day goes by when this administration doesn’t commit another impeachable offense.
And I am sure his testimony most have been top secret, highly classified and it was leaked to Lightsquared. I bet there won’t be an investigation to find out who leaked it.
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According to officials who spoke to the “Daily Beast” website, Gen Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to LightSquared. The White House then asked the general to alter it to say that he supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use and that the Pentagon would try to resolve its concerns in tests within 90 days.
“There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias his testimony,” Representative Mike Turner, a Republican, told the Daily Beast. “The only people who were involved in the process in preparation for the hearing included the Department of Defence, the White House, and the Office Management and Budget.”
I think most people do not realize the seriousness of the impact of the L2 network on the GPS system, that our military systems are highly dependent on it and the magnitude of the offense of an administration trying to influence a general’s testimony in such vital matter.
Yes we can still read maps, but GPS is so much more convenient and easy, especially for getting around urban areas why bother unless we have to? Once you have one you get used to having it for things a map can’t do like having an instantly available approximation of how long until you will arrive, traffic, accident and weather alerts with instant re-routing and what food, hotels, attractions, parks, etc are along the road ahead. True, the government can shut it off anytime, but they haven’t and in the meantime the service has been well worth the cost of the receiver.
True. We’ve usually got paper maps somewhere around or have a good sense of where we are going.
That was weird. I came home and reset my connection and my post sent again.
I don’t know what that was supposed to be about, but i came away a big fan of Rebecca Sioux!
It is only impeachable if the majority of the Senate says so . . . as we learned only too well during the Clinton debacle.
BobL, I have been operating large equipment, for the last five years, that relies on GPS—1”accuracy. It would be hard to do without it—time, accuracy, fatigue, etc.. Think outside the box of reading a map when it applies to GPS, albeit, I agree with you on the map part thing.
“BobL, I have been operating large equipment, for the last five years, that relies on GPS—1”accuracy. It would be hard to do without it—time, accuracy, fatigue, etc.. Think outside the box of reading a map when it applies to GPS, albeit, I agree with you on the map part thing.”
Yea, I know GPS is used so heavily - that’s why I worry about it. It’s just too darn easy for enemy missiles to use it to hone in on their targets...they’ll ride it right in.
Then what...assuming we haven’t EMP’d out of existence, we’ll try to pull ourselves up and get to work to rebuild the country - but we will DEFINITELY never activate GPS again.
I'm not a praying man, but tonight I'm going to get down on my knees and pray to ever single God I know that Obama could be that stupid...
Ill be honest our GPS system already have other MAJOR problems that need to be addressed. In China they manufacture a box that can jam the GPS signals for an entire city, effectively shutting down a large part of the same.
Lightsquare is the least of my concerns for our GPS network security. The GPS technology both needs to be improved(perhaps with some sort of frequency hoping?) and our technology needs to be less depended upon it.
““That means GPS can be jammed. So we need a new military navigation technology anyway”
Probably so, but if it effects Joe Publics GPS device as well should we have to scrap out our devices to enrich Obamas thugs?”
Apparently not only are the Europeans building their own network, but the Russians already have a GPS network mostly operational. A network which many of our mobile phones GPS receivers are able to utilize in parallel with our own GPS network.
This all might work out after all with international competition...
FYI - In a major conflict the military has this already planned out, they expect the satellites to be disabled almost immediately in any conflict with a competent enemy.
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