'GPS could suffer jamming' BBC Today today

[Shearwater]

Interesting if you're interested in GPS, a Today item about the threat to GPS gear, link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9418000/9418103.stm.

The professor says the GPS signal our gear picks up has the equivalent power of a 100 Watt lightbulb viewed from 12,000 miles ! Some amplification !!

 

[savageseadog]

The professor says the GPS signal our gear picks up has the equivalent power of a 100 Watt lightbulb viewed from 12,000 miles ! Some amplification !!

It's so low that the signal is lower than noise both electronic and environmental. Pseudo random correlation techniques are used to extract the signal which is why it can take a while to lock a GPS to satellites.

It's always been the case that GPS could be jammed, I don't think any system using radio signals is immune.

 

[dt4134]

If it jams couldn't they just spray a bit of WD40 on it.

 

[Neil_Y]

Every car thief these days has a jammer to disable the GPS tracking system if they drive on the coast road you might notice them as your GPS drops out.

Surely nobody relies on a piece of electronics to tell them where they are or where they are going? do they?