GPS Signal

AIDY

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did anyone else have any problems getting a position on there gps on saturday morning in the portsmouth hayling area. i have two newish hand helds on board and a plotter that failed to find a position until latter in the day. Not the end of the world but thought it was very strange. all seem okay now.
 

duncan

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can't comment on Sat but I had one plotter refuse point blank to find itself from switch on the previous Friday at 1030h until 1930h as we entered St PP harbour - spent the whole time 'aquiring' the lazy git. Sat morning when it was turned on it was happy straight away (and yes we did try a manual restrat on it telling it where it was just in case it was looking on the wrong continent!) Sat they all worked (just as well in that fog) and then Sunday midday another one suddenly decided it couldn't find it's (active) ariel.....just like that. Smae messages despite reconnecting etc etc over then rest of the day and trip back. A week later I reconnected it all and the bugger imediately said 'I'm here' again. Ah well............
 

Birdseye

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There are GPS jammers available on the internet quite cheaply - the GPS signal is fairly weak and easy to jam. Why should anyone do so? Why do people write computer virusses?

And of course the navy could have been messing about.

Or it could simply be some nearby machinery drowning out the gps signal with electronic noise. Quite likely in port - I sometimes have difficulty getting ham radio signals in port and they are typically 100watts and maybe 5oo miles away, not just 40 watts and in orbit.
 

Captain_Chaos

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I asked this question several weeks ago , when my fixed gps froze on a trip down the Tamar, not a million miles from the naval dockyards which were hosting some very unusual looking french navy boats. I would not have considered this as sinister but for the fact that my hand held Garmin froze in sympathy.
Both units never functioned again and have now been replaced.
If the navy is jamming gps signals then courtesy and safety should dictate the issue of navigation warnings (as they did recently in cornwall), however, given that the armed forces will send troops in Iraq and Afghanistan without proper equipment, I daresay that that they could not give a stuff about leisure boaters, particularly if their activities could fry a yachts electronics.
 

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