HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Fansome on June 07, 2016, 1603 UTC
-
http://gizmodo.com/faa-warns-of-gps-outages-this-month-during-mysterious-t-1780866590
FAA Warns of GPS Outages This Month During Mysterious Tests on the West Coast
Matt Novak
Starting today, it appears the US military will be testing a device or devices that will potentially jam GPS signals for six hours each day. We say “appears” because officially the tests were announced by the FAA but are centered near the US Navy’s largest installation in the Mojave Desert. And the Navy won’t tell us much about what’s going on.
The FAA issued an advisory warning pilots on Saturday that global positioning systems (GPS) could be unreliable during six different days this month, primarily in the Southwestern United States. On June 7, 9, 21, 23, 28, and 30th the GPS interference testing will be taking place between 9:30am and 3:30pm Pacific time. But if you’re on the ground, you probably won’t notice interference.
The testing will be centered on China Lake, California—home to the Navy’s 1.1 million acre Naval Air Weapons Center in the Mojave Desert. The potentially lost signals will stretch hundreds of miles in each direction and will affect various types of GPS, reaching the furthest at higher altitudes. But the jamming will only affect aircraft above 5,000 feet. As you can see from the FAA map below, the jamming will almost reach the California-Oregon border at 4o,000 feet above sea level and 505 nautical miles at its greatest range.
I gave the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division a call yesterday, but they couldn’t tell me much.
“We’re aware of the flight advisory,” Deidre Patin, Public Affairs specialist for Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division told me over the phone. But she couldn’t give me any details about whether there was indeed GPS “jamming,” nor whether it had happened before. Patin added, “I can’t go into the details of the testing, it’s general testing for our ranges.”
As AVWeb points out, Embraer Phenom 300 business jets are being told to avoid the area completely during the tests. The FAA claims that the jamming test could interfere with the business jet’s “aircraft flight stability controls.”
GPS technology has become so ubiquitous that cheap jamming technology has become a real concern for both military and civilian aircraft. And if we had to speculate we’d say that these tests are probably pulling double duty for both offensive and defensive military capabilities. But honestly, that’s just a guess.
These tests are naturally going to fuel plenty of conspiracy theories about mind control, weather modification, and aliens—especially with China Lake’s proximity to both large population centers like LA and Las Vegas, and the fact that Area 51 is practically just down the road. But it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to tell us we’re fucked if terrorists or shitty teenagers make it a habit of jamming GPS signals for everybody.
If you experience any significant GPS interference this month or know the “real” reason behind these test (aliens, right?) please let us know in the comments.
-
About 62 DGPS sites were sked to be decommed on 15 January 16. If you've been down there recently, it's pretty to see that most of them are still chugging away.
What do they know that we don't know?
"Turn all those NDBs back on!" - Mortimer Duke
-
QUICK! Somebody call the FCC!
The Navy is just begging for a great big fine!!!
-
This link is provided as service, to our Planespotting friends in case one is seen limping around in the area of concern:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_Phenom_300
:P
-
Considering that China Lake has been tied to Mind Control (Monarch project), UFO's (stored underground, in the UFO hanger MESA building, and under the Slate and Argus mountain ranges), huge underground complexes (4000+ feet under the airfield), secret underground high speed trains tied to Area 51 and Seal Beach, and aliens (the Grey kind, not the ones from south of the border), I have to wonder how this testing will play out in the conspiracy world ;)
T!
-
My Uncle worked up there in late 50's/ early 60's. When I would visit, those grey guys would take me on flyovers of Fansome's house, then show me how to get to it from our place in Long Beach. They told me, "Your job is to keep the funny looking kid in check until we can find a planet that will take him." They told me it would take a couple of weeks, tops.
I'm still keeping the funny looking kid in check. Never trust a grey alien.
-
Are 'they' talking 'jamming' or 'reflections due to spurious signal operation' or some such? Sending air craft off course for this or that reason. I believe air craft have other means (manual) to check their course but not the computer operated craft on 'auto-pilot.
I don't know for sure but it seems that jamming could be done quite easily... 'child's play' as it were.
I don't know squat about air craft GPS but I remember that the auto GPS up in the State of Maine could be quite hazardous to your health.
I digress to Land GPS in Maine:
There was a story that was floating around up in Maine about making sure when those little boxes told you to take the next left or right, you should pay extra attention because you could very well end up in the middle of a lake or pond very easily. No joke. I have rode in autos that used the directions from those boxes and you could get very lost very quickly. For some reason some of those units (not all) didn't work all that well when driving in the boonies. Like where I lived... 14 miles from the Capital City of Augusta.
Oh BTW folks, if you plan to head up to Maine for the summer or whatever... avoid the traffic circles unless you are well versed on how they work. In Maine the circles, in and out, work ass backwards than they do in the other 49 States... Beware! Many folks from out-of-State get into crack-ups because of this and the police love writing tickets because of this little oddity. ::)
Enjoy and play nice <heh> ;D
-
A friends wife got Tom-Tom when our kids were in school. She, my wife, and couple of other mom's decided to pick them up at camp. Tom-Tom told them to turn left, they did. After a nearly two hour ride they discovered they were on the wrong side of the state. I've never let them live it down.
Steep hilly terrain doesn't play nice with consumer GPS devices and cellphones.
The cure for traffic circles is to drive a two ton beat-up rust bucket. People get out of the way when a dented up bondo beater wants over. It lets them know you don't mind another dent and makes them think about if they feel the same. The true rule of the road is always, "Get out of the way or get run over." Every cop I ever knew drives with the same attitude, they'll understand.
-
You got it right Pigmeat!!!! Haaaaaa!
Better yet take a beater that has the rear bumper sticking out of the trunk after it fell off...
My late lead guitar player had an old Comet and we had to stop every mile or so to pick up the tool box because it fell through a hole in the trunk... If we wanted to stop he would say 'OK guys, put ur feet through the holes in the floor...
I wonder what happened to the Vomit Comet... I know, all too well, what happened to my guitar player... <sigh>
Ahhhhh the good (?) old dazes
-
I used to have a mid-70's era Comet in the late 80's I called "The Spudmobile" as it resembled a rolling potato. For car that was labeled "economy" in it's heyday, that thing drank the gas to the tune of 15 mpg.
A buddy had a '63 Bug when we were in HS. There had been a huge storm that knocked out a stoplight and traffic was a mess. We decided to take a shortcut down a side street we knew well. A low section was full of water, but we knew it wasn't that deep. He looks at me and asks, "Do you think we should risk it?" Recalling an old VW commercial where they drove one into a creek, floated to the shallows and headed up the opposite bank, I said "Sure. Don't you remember that old commercial, Volkswagens can float!"
We backed up about fifty yards and took a run at the pool. What we didn't know was that there was a hole the size of softball under the passenger seat. The water poured in, about a foot deep inside. We got lucky, we made it to low water before it stalled. When we opened the doors, it looked like a cartoon car with all the water that poured out. Everyone in the neighborhood checking out the flooding was howling at us. We pushed it to dry pavement, fired it up and went on down the road.
The moral of this story is to check out the floorboard of your Bug. They won't float if there's a hole in the bottom.
-
Common sense with boats too I suppose...
I had a tom-tom once. Instead of taking me to my intended destination, it led me to (of all things) and FAA airport beacon. Into the lake the tom-tom went, and on our merry map reading way we went.
Just remember, technology is no match for stupid.
+-RH
-
HEY! I figured it out... they are messing with the GPS so the aircraft won't head into a certain territory... Why do you ask? Because they are bringing in a new collection of those Unidentified Flying Cupcakes!
I'm on to their tricks... you can't fool this old buzzard... not one bit... brrrrrrrrr... Mabel bring me some more of those milk and cookies...
Damn the cupcakes... sail on sailor, sail on
Ooooooo too much Sun... need a lay down.... THUD!!! <ooooophhh> "@#(*&$^%@%^^^$$" it!
-
"Turn all those NDBs back on!" - Mortimer Duke
Immediately!
And while they're at it, fire up LORAN-C and/or eLORAN.
-
I had a Loran system set up in my shack in Maine... visitors would look at it an wonder what in the hell it was... Spooky...<heh> along with a bunch of O scopes doing this or that... quite fun really.
Don't laugh... back then I knew where I was most of the time <heh>
-
along with a bunch of O scopes doing this or that
I hope one of them was displaying a sine wave, the classic cliche image from sci-fi flicks!
-
along with a bunch of O scopes doing this or that
I hope one of them was displaying a sine wave, the classic cliche image from sci-fi flicks!
Oh yeah Sine wave and what's the name of that other one lojisidous (sp) never could spell that one... and one connected to the crystal microphone > Oscope was effective too...
A Lady newsperson from a local TV station called my shack "Frankenstein's Den" and they actually rolled video of the mess... <heh> Thinking back on it... I could have made one hell of a 'flimflam' man Haaaaaa!!!!