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Cheap GPS jammers are filling the world with navigation dead zones

Cheap GPS jammers are filling the world with navigation dead zones

vinnyglennon

Comments (88)

  • United857
    Aren’t most modern receivers multi-constellation? What is the technical feasibility of jamming every GNSS provider?
  • bronco21016
    Whats really sad for aviation is there was already an extensive network of ground based navaids. As GPS has proliferated, they've slowly been decommissioned as they age out to save on cost. I'm specifically referring to VORs which provide azimuth and range to station.GPS is fantastic and as a primary source everyone loves the benefits it brings. However, in a century of aviation, everyone has kinda sorted out that you can't have too many backups to critical items... unless you let the accountants and bureaucrats run the show.
  • donohoe
    What I want is a tiny portable bluetooth jammer for those who insist everyone in public must be listening to their music. Sadly they are too clunky to haul around each day.
  • mlhpdx
    With all the man made EM emitters in the world, it seems like passively matching what can be “seen” to a database of known emitters (with signal profiles and locations) could be extremely accurate where people are (less helpful on the open ocean and remote wilderness). Similar to what’s already being done with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but general purpose, perhaps?
  • teeray
    I saw some rumblings (can't find an article) that there's interest in restarting LORAN to provide an alternative to GPS for this reason.
  • jayshah5696
    This is likely just the start. With growing consumer reliance on GPS, jammer proliferation will mirror what we see in military contexts. Same thing will happen to starlink and jamming in contested zones
  • eternityforest
    Is there a reliable app to detect these without using excessive amounts of battery?
  • dlenski
    > At the quantum-sensing firm SandboxAQ, an Alphabet spinoff…This was an interesting article up to the point where the writer started taking SandboxAQ seriously.For why you shouldn't take SandboxAQ seriously as a creator of actual technology or real products, start here: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/lavish-spending-weak...
  • stefan_
    The systems jamming in Hormuz and Ukraine aren't exactly cheap and low powered, nor are those used by the US military in one of their many jamming exercises every year. Cheap GPS jammers fit in a cigarette lighter and are used by truckers who don't want their boss snooping on them, but they don't quite threaten aviation.That aside, you don't need to give up on GPS just yet. As expensive as airplanes are, there is no reason not to have at least 8 element CRPA receivers in them. Mostly a military niche product in the past they are rapidly proliferating, and most fuselages make for a great ground plane.
  • madiling
  • fangspire
    Starlink can be uses as GPS. Good luck jamming 20 thousand satellites.
  • juliusceasar
    Those cheap GPS jammers, which sites should I avoid to not buy them by accident?
  • djoldman
    No worries in the long run; similar to the "energy crisis," new inventions and technology will mitigate the issue:Quantum Compass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_compassAlso see: https://www.sandboxaq.com/post/sandboxaq-and-acubed-achieve-...