Tests show Lightsquared Technology disrupts 75% of GPS

[Al_HikesAZ]

Good news for GPS users – especially the Military. Bad news for Obama backers. Writing this to keep it in the technology section and out of the Political section will be difficult. So I will stick to the facts.

Fact: Bloomberg News leaked a pending report showing that the Lightsquared technology disrupted 75% of GPS signals in Government testing:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-1 ... tests.html

Fact: The Obama Administration has been pushing for the adoption and billions in funding of Lightsquared technology for satellite communications.

Fact: The Military has warned that their testing showed that it interfered with the GPS system.

Fact: Philipe Falcone of Harbinger hedge fund is a big investor in Lightsquared

Fact: Philipe Falcone of Harbinger hedge fund is a big fundraiser and donor to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates

Fact: Four-star Air Force General William Shelton accused the White House of pressuring him in August to change his Congressional testimony to make his assessment of LightSquared more favorable.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/10/l ... t-testing/

Conclusion: Adopting this technology would appear to be a devastating blow to existing GPS technology.
Conclusion: Adopting this technology would appear to be a big money maker for Democratic Party fundraisers and donors.

[BEEBEE]

As a pilot and a hiker and someone who uses the GPS system for work, pleasure and to keep myself and my passengers safe I have been following this since they NOTAMS for pilots were popping up for GPS testing. I have seen disruptions in service while flying and although we have backups to Satellite based navigation in many areas for instrument approaches GPS is the only option as no ground based system is available. The FAA is planning on slowly phasing out all ground based nav aids as well as going to a Satellite/gps based Air Traffic control system. This technology is a threat to that system. There seems to be a lot of shenanigans going on here. I hope it does not play out the wrong way

[azbackpackr]

Is that why my Garmin 60 cx no longer gives me accurate mileage? Or is it just a fault of my unit? I have been trying to figure out what to do about this problem, but have had no responses from anyone when I've posted. If it is not fixable, then I need to start thinking about getting a new GPS. (Yes, I checked, and my unit is set to statute miles. It is also set to UTM's, not lat/long.)

[BEEBEE]

Elizabeth it depends on where you were using it. The recent testing has been in the Las Vegas area and also southern NM near El Paso. Usually the disruption will cause you to completely loose position information and in the case of the GPS equipment in the aircraft I fly I get warnings and they unit enters dead reconing mode until it gets a reliable signal again. In the past the DOD use to dirty the signal with SA selective availability that could have been the source of your problem but that has not been in place for a few years.

[chumley]

Does it affect all GPS systems? Europe has Galileo and Russia is implementing GLONASS (which strangely, my iPhone can already use). I'm not suggesting it would be in the best interest of the US to rely on satellite navigation systems launched by other countries, I'm just curious if Lightsquared disrupts all of them or just the one implemented by the USDoD?

[BEEBEE]

From what I understand about the system is it causes interference on the frequency band that the satellites transmit there signal on so it could if it uses the same frequency band as the US based system.

[Sredfield]

Saw this link in a professional journal, looks like the proposal has been shot down. The agricultural industry uses GPS in lots of crop treatments.

http://www.agprofessional.com/newslette ... 73893.html