GPS Jamming, threat to Mulitrotors

[iceman]

Just gone through a pre flight task feasibility/site survey and come across a NOTAM of great relevance "GPS jamming exercise" it warns pilots to use alt means of navigation as they may suffer intermittent/total failure or give incorrect position info. Although it's not in my intended area for the task I'm looking at today I just wonder how many UA pilots out there who aren't qualified/experienced or know what they are doing could suffer from? It's actually centred around/near Spadadam range in Cumbria.

 

[ZAxis]

Can't comment on this particular exercise but GPS jamming is not just restricted to military exercises ..

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-5...-gps-jammer-accidentally-jams-newark-airport/

and its becoming more frequent

andy

 

[Gary Mortimer]

Well..... pull up a sandbag. Back in the day you would not want to fiddle on a Thursday as we used to have the Thursday war in which most of the westcountry was radar denied due jamming. Plainly that would have been a bad idea on a Friday because it had the potential to ruin the weekend. Civilian users are not entitled to the best GPS signals we get good enough for the road. Yes the US have turned off SA but its still not the best. Jamming GPS outside of exercises is as simple as buying something from China I am very impressed Iceman that you have bothered to check NOTAMS and think about the implications of this exercise. There are GLONASS/GPS soultions out there and that's a good idea. Moving forward I think vision based stuff like the cruise missile has had for years http://www.theguardian.com/flash/0,5860,567580,00.html will help placate GPS jamming.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

As far as I can tell official jamming is not that often and in localised regions. That one in the south west and in Wales are the only ones I've seen pop up. They're in military zones usually so unlikely we're going to operate from there anyway.

 

[iceman]

As far as I can tell official jamming is not that often and in localised regions. That one in the south west and in Wales are the only ones I've seen pop up. They're in military zones usually so unlikely we're going to operate from there anyway.

My thoughts where more for those that don't look out for risks and probably wouldn't even know what type of airspace they were flying in, I bet there a few who fly in their back garden and don't even know they are in danger zones let alone class D!

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Of course! That's a jolly good idea! I use the google maps NOTAM feature which shows everything graphically. Much easier to interpret. Cheers!

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

I see what you mean now. There's a big jamming area over Cumbria for two weeks which partly covers southern Scotland.

Great topic!

 

[ZAxis]

A quick google search brought up this, UK only but probably definitive.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/gps-jamming-exercises/

andy

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

I found this CAA document:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAPAP2003_09.PDF

Really dry at first but then goes into detail about GPS and various failures that have occurred. And then I got bored again. But looks 'informative'.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

A quick google search brought up this, UK only but probably definitive.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/gps-jamming-exercises/

andy

That was brilliant Andy! Spot on! Literally lists each occurrence and theres Cumbria at the top. Much easier than my way of clicking big red circles on a map and trying to decipher what ever language they're written in. Cheers!

 

[ZAxis]

We had always been aware of GPS jamming exercises but assumed they were mainly associated with big military exercises in more remote areas. I was a bit surprised how wide spread they can be. Definitely something to add to the Op's manual.

Thanks for bringing the subject up Iceman.

andy

 

[iceman]

We had always been aware of GPS jamming exercises but assumed they were mainly associated with big military exercises in more remote areas. I was a bit surprised how wide spread they can be. Definitely something to add to the Op's manual.

Thanks for bringing the subject up Iceman.

andy

Yes, added to my ops manual now. The other problem is that as its military tech we can't be sure how far reaching the jamming is. It could be that you are In a border region of jamming, OK it's not too big a problem if flying a WKM in attitude mode but what about failsafe?

 

[Gary Mortimer]

Its not just military exercises people are using cigarette lighter powered jammers to mask their locations spoofing killed the flight engineer in this S100 incident a couple of years ago http://www.suasnews.com/2012/05/15515/schiebel-s-100-crash-kills-engineer-in-south-korea/ Remember airliners do not use GPS as their primary navigation aid.

 

[quadcopters]

Car thieves use illegal Gps Jammers to avoid the trackers built into the vehicles, We have also heard but cant confirm that some company employees use these devices to hide there whereabouts as many companies now can track there employees movements and position etc.

We always recommend if possible to fly in stabilised modes and not fully rely on gps .

 

[soler]

Its not just military exercises people are using cigarette lighter powered jammers to mask their locations spoofing killed the flight engineer in this S100 incident a couple of years ago http://www.suasnews.com/2012/05/15515/schiebel-s-100-crash-kills-engineer-in-south-korea/ Remember airliners do not use GPS as their primary navigation aid.

When will RCTimer clone one of those S100's? :livid:

 

[Gary Mortimer]

China already has, they somehow got hold of some and reversed engineered them. They have been seen on the back of boats off Taiwan.