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LightSquared Disrupts 75% of GPS Connections In Government Test
Freddybear writes with this quote from BusinessWeek:
"Philip Falcone's proposed LightSquared Inc. wireless service caused interference to 75 percent of global-positioning system receivers examined in a U.S. government test, according to a draft summary of results. ... The tests worked off an 'extraordinarily conservative' threshold and didn't show the devices' performance was affected, [LightSquared exec Martin Harriman said]. 'If we're affecting the performance of the device — my goodness, we'd like to be sure that doesn't happen,' Harriman said. The laboratory testing was performed for the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems Engineering Forum, an executive branch body that helps advise policy makers on issues around GPS. It found that 69 of 92, or 75 percent, of receivers tested 'experienced harmful interference' at the equivalent of 100 meters (109 yards) from a LightSquared base station."
This story is bad enough until you find out the white house was pressuring people to hide issues related to LightSquared.
And Philip Falcone is a huge donor for the Democratic Party.
I'm not saying Republicans are angles or anything like that. I am saying this a very bad case of corporate ties directly to the whitehouse that is threatening to disrupt a major technology just to make some money...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Solyndria (another company propped up by the white house despite many reports saying the company was not financial viable) was given a ton of money, which the founders (also heavy donors to the Democratic party) got a lot of, then the company went bankrupt but they left with a few million dollar paychecks.
It doesn't matter if the company folds. Just that Philip Falcone makes money in the process, which he will.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One of the big issues is that those giant combines and harvesters on farms use GPS, so the farming industry is upset http://westernfarmpress.com/government/lightsquared-threat-gps-even-filters Lightspeed owns the bandwidth adjacent to GPS, but the GPS devices are still affected by transmission on lightspeed's bandwidth. So it isn't really "lightspeed zmog destroy teh GPS" by doing some dastardly deeds, it is them trying to use the bandwidth they purchased and older GPS devices not able to handle the interference (even tho they are class B and must not create interference and must accept interference). Airplanes are another issue with interference. http://macsblog.com/2011/02/should-i-worry-about-gps-jamming/ really, though, just a clash of the lobbyists in washington on who has to pay extra to make lightspeed able to use their bandwidth
This came out during the week, but was overshadowed by the news that Falcone And Friends got Wells Letters, SEC notices that are basically game-over. Investors in Harbinger Capital Partners, Falcone's hedge fund, are likely to flee, but they'll be limited in their ability to withdraw funds. This has happened before to Harbinger in 2009, and Goldman Sachs seems to have gotten preferential treatment in exiting.
The LightSquared bit is juicier, though, because of the hints of corruption that have squeaked out through the press. Air Force General William Shelton, testifying before Congress about LightSquared and the interference that its plans could cause GPS, complained that the White House had told him to change his testimony to make it seem that he was less opposed to LightSquared's plans. There are also allegations of $30,400 donations being given to the Democratic Party by Falcone and LightSquared's CEO on the days of meetings and on days when meetings were arranged.
FUD Detected captain, shields up and holding.
they're coming around for another pass!
someone find a link to the actual report.
someone else, point out that being within 100 yards of many military transmitters while in the beam path will COOK you.
Yet another someone else, point out that 100 yards cubed, x 40,000 transmitters isn't all that much space that it isn't "safe" to be in, with a GPS. and that it'd take very little design sense to keep them out of flight paths, and off the runways at an airport, which'd be the place they'd actually matter. when's the last time a jet buzzed your house under 300 feet of altitude?
Ensign red shirt, go down to the transporter room and await the peace delegation from the FUD ship.
A quick look at their service suggests that they might have been a nice addition to the existing wireless services. We really do need more providers and new technologies. But even a small chance of interfering with GPS is too much.
Maybe one could swap some rarely used military spectrum further from GPS against military spectrum close to GPS. Given that the military complains the loudest and sits on a lot of spectrum, I think it's reasonable to ask them to contribute to a solution.
This is the worst idea yet. Worse than broadband over power lines, worse than that idea about using gas pipes. I thought the whole point to discontinuing analog TV service and freeing up that bandwidth was to provided wide area Internet. *facepalm*
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
They are all for sale. Everyone in the System. Corruption is the one thing which is impossible to design out, because by definition corruption *IS* the undermining of the system. Hari Seldon's Foundation is the only way to fight it, and it can't win by fixing the system. The only way is to tear down the old system and build a new one, like the 1992 revolution in the Soviet Union. It's really sad that human nature is the thing that dooms all efforts at effective governing.
Fortunately this only impacts the good old USA. The rest of the world can continue to reap the benefits of GPS while they ramp up their systems. (Glonass has been on the rise. Galileo is finally making progress. Compass is on its way and hopefully they will eventually publish their ICD.)
Foreign companies that make GPS dependent equipment for the US, Canada, and Mexico will be affected. GPS in those three countries will also be affected (remember signals don't respect borders). Course that's depending if the whole Lightspeed idea goes nationwide.
How about we deal with the actual problem the best we can and not let anyone interfere unduly and systematically with GPS.
Seriously, if this hurts GPS, then China will likely deploy this so as to interfere with local GPS.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
RootStrikers.org
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Let's get over the sensationalism and realize the real problem: We had false expectations of GPS and therefore should not have depended on this technology in defense systems.
You do realize that the US military owns the GPS system. It seems to have worked out pretty well for them. Of course, no tech is perfect but I don't understand what you're whining about. It's not like Lightspeed is going to put transmitters in Afghanistan and if some nefarious persons try to block GPS signals with a transmitter well, the military has some nice little tools to solve that problem.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Yeah that 1992 thing went reeeal well. Oh well it's "OK" to protest a bit in the streets. Have to look good on the CNN.
Sister Moonshine
Would a wikipedia link in the article be too much to ask for you dumbshit moderators?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Look at the docs posted for the recent symposium at Stanford:
http://scpnt.stanford.edu/pnt/
Opening comments on how LightSquared destroys GPS:
http://scpnt.stanford.edu/pnt/PNT11/2011_presentation_files/01_Parkinson-PNT2011.pdf
the FAA report on testing:
http://scpnt.stanford.edu/pnt/PNT11/2011_presentation_files/09_Bunce-PNT2011.pdf
The LightSquared idea is a good one, but not on the frequencies they've selected!
Then you'll need to get your information somewhere besides hotair.com.
I knew someone would get all huffy about that.
See, here is the issue. I would love to link to a more "reputable" source than HotAir, because some predjudiced people cannot look beyond a name at facts. But that leads us to a HUGE problem:
There isn't another source, even though there SHOULD be.
The facts of the matter are very clear are they not? The interference with the GPS, proven. The donations of Philip Falcone to the Democratic Party, well documented and public.
And yet WHO in the "reputable" media made this very easy and very pertinent connection for us? Is that not in fact the very role it is vital for the media to play, as watchdog for just this kind of ultra-slimy influence peddling? This is the easiest story in the world to find evidence to show to us all, and yet only Hot Air and other "fringe" media bothers to make the simplest of connection.
The real problem is that the "reputable" media is utterly lost to partisan concerns, death afraid that "their side" may lose something. I truly respect the role the media plays in shining light on the doings of politicians everywhere, and welcome weeding out corruption. But you cannot weed only looking at half the garden.
So until the point when the "real" media decides to start acting like JOURNALISTS again, I'm afraid you'll have to suffice with information from reputable sources linked together by media you obviously despise - because no-one else is doing that job. I would argue you should probably look at the facts of the matter rather than who is pointing them out; I can discern truth both on HotAir and on HuffingtonPost as required. If you were smart you would seek to do the same rather than get lost in the echo chamber.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They might be allocated the bandwidth, but this means they are responsible for interference. Of course they probably respect the FCC requirements, but they still need to consider interference, aqnd this one is an obvious case. Transmitting 42 dBm or so a few MHz away from a band such as GPS, and that on the scale of a nation IS a bad case of interference.
I expect the project to fail anyway because the handset manufacturers have no way to implement that band in a suitable phone with GPS.
This means expensive hardware in each compatible phone. Did you look at the RF HW of a typical phone ? it's a spagetti of PAs and filters. This band would mean passing from 2 RF paths to 3, 50% price increase. Furthermore, putting another antenna is hopeless, and the phone will jam it's own GPS, if available. Nobody in the industry wants such a monster, except Lightsquared.
For civilian GPS receiver, who are more sensitive due to a design nore vulnerable to interference (first LNA before the first filter), they will be affected. GPS performance will be unacceptable in some places close to antennas, and probably compatible handsets operating in the vincinity will affect them also.
aaaaaaa
Here's the problem: You can block "Lightspeed" from deploying devices known to cause harmful interference to GPS signals. Big deal. What you can't do is make it "illegal" to jam GPS. Well, you can make it illegal, but it's a matter of enforcement. Expecting it to work 100%, especially in a battle field, is stupid. Your enemy will build GPS jammers by the dozen and hide them all over the place once they realize this is how you guide your missiles.
All I'm saying, is that this is a symptom of a larger problem: depending on easily jammed GPS.
I realize the military will just triangulate and find the jammers. But a jammer just has to hide their equipment in nearby hospitals and grocery stores, and use intelligent timing and antenna arrangements.... they can make triangulation a very difficult and time-consuming operation. And once the devices are found and destroyed, it's another $15 to deploy another one somewhere else.
I think it's a good idea to try and prevent what you can, such as by not certifying equipment that causes harmful interference. But let's not think this is the real problem with GPS...
It was bad enough when the Obama Administration was just wasting taxpayer dollars on well-connected business cronies like Solyandra. However, Fast and Furious has helped kill hundreds of Mexicans and at least one U.S. citizen, U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry, all for the the purpose of promoting gun control. Now the Obama Administration is trying to help another batch of well-connected Democratic cronies at LightSquared, and if they get their way, the results could easily be hundreds dead. All it takes is for one LightSqyared signal to interfere enough with GPS during a single airliner landing. And it might not just be one airliner, because there's no guarantee the accident investigation would find the cause quick enough to prevent a re-occurrence.
Remember how the Bush Administration was forced to appoint a special prosecutor for "Plamegate"? Both Fast and Furious are far more serious scandals, and the Obama Administration is clearly stonewalling the investigation on one.
I would think that even the most fervent liberal would draw the line at a corrupt cronyism that result in the direct deaths of innocent American citizens.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
GPS being Jammed? Switch to radiation seeking missiles. Shortly there-after, GPS is no longer being jammed. Return to using GPS. If you're broadcasting a jamming signal, you're going to be really easy to find.
If you fly on airplanes, or live near an airport, you should care:
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I'd really like to see the data. It's impossible to come to any sort of conclusions without it. If LS is radiating outside of the bandwidth they've been given, then they've got serious problems and need to deal with it. However, if this is just an issue with cheap GPS receivers not rejecting frequencies that are outside of the GPS band, then I'm personally inclined to tell the manufacturers of these receivers to fuck off.
Government testing reveals 75% of GPS receivers don't know to keep their nose out of spectrum GPS doesn't operate in.
I realize the military will just triangulate and find the jammers. But a jammer just has to hide their equipment in nearby hospitals and grocery stores, and use intelligent timing and antenna arrangements.... they can make triangulation a very difficult and time-consuming operation.
No, that's not the way it works. "intelligent timing and antenna arrangements" greatly impede the ability to jam, and triangulation is not necessary to destroy it unless you are shooting at it with artillery. As for someone turning a hospital into a location from which a military offensive is launched from, the person turning on the jammer is in the wrong, not the people retaliating against attack.
Learn to love Alaska
No, that's not the way it works. "intelligent timing and antenna arrangements" greatly impede the ability to jam, and triangulation is not necessary to destroy it unless you are shooting at it with artillery. As for someone turning a hospital into a location from which a military offensive is launched from, the person turning on the jammer is in the wrong, not the people retaliating against attack.
That would be true on US soil but usually the jammer tries to interfere with the GPS signals of drones in their country. It isn't nice to hide behind civilians, but jamming CIA drones isn't more of an attack as the drones themselves.
This is 100% the ineptness of the FCC.
The FCC have destroyed their "original mission statement." Now the FCC's engineers mission is a fascist one helping motherfuckers profit, instead of "regulating power and frequency in the public interest." Some pointed out the head of the FCC is a presidential appointee. I'm sure even the stupidest motherfucker can put together the links here of why this is another failed government agency. Commercial Interests own 98% of the public spectrum (instead of the public owning it, this is the opposite of their original mission statement) With the FCC's engineers now busy running around doing fascist business instead of trying to get everything to work together, this is what you get, a bunch of squished signals regardless of the emission. They did this with Broadband over Power also.
What has to happen here folks is this FCC needs to be controlled by the VOTERS not the President. How to do that, fuck if I know. But it's the only thing that will put it back into the non fascist box, is to have the public run it, and provide oversight. Another benefit of this is the public can decide to spank commercial broadcasters, instead of a presidential appointee (e.g. the Establishment) giving a pass to stations who tow the current administration's line. You could fill their public file up with complaints but as long as the War On Terror continues the FCC will rubber stamp their Station ID and frequency allocation. The FCC needs a TOP to BOTTOM overhaul, now at a financially, and monetarily inconvenient time, but I'll bet this is yet more of the NWO globalists (Banksters) plan.
IT's past time to start locking up these banksters and their enablers in our government!!!
Come on Slashdot wake the fuck up.
How can LightSquared disrupt 75% of connections that don't exist? GPS does not have connections.
That's all there is to it. They deserve no protection other than what the designers integrate into the units. That they decided to make consumer GPS units cheap and susceptible is not LightSquared's fault.
Part 15 units must accept interference, even that which causes undesired operation. It is now incumbent upon GPS receiver manufacturers to use better filters to reject the adjacent band interference.
This is not Obama's fault. This is not LightSquared's fault. This is solely the fault of the "spreadsheet guys" and bean counters that run Garmin, Magellan, and other consumer GPS manufacturers.
You are probably referring to Javad Ashjaee. The guy is a GPS authority, with a long track in contributions to the community. He founded a few companies, the latest one Javad, which creates high quality precision receivers. He is someone who until two months ago, I would have never doubted. But then he started contradicting himself with his message. First, he started to complain how lightsquare does affect his receivers. Then he proposed ending the P-code as a way to mitigate for this (http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/news/to-solve-lightsquared-issue-javad-ashjaee-calls-end-p-code-encryption-11887). The P-code is the encrypted signal that only military has access to. And now, he claims that there are no problems. While I kind of follow his reasoning, he needs to be more coherent in his message.
I mean, he first claims that something is wrong and proposes one crazy solution (ending P-code), and then another solution. So it is kind of like saying "they are messing up the signal, but this is great because now I can sell filters and maybe get some money from Lightsquare for supporting them".
The guys is still a smart dude and I wish him all best with his business. But my employer bought a receiver from his company for 15k and don't feel like spending a single cent more for fixing something that someone else broke. Lightsqaure is a good thing however. For precision receivers, this allows better availability of correction data for RTK measurements in cm-precise positioning.
So here is my opinion here: what Javad is saying *does* make sense in general. Please ignore his bad way of expressing this in the media, his apparent contradictions, his strong wordings that sound often arrogant, and let's try to understand his points, which are not that crazy after all.
I don't think emmiting RF signals in your own country is called a "military offensive". At worst it's a defence against the offensive actions of an attacker.
Somebody in the White House compromised national security to help a political donor.
Poor input filtering on GPS devices could also be a cause.
Normally, there's very little going on adjacent to 1575.42MHz. A GPS device with a poorly performing input filter would still perform well so long as adjacent bands were void of signal. A designer might even cheat a little by intentionally designing a filter that was had poor filtering at the edges of the band but allowed more signal at the center to get through. This would increase the possibility of acquiring the signal. No one would ever know so long as adjacent bands remained relatively unused.
If I were Lightsquared, I'd ask that each GPS device be tested to see if it was properly ignoring signal outside the GPS bands.
Defense systems have had direct P(Y)/L3 acquisition for a while. On a battlefield, they can also eliminate the interference with a HARM if they so choose. And they have inertial guidance and other backup systems for when GPS is being jammed. This isn't about defense; this is about civilian GPS use.
You obviously haven't listened to anything the US military says regarding the wars they are currently involved in.
Learn to love Alaska
The jammer is an attack against the US military. What is or isn't "more" of an attack won't change the fact that they are deliberately targeting US military equipment for attack.
Learn to love Alaska
Simply put, LightSquared should have known that use of high power terrestial base stations could adversely affect GPS receivers and they should have made an effort to see if a work-around was possible before acquiring rights to the frequency bands. Since they didn't, LightSquared management have probably opened themselves up to shareholder lawsuits.
The original allocation for the LightSquared frequencies was for satellite based transmitters and it is up to LightSquared to prove that shifting to terrestial transmitters will not cause harmful interference.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
And the only problem with tearing down the old system to build a new one, is that the leaders to come forward in the new system will be corrupt, but there won't be any safeguards against them yet. They'll have the opportunity to take complete control 8*(
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
if I were lightsquared, I'd be hiring lawyers and start sueing GPS manufacturers. From the sound of it, those manufacturers are stepping all over lightsquared's (very expensive) spectrum. This is a physical, limited, resource and GPS manufacturers are both using it and preventing lightsquared (the rightful owners) from using it. Lightsquared needs to start asking for daily damages until the GPS manufacturers start doing proper filtering of their receivers.
Along with that, I honestly want lightsquared to succeed. I think the only hope for the US wireless market is the kind of use-agnostic bandwidth that lightsquared, clearwire, and sprint are pushing. Otherwise, AT&T and Verizon are simply going to lay siege to Sprint, TMobile and any small carriers until we have a duapoly.
I do security
http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/expert-advice-mss-misinformation-and-ten-truths-12353