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Secret UK Network Hunts GPS Jammers
garymortimer writes "A secret network of 20 roadside listening stations across the UK has confirmed that criminals are attempting to jam GPS signals on a regular basis. From the article: 'Government-funded trials involving the police have revealed more than a hundred incidents of GPS jammer use in the UK.
The Sentinel project, which has been running since January 2011, was designed to measure GPS jamming on UK roads. The project, run by GPS-tracking company Chronos Technology, picked up the illegal jamming incidents via four GPS sensors in trials lasting from two to six months per location.'"
When you consider that a criminal will also monitor police radios as well.
Why block GPS? What do criminals gain from it? Genuine Queston.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
I'm told that it's legal to own jamming device in UK, but using it is illegal.
It's not criminals blocking GPS it's blokes in trucks that don't want their bosses to know where they are and how fast they are going.
Most UK fleets operate GPS tracking so they can schedule deliveries/keep tabs on driver behaviour, jamming the GPS allows that truck driver to exceed the speed limits, take unscheduled breaks, drive for longer periods of time and generally do things without his bosses knowing about it. In cab tachographs can be tampered with, GPS tracking done remotely cannot so the solution for them is to block the GPs signal.
Yes it's illegal to interfere with GPS but we are not talking about hardened criminals here, what purpose would jamming a GPS network in a range of 200 yards around your vehicle serve ?
or by corporations
Korma: Good
I can't speak for the UK, but it is absolutely illegal in the US. I'd go as far as say it's one of the most illegal things you could do with radio, in that it's about the most egregious use of deliberate "harmful interference" around. It would be illegal if they were trying to block Joe Frank's Tree Service walkie-talkies, but GPS is very highly used, very highly depended on, and not only governmental but military. Anybody doing serious GPS jamming effective over a few miles would be found in an hour - probably less. Seriously, the military invented it to know where they were. Planes use it to land (not without fallbacks...). I wouldn't screw around with it if I were trying to stay quiet, because you'll get a lot of guys that are a lot smarter and a lot more serious than the local PD on your tail in a hurry.
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The obvious missing part of the article is that anyone who uses GPS as their sole method of navigation is an idiot (I hope that no ship would reply solely on GPS, as the article seems to imply they may.)
(Of course some people do reply to much on it: and end up driving down tail tracks and into rivers.)
Paranoid much?
In any case, the entire reason we have the FCC is precisely because you don't get to decide how other people use radio. You're not allowed to jam GPS because you don't like it. That would be like shooting down a plane because it flew over your house.
Sure, if you wanted to jam GPS for a 20 foot radius, people probably won't notice. But GPS is a global system of great importance - planes can use it to navigate, not to mention millions of people just trying to make it to their relatives' houses, or find the nearest pizza place. Not to mention, it's military. They'd have something to say about your "I'll block GPS!" plan, I'm sure.
But let's accept the premise. Let's say for the benefit of the doubt that you didn't know the sorts of things GPS is actually used for. Can I jam the police frequency so they can't operate near my house? "Fuck da police" doesn't count. How about the fire department? ATC communications? Hospital pagers? WiFi? The local radio station while it's airing Rush Limbaugh, because I don't like him?
Most radio is licensed, including GPS. You have to abide by rules to use a licensed service, but it grants you protection from interference. You as an individual don't get to decide that this particular licensed service can just be interfered with because it pisses you off.
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As mentioned above truckers, delivery van drivers etc can use jammers to hide thier location inadvertantly disrupting critical systems.
"An event last year at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey showed that it only takes one jammer to cause disruption. Airport controllers had installed a new GPS-based landing system, so that aircraft could approach in bad visibility. But it was shutting itself down once or twice a day. It took several months to find the culprit: a driver on the nearby New Jersey Turnpike using a portable GPS jammer to avoid paying the highway toll."
Paranoid much?
In any case, the entire reason we have the FCC is precisely because you don't get to decide how other people use radio.
The FCC has less power in the UK than you seem to think.
You're not allowed to jam GPS because you don't like it.
Did you notice that the summary referred to illegal GPS jamming?
Not to mention, it's military.
But not UK military. I doubt the DoD will be interested unless they're planning to invade the UK.
Most radio is licensed, including GPS.
That's arguable, actually. And because it's such low power, harmonics and spurious emissions from high powered transmitters that are entirely within legal limits can jam GPS -- there have been problems reported from TV transmitters, for instance.
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GLONASS is interesting because harware support for GLONASS positioning has been in some smartphones since 2011, and it will become very mainstream this year. I would also expect to see personal navigation tools supporting GLONASS as well as GPS this year. More satellites means a better fix, and it isn't very expensive to do.
So, in the future your vehicle tracking might use a combination of GLONASS, Galileo and GPS using a much broader frequency range than just GPS alone.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
Besides we don't need GPS, we can use the vast CCTV network to track you far better.
FTA: "Our modern society is almost completely reliant on GPS," Humphreys told the conference. "It could be deadly."
Well sorry I'm but it shouldn't be. Any critical systems should have backup systems such as using cellphone towers to triangulate or LORAN or even just plain old maps. Any society which puts all its eggs into a basket that can easily be knocked over is just asking for trouble.
Here's a more in-depth article on this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17119768
Where the project leader said "We believe there's between 50 and 450 occurrences in the UK every day".
This might sound bad as that's thousands in a week! So how come our Satnavs still work?
That's because it means that by their estimates, there are only at most 450 people in the whole country using the jammers; and seeing as most people make a journey, then make a return journey later, that figure may be half that.
So is this really as bad as they make out?
"In one location the Sentinel study recorded more than 60 GPS jamming incidents in six months."
That's only 10 a month in a blackspot, and as that's only twice a week - it means there's probably only one person on that stretch of road using a jammer.
The article also says "the project received £1.5m funding", and has so far only caught one person.
Nice to know the money's being put to good use.
I read about it in a BBC article. They said that they caught one person who was a trucker. Probably the trucker was not just a curious kid. It still begs the question... Why? What purpose does it serve?
It says in the article that people use the jammers to thwart GPS tracking devices installed in the vehicle. These tracking devices are used in commercial vehicles to enforce company policy with regard to vehicle usage, as well as by law enforcement to track criminal suspects.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Trucks have extra rules passenger cars don't have. One is that they must follow truck routes, so they aren't dragging giant trailers through clogged intersections causing more gridlock, hauling heavy loads over restricted bridges, or blocking narrow streets, causing safety issues or other traffic problems. A GPS tracker will record every road the trucker drives, and report on any violations.
When a shortcut over a narrow bridge through a residential area might save you 30 minutes, and the tracker is the only thing keeping you from taking that shortcut and delivering your load on time, well, it's hardly your fault if the bloody thing stops working, right?
John