GPS Failures

GPS FAILURES

www.technewsworld.com

The U.S. Department of Defense is likely to take swift action to step up the launch of new satellites to bolster the aging Global Positioning Satellite system. Otherwise, the system could begin failing in 2010, predicts a report from the GAO, and that would have monumental repercussions on national security and businesses worldwide.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.foxnews.com
www.pcworld.com
www.divulgence.net

Mod Edit - All Caps Title.

[edit on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:21:22 -0500 by MemoryShock]

According to a friend in my job, this saturday about 7p.m. he was driving from NJ to New York City for a party, he doesn't know NY well, so he turned on the GPS. He was about to finish crossing the G.W. Bridge when the screen got black and restart by itself. Then, the device started giving wrong directions, guiding him back to NJ.

He had to stop driving (he got lost), and call their friends at the party. They told him there were 3 more guys calling with the same problem with the GPS that night.

I know him well enough to say he is telling the true. We have been experienced a solar tsunami few days ago, so this story made me think about a possible connection.

A year ago, there were predictions about GPS failures starting 2010. I also read that it was a GPS failure in 2006 blaimed to a solar flare. (See additional news links).

By other hand, I don't know if is possible to have interference between the GPS and the satellites caused by all the metal of the bridge, but It woudn't explain why the other 3 guys driving from other points had the same problem.

Ok, let me know your opinions.

www.technewsworld.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Trueman


Wow, not very reliable - think I will use a map. We did have an M flare from the sun - it could mess up GPS - just a thought -debunk it somebody!

never experienced that kind of problem with my GPS when i crossed over the GW bridge.

i have also heard about this GPS failure a year or two back, and that there were no plans to bolster the system.

but it looks like it may be dealt with sooner since a lot of businesses and users use GPS daily.

reply to post by Trueman

It sounds like your friends receiver is at fault, not the satellites. There is no way the GPS satellites can cause a receiver reboot, the signal is simply lost.

A quick google search shows that GPS reboots are a very common problem.


[edit on 8/9/2010 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


Thanks Phage, that make sense, good answer. But still a couple of details to explain.

1.- What about the other 3 guys?
2.- Why the GPS started giving wrong directions?

reply to post by Trueman

1) Stuff happens?
2) After the reboot the GPS went into "home" mode?
I don't really know. I wasn't there.

But the satellites only transmit a signal which contains information about the time, their location, and information about the other satellites. The receiver is where all the location calculations are done. If a single satellite (or even a few of them) were to go down all that would happen would be a loss of location (or accuracy) for the receiver and that would normally produce a warning message.

But it is a pretty sad commentary that your friend couldn't find his way without the GPS. We're digging ourselves in deeper and deeper.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Trueman

 

But it is a pretty sad commentary that your friend couldn't find his way without the GPS. We're digging ourselves in deeper and deeper.

Haha....that is true.

Hey, thanks again for your answer. I guess, we can close this case unless we have more people complaining about GPS.

Good night brother.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Trueman]

Well. it seems we have to be alert since we have more people with this problem.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Trueman]

I'd echo what Phage has said, sounds like the GPS receiver had an issue. Personally, I only use GPS if I absolutely have to. I much rather using my own sense of direction and a good old fashioned map.

As for the topic though, the US had better get it's skates on, otherwise the European Gallileo system will be up and running by the time they get any new birds in the air and they may well lose business as a result. I assume the DoD charges Garmin et al for access to GPS, anyway..

EDIT: Amusing anecdote about or over-reliance on GPS. A couple of years ago, an ambulance in London was tasked with moving a patient from one hospital to another, within London.

The crew used their GPS to find the way and ended up in Manchester, some 250 miles away.

Quite how they didn't notice leaving London, travelling halfway up England, past Birmingham (second largets city in England) and onto Manchester before going "oops, wrong turn" is beyond me!

[edit on 9/8/10 by stumason]

I don't want to say the location, but I know of an area where GPS systems tend to freak out. What would cause this in a particular place? For the GPS to start giving wacky directions and telling people to turn where there are no roads? Is there such thing as a 'magnetic hot spot'? This is an area where the roads have been the same for many years, and it is not particularly remote. Maybe this is off-topic since this was about 3 years ago that I started hearing stories about this. Just interested in what would cause a particular stretch of highway to freak out GPS systems of several people at several different times. Not mapped? This is in the U.S. in a heavily populated state, so I would be surprised, but what do I know?

reply to post by blehrgh

The signals from GPS satellites are very weak, they can be intentionally or accidentally jammed. Such a situation would provide a poor or non-existent fix in a specific location.

[edit on 8/9/2010 by Phage]

Originally posted by stumason
I assume the DoD charges Garmin et al for access to GPS, anyway..

I'm fairly sure they don't charge actually, and it would be a nightmare charging all the individual manufacturers of GPS enabled devices any way, sure you could get the big guys like Garmin, but you would end up chasing your tail getting all the smaller guys to pay up.

Nope I heard that it's all funded by the yanks, they pay for the birds, the launches and all related running costs - in the beginning you may already know that the system had the encryption turned on, my old man remembers from his forces days, there was a unit that weighed as much as a slim teenager (he compared it to my weight at the time) in the land rovers and of course all it gave you was your coordinates, no mapping SW! you still needed the old map.

No once they turned the encryption off it was fair game for anyone to use it - it does not place any extra burden on the system of course because all the GPS receivers are passive, you could have a single unit or a billion it would make no difference at all the operation of the sats.

I also believe it was impractical to charge for the use because that would mean entering into a contract with all these manufacturers and of course the US DoD reserves the right to flip that encryption switch back to on any time they feel like it (world war 3 for instance) instantly rendering all but the lucky with useless technology that they may actually have become to depend upon (there's a handy kick in the balls to the enemy )

Also if they charged the devices them selves would be too expensive and fewer people would use/rely on them.

Just recently I have been having problems with my GPS. I work in the DC area and the darn thing is always trying to locate satellites. I just switched from maps to this thing in March. At first it worked perfectly. Now not so much.

reply to post by Now_Then

The GPS signals were never "encrypted". Until 2000 they were subject to "selective availability", transmission of deliberate errors which degraded the accuracy of the fix. The military had the ability to sort out which was which.

I had a Garmin unit for my boat (handheld) that would give me 100yard accuracy (good enough to find the fish). When SA was switched off (Clinton did a good thing) the accuracy suddenly went to better than 10yards with the same unit.

reply to post by Phage


Ah right then, I knew it was something - my dad was never a tech guy, has was a basic combat grease monkey who only had knowledge of the early MOD kit, that was more or less at the end of his service.

reply to post by Phage

I have a Garmin. When it starts to act screwy I turn it off for a few minutes. When I re-start it its back to normal. Its probably just the brand. The whole "locating satellites" thing threw me off.

I have a Garmin 76Csx and was having trouble with it in the East Chicago, Chicago area about the time Obama came to visit. Down here at Wright-Pat, I've hadn't had any problems.