
NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
A further reason for traditional Navigation - GPS interference
From: Aubrey O?Callaghan
Date: 2003 Jan 5, 14:58 -0400
From: Aubrey O?Callaghan
Date: 2003 Jan 5, 14:58 -0400
I came across an article today about GPS interference. Another reason that traditional navigation paper charts, plotting DR positions etc. are important. Earlier we had some discussion of the US Navy going to solely electronic charts, what if the GPS puts one in the wrong position, where does DR get cross checked with electronic position ? Will the US Navy ban watching television while underway ? ! :-) Aubrey. "FAULTY GPS? CHECK THE TV AERIAL! THE next time a ship runs onto the Tricolor wreck it may worth checking whether anybody was watching television at the time. US Coast Guard is warning that certain marine television antennas may interfere with the performance of Global Positioning System receivers. It says: "The interference can result in inaccurate position information or a complete loss of GPS signals. This is a potential hazard to navigation, for both the operator of the vessel with the television antenna and for nearby boaters as the interference is not limited to the GPS equipment onboard the vessel with the antenna. In some cases, vessels up to 2,000 feet away from an active antenna have reported interference." The Federal Communications Commission identified the following models of antennas as having potential problems during investigations of GPS interference: TDP (Tandy Distribution Products) Electronics - MINI STATE Electronic Amplified UHF/VHF TV Antenna - Models 5MS740, 5MS750, 5MS921 Radio Shack Corporation - Long Range Amplified Omni Directional TV Antenna - Model 15-1624 Shakespeare Corporation - SeaWatch - Models 2040 (Code date 02A00), 2050 (Code date 03A00). " I