Truck driver has GPS jammer, accidentally jams Newark airport

Now let me get this straight: we are going to be lining up airliners full of people, into a very busy airport, on a system that can be inadvertently jammed by a $100 black market item in a random vehicle driving by? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG??????

What the jammer does is to produce a signal stronger than what is broadcast from a satellite. This is because it is closer to the receiver than the legitimate broadcast source. No matter if there is data encryption or anything else involved, the truck receiver could not hear any other signal other than the jammer.

Thus if the transponder on the truck had no signal(s) to calculate location, it reports the same. Simple radio theory I learned when Moscow jammed Western radio outlets in the 1970's. The strongest signal won out.

The guy was working as a chief engineer at Tilcon, a company managing a project at Newark Airport to rehabilitate Runway 4R-22L and upgrade various taxiways. So his truck had full access to airfield and was able to get close to the ground installations of the satellite based air traffic system being tested.

That is frightening... Especially so if you are on a GPS coupled approach in IFR!

OK all you smart aviation people, how come no one has discussed the spoofing (if that's how it was done) of the super secret US spy drone by the Iranians? They made the drone land intact on a runway in their territory!

"The more complex the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

Adlai Stevenson was once asked the meaning of freedom. And he replied, you have a stick, you have the freedom to move the way you like. The moment it hits a guy, you have exceeded your freedom.
What this truck driver did was same, going too far with his freedom ! And hence culpable offence.

Hmm, speaking of which, everybody's seen "Die Hard 2", no? In the movie, they (well, Bill Sadler's character) "spoof" the ILS to make the plane think it's 50' higher, so it goes splat on the rwy.

If a GPS receiver can be spoofed to yank a yacht miles off-course in the x/y directions, how long 'til some yahoo tries the same for the z-axis?

2000'AGL vs 2050' AGL won't be noticeable from the cockpit, and probably not for quite some time on descent 'til you're just about to touch down, then by the time you realise, "Flare! Flare!", forget it, you just had a *really* hard landing...

With jamming Airports, GPS interference to cart away mega yachts, aircrafts,future holds a great promise for those who can live thru it. Hacking Androids and Humanoids will not be limited to sci-fi movies, but will be a hard reality. God bless Humankind !

This is an issue that should have been looked at a while back after the Iranians spoofed the GPS on one of our drones and brought it down. Unless they're go to an encrypted GPS it's a problem that is going to be there.

And next we are going to give every Police Department that wants one, their own drone(s) that also work off GPS to fly all over the airways, and among other things track speeders. Now your car instead of carrying a radar detector, will have a jamming device for GPS. That, should make for some additional fireworks!

At the University of Texas, in Austin, a prof and a couple of grad students built a unit, that like this driver's, could actually spoof Gps and misdirect traffic. This was tested on both a model helicopter and a full sized ocean yacht (crew was told to navigate as usual with gps and only after the spoof was turned off learned they had strayed from their expected course) . Which means all of us need to know where true North is; oh yeah and where we intend to go. Air or terrestrial based vehicles. So GPS is good for what YOU paid to use it, nothing but supporting navigation only.

I should have said similar to this driver, as his provided no spoofing of positional data; the truck driver's simply overloaded the front end of any gps receiver near him causing the loss of valid, spoofed or not, positional data.

So if his boss all of a sudden cant see his truck, you don't think he would surmise something is not on the up and up either way? Idiots abound.

I read where UPS had a special procedure designed for more efficient arrivals and approaches into Louisville. It's all GPS-based.

Imagine the wrench one of those can throw into that airport, especially in solid IMC.

It's just a movie. But if you're going to cite facts from this fantastical story...

" The mercenaries power up the equipment and are proceeding to shut down the airport. Then Burke cuts the ILS conduit lines with a chainsaw as another mercenary Kahn destroys the other line with an axe."

Later...

"Stuart orders him to activate the ILS landing system and re-calibrate sea level to minus 200 feet. Thompson reluctantly and uncomfortably re-calibrates the ground level on the computer."

Followed by...

"He tells the pilots on the plane to land on runway 29. McClane discovers that Stuart is going to crash the plane, that has 230 people onboard, into the runway that they can't see due to the snowstorm."

http://diehard.wikia.com/wiki/In-depth_synopsis_of_Die_Hard_2

The system's still safe because there are plenty of safe, automatic fall-backs.
A GPS jammer won't work inside of an aircraft (it's a Faraday cage and the antennas on top of the plane only look skyward) and a jammer on the ground will only mess with the ground station that transmits extremely precise corrections to the local GPS signal. Systems in aircraft using the GPS landing system (GLS) can easily detect problems with the data coming from the ground station and revert to a lower-precision approach that doesn't depend on it. Aircraft which are close to the ground (w/in 200 ft) can continue using the last good solution from the ground station because ionospheric perturbations of the GPS signal change relatively slowly and it only takes about 30 seconds to travel those last 200 feet.

Hire that guy! Gotta love someone that doesn't like being tracked like a damn animal.

What this man did was outrageous on many counts.
First is easy to understand about interfering with safety of others (Airport in this case).
Other aspects to consider are misappropriation of company property. Why should an employee be allowed to use the company property including 'on job' time in a clandestine manner? Or the use not specified in the course of job? We must understand and appreciate that why in the first place the employers choose to spend money to install GPS ? For the safety and welfare of equipment as well as its user/s, the employee/s.
If the employee is on personal 'time', they can always use other means of transport to move about! No? After all, there is no 'GPS' gadget installed on their persona to reveal their location/movement! So, why the desire to 'misuse' the company vehicle and/or 'on job' time for dubious activities and try to remain 'hidden'?.
Even Celebrities fail in their endeavor to hide from paparazzi though there is no GPS on or around them ! ;-)
This man was rightly punished for his misadventure.

What a bunch of bull. They can take their black box and stick it where the sun don't shine.

At first I thought this referred to a tractor and semi-trailer driver. I remember back in the '70s when some guys had big amps for the CBs which would open all the garage doors as they went by!

WAAS, GBAS ... Geee,, what else coming?

I have been being tracked by some sort of tracking device on my car and it is apparent that there is listening capability as well the other day I was using my navigator and it was speaking the directions to where I was going when I noticed some cars that were making the same turns as me I turned up the radio loud and it seemed to stop it right away . My question is what am I dealing with and what would be effective to stop it and where can I get it in New Mexico

The guy really should have received a free stay at Club Fed.

At least it won't affect the "wave of the future" EFBs......we think.

Airlines and airports must find a new system and fast.
Safety has to remain the priority here.

Another feat of brilliance from the FAA.

But, please remove "smart" from the name.

So something like this hooked to a HUGE genereated powered an ole checy 454 in the back of a UPS truck wouldn't be an issue woud it? Electronic Warefare, don't leave home without it !

Wow, invention of wheel has really evolved.
From GPS jamming to using GPS for carting away
" University of Texas team takes control of a yacht by spoofing its GPS - Next stop Aircraft "
http://flightaware.com/squawks/view/1/24_hours/popular_new/36091/University_of_Texas_team_takes_control_of_a_yacht_by_spoofing_its_GPS_Next_stop_Aircrafts