[Milsurplus] Re:Loran C

[D C Macdonald]

I would think that since GPS is Line-of-Sight from satellite
to ground (or air) receivers, the effective range of one of
these jammers would be fairly small.  Maybe not.  I guess
our Russian/Chinese/Arab "friends" might be able to launch
jammers in satellites and that could prove effective, but I
don't pretend to be able to predict the likelihood of that.

One disturbing thing to me is the apparent abandonment
of celestial (non-jammable) navigation by our military.

Yes, it would probably take several concerted attacks to
"kill or maim" LORAN systems, but we already know about
what the nutcase, radical, religious zealots can do.


Mac, K2GKK/5
(former USAF Navigator)



----Original Message Follows----
From: Bob Camp <ham at cq.nu>
To: D C Macdonald <k2gkk at hotmail.com>,Milsurplus 
<milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Re:Loran C
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 12:16:45 -0400

Hi

Our fine friends in Russia have been selling suitcase sized GPS jammers for 
quite a while now. They are fairly cheap from what I recall. I don't think 
you can take out a Loran chain with anything quite that small. Both GPS and 
Loran have similar capabilities in terms of operation without the master 
control being up and running.

Security of both systems is less than perfect. Loran has equipment you can 
smash up so you need site security. GPS has very low level signals so you 
can overpower them without a lot of gear. GPS is a US based system Loran is 
international. If I was the Chinese government I would be less than 
enthusiastic about the security of GPS.

Navigation is to important to trust to a single system. Most people 
understand this and at least the regulations reflect this. The nasty thing 
is that a lot of communications systems now rely on GPS timing. No timing = 
no system. I have yet to see a single one of them designed with redundancy.

So the question - have any of the list members actually *seen* one of the 
GPS jammers outside an exhibit at a show?

	Take Care!

		Bob Camp
		KB8TQ


On Oct 2, 2004, at 11:44 AM, D C Macdonald wrote:

>Sabotaging a Loran chain (or several) would be simpler
>and far less expensive than sabotaging the GPS satellites.
>Far more possible saboteurs, also.
>
>Mac, K2GKK/5