NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2014 Apr 5, 15:53 -0400
I seem to recall that the civilian channel can be deliberately altered such that GPS positions can be denied to enemy combatants, whilst the military channel retains its purity for friendly forces.
Indeed, a civilian who possesses a PLUGR or DAGR or any other military GPS receiver is in violation of the law. Civilians who have publically proclaimed ownership have been raided and the device(s) seized. For the obvious reason stated above.
Brad
I was just reporting what went on at the conference. But with regard to your statements
On 05/04/2014 15:26, Richard B. Langley wrote:
I think that needs to be qualified. Firstly, you may be correct that GPS has never been turned off globally. But I would suggest that a localised or regionalised shut down of GPS may well be possible. There were some fellas at the conference who seem to have ' been there' in sensitive areas at sensitive times who are pretty sure that is what took place. Of course, why should we believe them? But then, why should we believe you?
1) GPS has never been turned off.
It was Richard Easton who gave a paper about the origins of the GPS system at the Greenwich conference two years ago. That there seems to be a difference in scholarly opinion on the reasons for the inception of the GPS system would appear to a valid fact....2) GPS was designed to be used by both the military and the civil community from the get-go. Please see the first few paragraphs of the intro to my Innovation column in the April issue of GPS World:
http://gpsworld.com/innovation-ground-based-augmentation/
We (academics) used GPS even before the Reagan Administration's 1983 announcement and we even had unfettered access to the P-code throughout the 1980s.Richard Easton's recent GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones is a trustworthy source for the details on GPS evolution.
Geoffrey Kolbe
-- Dr Geoffrey Kolbe, Riccarton Farm, Newcastleton, TD9 0SN Tel: 013873 76715 Mob: 07811 154621
