North East GPS Jamming – Tynemouth Area

However I have a feeling that after GPS jamming trials have taken place this could change. Jamming trails are to take place from 30th November off Tynemouth for five days, Captain R H Barker, Director of Navigational Requirements, has announced.

Of course this has been widely advertised-and every boat owner with a GPS on board has seen it advertised in local press, marinas, boat yards, tackle shops and chandlers, If you haven’t, and I doubt you have, you had better take note that the area off Tynemouth the jamming will take place is in a box with corners 55º 09′. 00N 001º 08′. 52W, 55º 00′.00N 001º 00′.48W, 54º 58′.02N 001º 10′.02W, 55º 01′.02N 001º 13′.02W, 55º 07′.98N 001º 13′.02W.

Between 10am to 4pm in 1 hour slots two hours apart, from a ship seven miles off shore. Obviously these trails are meant to be for commercial vessels, however if somebody is jamming GPS signals on purpose or by accident it will affect small boat owners as well.

Previous study results can be seen at http://www.gpsworld.com/transportation/news/maritime-jamming-trial-shows-gps-vulnerabilities-6878 which amazingly shows quite a few deficiencies, -funny how they have just cropped up now- in the GPS system, but two points I have noted are the comparison that has been made between the GPS system and the new European system eLoran which shows that eLoran has advantages

* Loran’s positions were recorded onboard the vessel and consistently maintained the vessel’s during GPS jamming. The position accuracy of Loran was assessed prior to the start of the jamming exercises and it was found to be on the order of 8 m (95%) in the area of Flamborough Head.

* Loran was demonstrated to the audience and showed that the vessel’s position on an electronic chart was perfectly usable for coastal phase navigation during periods of GPS outage-but will it help anglers find wrecks?

Information – Courtesy Of Alan Charlton