The FAA has a Notice to Airmen out regarding GPS interference testing. Testing of some gizmo at one spot might wipe out GPS over a good chunk of the southwestern US and northern Mexico.
It would be pretty sucky if that was your only method of IFR navigation for a flight from Dallas to San Diego.
I'm not a radio geek, so take what I say with much caution.
GPS satellites radiate about a 500 Watt signal. At the receiver, it's down to about 10^-18 Watt.
That would seem to be freakishly easy to fuck with. Which is why LightSquared's proposed network never was allowed.
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Comrade, these NOTAMs (and the associated testing) have been going on since before 2008! I've never seen (or heard) of an impact here on the eastern edge of the zone, bit...
I've complained we don't get enough notice, but (shrug)...
As a bonus, testing has been done at other places a few times too.
My plane still has a LORAN receiver. Eventually I'll have it and it's wiring harness removed but there was a time it would have been pretty handy.
There is talk of rebuilding the Loran network as it was cheap to keep going and didn't require rockets to to do so. Its accuracy was adequate for both primary and backup uses.
Eck!
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