Relying on your GPS in Vegas might make you stay in Vegas

[mikea]

The Federal Aviation Administration sent a notice to pilots that navigation systems based on GPS may be "unreliable or unavailable" in about a 350 mile-radius that includes Las Vegas.

LightSquared, which plans to deploy a nationwide wireless broadband network, is testing its equipment in Nevada southeast of Las Vegas.

LightSquared has rights to frequencies very close in the electromagnetic spectrum to those used for GPS, raising concern about possible jamming.

http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness....erence-near-las-vegas-20110518,0,754494.story

In other words, I could be flying blind in VFR conditions.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Sorry, not "exactly" the same situation. The spectrum in question (immediately adjacent to GPS L1) was allocated by the FCC for space based transmissions only. LightSquared bought that spectrum then managed to convince the FCC to violate their own requirements.

I believe the FCC claims that "extensive terrestrial operations have been anticipated in the L-band for at least 8 years." As I understand it, their stance is that these higher power transmissions in nearby frequencies shouldn't have come as such a surprise to GPS receiver manufacturers.