jammer

Latest News: A media article about multiple signal jammers disrupting French airport operations. Once the authorities discovered one, they discovered another, and then another!

Why It’s Important:

1. GPS interference at airports can cause flight delays.


2. Many airlines will not let the plane leave the gate without a good GPS lock.


3. We have already seen cases of outages affecting landing systems. See: Events in Denver-Newark


4. In the worst-case scenario, an outage, even an unexpected one, can result in loss of life. Check out the thrills of Sun Valley.

What Else to Know:

• The EU STRIKE3 project has identified many cases of interference in or near airports.


• News reports like this about flight delays happen from time to time.


• In the United States, the FCC is the regulatory agency responsible for preventing such incidents and enforcing the rules.


• uUnfortunately, over the past two decades, the FCC has significantly reduced the number of personnel and equipment suitable for the job..

ANFR Fighting against phone jammer

Candice Clark 18 July 2023

In France, the National Spectrum Administration (ANFR) is responsible for enforcing rules banning radio jammers, including those that interfere with GNSS services. The availability of GNSS data is critical for many critical applications, so disruptions to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and Beidou are as serious as cyber attacks.

ANFR's sworn representatives have the authority to investigate violations of national spectrum use regulations. They are often used to locate active gps jammer, either on a vehicle or in a fixed location. Catherine Gabay, ANFR Deputy Director for Frequency Monitoring and Enforcement, reported on some recent cases during the 2023 International Symposium on Navigation and Timing Technologies (ITSNT) in Toulouse.

In March 2023, an instance happened near Merville airport. The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) notified ANFR of interference on the L1 frequency, which was disrupting flights and air ambulance helicopters. ANFR agents quickly reviewed in-flight information and discovered a GNSS jammer aboard a commercial vehicle. The police were brought in to assist with the seizure of the equipment, and the driver was arrested.

There are three ways to determine the location of your Tracki GPS tracker using geolocation data.

1. Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality, which uses satellite signal jammers to determine location very accurately.

2. Connect to WiFi by tracking the router’s MAC ID. If Tracki GPS Tracker cannot find a GPS signal, it listens to all nearby WiFi routers and reports their MAC ID to our servers, which have access to a map of wifi blocker routers and their locations around the world. Accuracy is approximately 100-300 feet.

3. A less precise method is often called "cell tower triangulation," which refers to how cell towers calculate a tracker's geophysical location.

What is Cell Tower Triangulation?

In a perfect world, the GPS tracker's signal would be picked up by three or more cell towers, allowing triangulation to function. If you know the distance to a place from each of three unique points, you may compute the approximate position of that location in respect to the three reference points. We know the locations of the cell towers that receive our jammer GSM signal at Tracki because we have access to mapping of all cellular tower locations worldwide, and we can estimate the distance of the GPS tracker from each of those antenna towers based on the lag time between when the tower sends a ping to Tracki GPS tracker and receives the answering ping back.

In rare situations, a GPS tracker's signal may be received by more than three cell towers, providing for even greater precision. Because there are frequently many cell towers with overlapping signal coverage regions in big metropolitan urban areas, GPS tracker pinpointing accuracy is pretty good. When the GPS tracker is not exposed to the open sky, such as when it is within a building or underground, and there are no Wi-Fi networks nearby, cell tower triangulation may be the only means to determine location if GPS signal is not accessible.

However, there are numerous areas with fewer cell towers available, such as on the outskirts of towns and in rural areas. When there are less than three cell towers accessible, locating a anti-tracking jammer device becomes significantly less precise. To have good coverage in cities with a lot more vertical structures that might be obstacles to GPS tracker transmitting and receiving, there must be a lot more cell towers spread. There are fewer cell towers in the countryside, and a GPS tracker's signal may be picked up by only one tower at a considerably longer distance.

Those places where the GPS tracker is only picked up by a single tower, and if it just has a single omnidirectional antenna, the accuracy is considerably worse.

Tracking accuracy in rural locations might range from 0.25 mile to several miles, depending on how many obstructions may be obstructing the tower's signal.

How does a GPS tracker work?

GPS, or global positioning system, uses 24 to 32 solar-powered satellites and ground stations to relay data to GPS-enabled devices.

The primary goal of GPS systems is to identify the exact location of an object or person in real time. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) network is used by GPS tracking systems. Each satellite in orbit transmits microwave signals to a receiver. The GPS tracker's receiver then utilizes these signals to compute your precise location from at least four GPS satellites. Finally, your location is calculated when the system triangulates your actual position on the earth based on these distances to the closest meters.

The method is based on a basic mathematical idea known as trilateration. GPS receivers use the exact location of at least four satellites and the distance between them to estimate four values: earth latitude, earth longitude, elevation, and time. The position of the receiver is determined by the position and distances to a certain satellite. The precise position of a satellite is regularly sent to all receivers within line of sight, which normally necessitates an unobstructed sky. The precise moment the satellite broadcast arrives at the receiver determines the distance to a satellite. The time created by each satellite's atomic clock is relayed at predetermined intervals by the satellite.

What a GPS Tracking Device Is and How It Works

GPS tracking devices operate on the same concept, but instead of displaying information on the device, the gadget's CPU calculates its location and transmits the resulting data to a server over the Internet via the international GSM cellular network. That server offers a platform from which end users may monitor the device's present and historical path, speed, and alarms. All of this data is then delivered over the internet and shown on a desktop software or a smart phone jammer utilizing an iPhone or Android app.

Anyone may profit from a GPS tracking device. It may be used by company owners to monitor fleets, staff conduct, and by households to keep track of elderly, children, or pets. To prevent their luggage from being lost or stolen, travelers embed a GPS tracker in it.

Active trackers, on the other hand, use a SIM and a GSM transceiver to process and send data in real time. Dispatchers receive real-time information via the GSM cellular network, allowing them to keep a close eye on their assets or valuables. Cellular network services are paid for with monthly fees.

In the event that the GPS satellites signal is obstructed due to being indoors or by a structure, and there is no sky, the device looks for cell tower signals and attempts to determine rough position using cell tower signal strength triangulation.

The GPS tracker determine where the device is located and roughly estimate the distance between the cellphone towers by interpolating signals between adjacent towers. A precision of down to 300 feet may be obtained in urban areas where density of cellphone towers is very high. Rural and county side areas which has less towers per square mile may see many miles between base stations and therefore inaccurately determine locations often showing a location miles away from the device real location.

For conclusion, when GPS satellite signal is available that is preferable to use. But in those cases when a GPS tracking device is blocked from open sky by structures, tall buildings, trees or even heavy clouds, cell tower approximation can mean the difference between knowing a general area whereabouts of GPS tracker or being in a complete dark.

According to a report in Israel-based newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli Defense Forces intensified GPS jamming in the region to prevent drone assaults by Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to the IDF, Israel is interrupting satellite navigation systems "proactively for various operational needs." "Citizens should be aware that the disruption can cause various and temporary effects on location-based applications," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Haaretz.

According to the analysis, this will have two effects on GPS services. For starters, GPS signal reception can be fully disabled. Second, it may be faked, which means it can send bogus location data to the device.

GPS receivers may be found in mobile phones jammer phone, aircraft, ships, and vehicles. They receive signals from many satellites at the same time and utilize them to compute their own precise location and altitude.

These identical receivers may also be found on cruise missiles and drones, where they are used to direct them to their destination. Any army organization interested in thwarting such an attack may emit forcefully on the required frequency band, preventing the GPS blocker device from receiving any satellite signal and completely disabling its operation.

Spoofing is a technique in which the signal mimics the genuine satellite signal and hijacks the GPS receiver. Once the receiver has locked on to the bogus signal, the disrupter will supply it with fake data, forcing it to compute and show an inaccurate position and altitude. This can result in the receiver reporting its genuine position dozens, if not hundreds, of kilometers away.

According to Haaretz, Israelis had GPS troubles last week because the IDF was apparently attempting to prevent Hezbollah's GPS-guided drones from entering far into Israel.

The publication said that Israelis are being impacted, citing an example in which a person from Haifa said his phone incorrectly indicated his position as being in the northern border area while being in Haifa. Residents in the West Bank said that their phones notified them that they were close to the Gaza border.

However, this may cause problems with the IDF HomeFront Command app, which provides information based on the user's phone location. According to the publication, blocking the app or the GPS transmitter on people's phones might result in a false signal.