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Comment by kitchi | Hacker News Reader

Is GNSS jamming really as bad a problem as the article makes it seem?

The article itself reads like guerilla advertising so I'm inclined not to take it at face value.

Veritasium did a video a few weeks ago about scientists trying to figure out where a space based GPS jamming signal came from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA

I've stopped watching Veritasium after the PE buyout. All of a sudden I'm deeply suspicous of their content and I'm left wondering if there is some Ulterior Motive that we are not aware of.

Always had a strange feeling watching that channel, something feels off somehow. Anyway, didnt the video also mention GPS basically has the same capability (to be weaponised)? Seems trivial and logical… its a transmitter.. just transmit noise or spoofed signals. Another thing I see pop up here in the comments is about encryption. Critical infra usually is not encrypted because you need to be able to receive it critical conditions, simple means. These infras have been steadily been replaced by ‘hightech secure’ stuff in the west (like c2000…) but here in Asia i can still get an weather-fax image using a 5 dollar radio.

I also read the same guerilla advertising for an alternative between the lines. If I understood it correctly from the article, the alternative itself is basically more of the same, but with a stronger signal.

So they basically will launch 300 satellites with an alternative that will face the exact same issues once jamming output signals increase too?

> with an alternative that will face the exact same issues once jamming output signals increase too?

Encryption and LEO make this significantly harder to jam. I see value in it.

https://app.media.ccc.de/v/39c3-who-cares-about-the-baltic-j... [video]

39C3: "Who cares about the Baltic Jammer?" / "Terrestrial Navigation in the Baltic Sea Region"

First few minutes give a summary, remainder is about DLR's attempt to fix it.

Also, https://gpsjam.org/ (ADS-B data from planes, hence limited coverage area.)

In some parts of the world, it's getting bad. My partner is Lithuanian, and she/we go back there often. They're having a lot of issues there because of Russia.

Near a warzone with consumer hardware? Yes.

Military hardware uses different signals, encryption, more advanced receivers, etc etc, but these things are on ITAR lists and not shared with the public.

It's a little surprising to me that there's a commercial venture that has been allowed to provide these things to the public at some point.

Because ITAR only applies to US companies, non-US companies can do and sell whatever they want. My favorite example is CRPA antenna, where they can block the jamming signal, so it was on ITAR. Other countries like Turkey and China doesn't care so you can even buy one of them in alibaba. They got all the money while the US company can't compete because they're not allowed to, so after several lobbying efforts, that technology got downgraded from ITAR, very toxic export control, to EAR, your normal export control.

Another example is high frame rate thermal camera, US companies are banned from exporting cameras above 9 fps, while chinese companies freely sells 50 fps cameras

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