Grid, mobile or military radios - many of today's systems are highly dependent on GPS signal jammers. Jammers can have dangerous consequences.

　　The GPS-assisted system, designed to help pilots land commercial planes in bad weather, malfunctions twice a day, even though the technology shows no error. It took months for airport management to discover the error: it was a truck driver driving a GPS jammer on the highway because he wanted to save on GPS tolls. Using such devices for toll fraud is clearly beyond the scope of legality, but they are still very easy and cheap to buy.

　　Mail-order sellers sell the devices for just over 30 euros, and drivers simply plug them into the vehicle's 12-volt cigarette lighter socket to operate. Interference from Global Positioning System (GPS) signals is very good because they reach the Earth's surface very weakly. Each satellite transmits 200 watts of power over a distance of approximately 30,000 kilometers.

　　As long as someone opens their mouth, you can't hear it, like receiving an audio jammer next to the ear. A transmit power as low as a watt or two is enough for the small hum from the GPS to often cause confusion far beyond the expected range.

　　The sensitivity of GPS can be seen from the fact that it is large in strong solar winds that can obscure entire continents, or that a poorly shielded FM radio tuned to the correct frequency can simultaneously receive GPS signals from Earth.

　　In addition to the toll fraud described, there are other typical reasons for interfering with nearby GPS receivers. For example, there are many providers of automated vehicle trackers, some of which are used for fleet management but mainly for tracking in the event of a theft. The small battery box can be installed very discreetly and transmits its current location via the mobile network to the supplier's central tracking computer at set intervals.

　　This equipment has been standard on yachts for many years. It is also common for thieves to disable this device frequently. Police authorities also use small GPS trackers to monitor people, which they secretly attach to vehicles to be tracked. Finally, some control freaks compulsively monitor their life partners electronically. One tends to see the only legitimate reason for GPS jammers here, although the escalation to electronic warfare might break down anyway.

　　Because as a society, we are so used to the constant availability of GPS that we take it for granted. Alternative navigation features are increasingly degraded.

　　This can be seen in normal road traffic as a seemingly normal person drives through bushes because "the navigation system says I should". This can also be seen among professionals on the high seas. Anyone who has ever navigated a boat on a GPS chartplotter will immediately wonder how they could have navigated differently, and often just a little later and can't get it right.

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