Guest Post: Study Reveals GPS Jammers in United Kingdom

Recently, a study conducted in the United Kingdom showed heavy GPS signal interference from jammers in the last year. Throughout the project, over 100 GPS signal jammers were discovered in the country since January 2011. These jammers operate by sending off a strong signal locally into the same frequencies as the nearby GPS. This essentially over-powers any nearby signals from GPS, causing interference. There are a number of different reasons that jammers are used to interfere with GPS technology, including car theft and vehicle tracking.

During the study conducted by the UK Sentinel, experts concluded that the use of the jammers was certainly corroborated. There have already been a number of previous trials, where suspects have been found using these jammers to avoid GPS tracking from companies. Jamming devices are nothing new, but they have changed over the years, and are commonly  used to block home phone, mobile phone and now GPS signals.

The project from the Sentinel was run using 20 sensors in different parts of the UK. These sensors would go on to relay GPS interference happenings to a min server. Even though a fully developed strategy for pin pointing the jamming locations is not yet possible, researchers are continuing to move further in that direction in the coming years.

Back in 2009, jamming gained widespread notoriety during a trial involving a ship off the coast of South Shields in England. In this particular case, the jamming had caused the entire vessel issues because of the disrupted GPS signal. This type of malfunction can be crucial, as the failure of the GPS can cause a number of issues, especially for vessels. Some ships could see communication and navigation instruments heavily fail if the GPS is affected, which would be difficult, and potentially life-threatening.

The research done on jamming really puts into perspective the amount of reliance current society has on using GPS systems. GPS systems get plenty of use for recreational driving and traveling, but it’s absolutely crucial in a number of different industries. Things such as aircrafts and ships, as well as emergency response teams and military operations all heavily rely on the use of GPS to be successful. Given the findings of the research in England, it’s hopeful that technology will continue to develop to the point where jamming locations can be pinpointed and perpetrators can be easier found.