BOATUS Urges Action on GPS

Dec 16, 2011
257
Catalina 310 Atlantic Highlands
Not sure how many folks are BoatUS members, but they are saying an April 22 decision by the Federal Communications Commission to give mobile satellite services operator Ligado Networks, a private equity company, the green light to build and operate a land-based industrial 5G (fifth generation) wireless network will negatively impact the reliability of the nation’s Global Positioning System and harm boating safety. Their press release is here.
 

Tom J

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Sep 30, 2008
2,301
Catalina 310 Quincy, MA
Yikes. Like there isn't enough going on in the world right now. Now I have to wonder if, by the time I get my boat in the water, my GPS will be reliable.
 
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
I don't get it. It looks like there is a movement to ban 5g via satellite. I checked the frequency spectrum and the US is allocated in the 3 GHz band. GPS is working in the 1.2 GHz band. The link indicated that the 5G would use the lower L-band but there is not indication of that. Very confusing.

Besides, who really needs 5G? Soon we will want sub-space carrier waves traveling at 9.99 times the speed of light.
 
Sep 25, 2019
38
CATALINA C27 Lk Norman NC
With the FAA mandating ADS-B in ALL aircraft, this WILL throw a monkey right into the wrench. There have already been disruptions in GPS signals in Florida that caused a friend of mine to be 10 miles away from where his FAA APPROVED GPS told him he was. Only thru having done the flight ( VFR) many times did he realize he was off course. DOD said...sorry about that. Had he been in IFR conditions, it could have been a bad day for a bunch of people.
 
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Likes: jssailem
Sep 22, 2018
1,869
Hunter 216 Kingston
I don’t understand how this could have happened. If I understand correctly the FCC seemingly granted approval of the use of a frequency in a manner than has the potential to disrupt GPS.

I appreciate that there is a demand for 5G but to allow land based use of a spectrum band that could potentially obsolete a huge mass of GPS equipment seems kind of crazy.

This is a reference to a little bit more background that I came across.