On Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:21:17 AM UTC+1, Steve Koerner wrote:
You can count me as concerned and annoyed. I think enough is enough. I understand that there is a need to characterize jamming scenarios and capabilities. But do the damn tests for 5 minutes at 2AM; not for hours in the middle of the day over a huge geographic area. The FAA is letting us down in this regard.

Steve, I have to disagree with you in this respect. If you want a system that the US military doesn't train with, then get your own - use GLONASS or the Chinese system or whatever the Euros are putting up. But complaining about GPS outages is like moving next to an active airbase then complaining about the noise!

The fact that everyone has piggybacked on GPS and found wonderful ways to use it doesn't change the fact that it is a US military funded, developed, and maintained system. It's a weapon system! We get to play with it for free, and thats great, but our contribution is in our tax money that goes to the military, not in funding GPS via FAA user fees or whatever.

That being said - Contest managers obviously need to keep an eye out for potential GPS outages that could affect a contes and work with the local military to see if there is a way to work around each others needs.

If this comes off as a rant, so be it - but like complaints about military use of MOAs and restricted airspace, it just irritates me how much people will complain about military intrusions on their pastimes while taking our national security for granted.

Cheers!

Kirk
66