After the seller shipped me the jammer from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, I reached out, identifying myself as a journalist, and asked to talk. Ryan Moore, communications director for eBay, said GPS jammers are prohibited on the site and that sellers who circumvent eBay filters that prevent listings of these goods may have their accounts suspended.
To try to see the devices in use, Gostomelsky, who works for the security firm Spirent Federal—which, it should be disclosed, sells equipment designed to detect jammers—set up GPS signal monitoring equipment in his hometown of Philadelphia, in San Jose near the Spirent office, and briefly in Washington, D.
His equipment is programmed for its particular location, locks onto 12 satellites, and starts listening; it knows a jammer is nearby when there are changes or interruptions in the signals being sent by the distant satellites. He wanted to find out just how popular the forbidden devices actually are.
In the course of eight months, the five stations he set up, which could detect unusual activity up to a mile away, detected GPS jammers 78 times, deployed by 19 different people or groups of people. Some of the ways the jammers were being used, though, surprised him. While he was at the Washington Hilton in D. Gostomelsky mounted the 20 pounds of hardware on his back and tracked the signal to a high school gym, inside of which kids were flying drones.
According to reports on Reddit , cheating Pokemon Go players turned to the devices last year. The game overlays virtual creatures and arenas on the real world via a smartphone app; players have to go to those real world spots with their phones in order to collect creatures or to battle for control of the arenas, called gyms. Another Reddit user who said he was on the security team for an Australian aerospace company complained that Pokemon Go players were putting jammers around virtual gyms in airports and were affecting aircraft operations.
But most of the jamming Gostomelsky saw was done for the sake of profit or paranoia. Gostomelsky lives near Interstate in Pennsylvania, and would regularly detect GPS jammers in use as tractor-trailers went through the toll booths.
Because the toll-taking for commercial trucks relies on GPS tracking, they can avoid paying through jamming. Gostomelsky wanted to be able to identify exactly who was doing the broadcasting, so he included in his five suitcases four microcomputers with software-defined radios—devices that decipher radio signals.
These picked up on a variety of signals that might be traveling along with the jammer: the list of wi-fi networks and Bluetooth connections a device was programmed to look for; broadcasts being made on radio frequencies typically used by law enforcement and security guards; and the signals sent by tire pressure monitoring systems. The last one is particularly novel—car tires wirelessly broadcast a unique number to the car telling it if the pressure in the tires is getting low; his device picked up on that transmission, letting him identify particular cars.
Oftentimes it was obvious to Gostomelsky why a particular person was using a jammer. People driving company trucks wanted to avoid being tracked on their lunch breaks by navigational devices installed by employers and they would tell Gostomelsky that when he walked up to the cars and knocked on their windows. Stephanie Voelker, a product manager at Geotab, which makes fleet tracking devices, told me their devices note every time GPS connectivity is cut off.
That would presumably alert the company when a jammer is in use, defeating the purpose and arousing suspicion. Among those, the most popular are cell phone jammers, wifi-jammers, drone jammers and even GPS jammers. A key reason that the use of these devices is largely frowned upon by authorities in most countries, is that they tend to have a larger impact than intended. Even well intentioned use, such as blocking mobile phone use in schools, theaters and hospitals, or preventing drones from flying over private property can lead to disruption well outside the intended boundaries.
Dropped calls, drones dropping from the sky and compromised air-traffic control are some of the unintended consequences of jammers, that have led countries like South Africa and Israel to make these jammers completely illegal. Another reason is that the authorities wish to retain exclusive control over the use of these measures, for law-enforcement, security and military purposes.
The US, Canada and India are a few examples of countries that prohibit the use of jammers for everyone except for certain law-enforcement agencies. Italy takes it a step further and even these agencies may operate jammers only under specific authorization.
The GPS module in newer Geotab GO units has a jamming detection function that will trigger the device to report a debug log. When GPS jamming occurs, the report will be sent via email as an alert, prompting further investigation.
It is important to note that even when a GPS jammer disrupts GPS receiver functionality, all other functions are unaffected. Despite the lost GPS connection, the Geotab GO device will continue to gather and send critical vehicle-related data such as engine data, error codes and auxiliaries.
Geotab is dedicated to maintaining a robust and stable system and will continue to make the GO devices as tamper-proof as possible. Next article : Debunking the top 10 vehicle tracking myths. Geotab's blog posts are intended to provide information and encourage discussion on topics of interest to the telematics community at large. Geotab is not providing technical, professional or legal advice through these blog posts. While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this blog post is timely and accurate, errors and omissions may occur, and the information presented here may become out-of-date with the passage of time.
Sign up for monthly news and tips from our award-winning fleet management blog. You can unsubscribe at any time. The Sooner state joins a growing list signing statewide contracts to streamline and simplify the addition of telematics solutions to government fleets. November 11, October 27, October 15, October 14, Skip to main content. What are GPS jammers and how do you combat them? What is a GPS jammer? How a GPS jammer works: The user plugs the jammer into the automotive auxiliary power outlet.
The unit is placed close to the installed GPS tracker. When active, the GPS jammer generates an interference signal over a 5 to 10 meter radius to disrupt reception of the GPS satellite signal. GPS satellite broadcasting signals. Who uses GPS jammers?
Are GPS jammers legal?
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