911reviewWIKI index 9/11 review
also see... GPS testing september 11th 9/11 at 911review Wiki
Adding to the mix, the Directorate for Energy and Transport of the European Commission (EC)
acknowledged, in published documents supporting Galileo,its desire for an independent satellite
navigation system to support the defense forces of the EU and military export sales.
With the cards now laid out on the table, and the M-code the subject of on-going negotiations, one
can be assured that the conversation will be getting considerably less polite.
..... To support its military in times of conflict, the U.S. wants to be
able to jam navigation signals — all non-U.S.-military navigation signals — in an area of
conflict.
But if the U.S. jams the PRS signal, placed where it is now proposed, it would likely jam its own
military signal as well. From the EU perspective very good technical reasons may exist for seeking
to use a part of the spectrum planned for the M-code. A U.S. expert noted that the segment of radio
spectrum supporting the M-code is one of the least likely areas to suffer interference from
non-navigation users.
gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=21977
Satellite navigation is said to be difficult in Italy because certain TV channels are leaking spurious emissions. Recently, automated wireless toll-taking devices installed on bridges have been discovered knocking out local GPS reception.
These sorts of problems will probably be solved with the next generation of GPS, which will add new frequencies and possibly more power to the present signal. However, the issue of "intentional" interference looks much harder, if not impossible, to solve. ( Langhorne)Bond says, "Anyone with $50 and a soldering iron can make a jammer able to destroy the GPS signal for a hundred miles." The Volpe researchers, who clearly had access to at least some portion of our military’s "dark" GPS technology, detail what a more sophisticated enemy could accomplish. This includes not just widespread and prolonged jamming, but also "spoofing" in which GPS misinformation blankets the real signals.
You can easily imagine the terrible consequences of fake navigation data in foggy harbors and airports. In the aviation world it’s acronymed HMI for "hazardously misleading information" and understood to be much more dangerous than no information at all. But did you realize that many of our telecommunications and power-grid systems are also dependent on GPS for atomic-clock timing capabilities?
The whole scary story is laid out in the
Volpe report (available at www.navcen.uscg.gov) and was apparently taken quite seriously by our
secretary of transportation Norman Minetta. He released it to the public last September 10, and of
course the horrid events of the following day could not have done more to emphasize the presence of
malevolent and clever forces in our world.
http://powerandmotoryacht.com/electronics/0402Electronics/index1.html
By contrast, The Wall Street Journal
recently reported the cost of a four-watt GPS jammer built from plans off the Internet could be as
low as $40, and described the power of the received GPS signals as being one-thousandth that of a
single Christmas tree light. The FAA’s traditional response to concerns about the low power of GPS
signals has been to say that the next generation of satellites will transmit at much higher power,
rendering cheap jammers ineffective. Unfortunately, the agency often fails to add that these new
satellites are many years away.
ainonline.com/issues/12_02/12_02_basementbuiltpg61.html
Spy v Spy jamming
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2000/Jun/Threat.htm
Spoofing countermeasures
http://www.homelandsecurity.org/bulletin/Dual%20Benefit/warner_gps_spoofing.html
IT firm SciSys conducted the recent satellite navigation trial with a national
rail operator in southern England.
The system is said to have performed better than expected, coping well with, for example, obstacles
in the landscape and nearby electrified tube lines, which can interfere with the
signal.
To operate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, the train needs to be
able to see the sky to maintain a signal with the satellite. So train tunnels pose a
particular challenge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4247721.stm
Sat 12 Feb 2005
One particular hurdle that remains is how to track trains in tunnels: some
scientists have suggested ground-based sensors that could relay train data back to the satellite
network.
Rail industry heads, satellite experts and government officials met in London earlier this week to
take stock of recent studies of the technology in Britain.
For the past eight months, a private company, SciSys, has been working with a train
operator - believed to be Connex - on a trial of the tracking technology. People who
attended the conference say the trials had proved more successful than expected. The challenge now
is to reach consensus on the technology among the complicated community of train companies and
government regulators that make up the UK rail industry.
European transport planners are not the only ones investigating the potential of satellite tracking
to increase rail safety.
Several Australian state governments are considering making it mandatory for trains to carry
airline-style "black box" data recorders. The boxes would be linked to the GPS system.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=162482005
21 February 2005
The London event, organised by Pinpoint Faraday — set up to help develop GNSS in
the UK — and the Rail Safety & Standards Board, was the first major forum to bring together
rail industry heavyweights and the wider satellite technology community.
The results of two trial projects designed to test GNSS in the rail environment were outlined for
the first time, offering a mixed picture of its effectiveness.
One
was a 25-week trial of the accuracy of GPS operating on a high-speed train running between London
and the west country and South Wales. It involved space software specialist SciSys and rail
engineering group Parsons Brinckerhoff, with the support of the British National Space
Centre.
Gareth Close of SciSys said the satellite system proved a success in delivering
sufficiently reliable position and time fixes across the trial area.
To his surprise, Close said it also worked deep into centralLondon. 'We had valid positioning all
the way to the buffers at Paddington,' he said. 'There are many tall buildings, so it's a poor
environment for GPS — but it worked.'
The system also seemed to function well in the presence of potentially disruptive rail systems such
as overhead power lines and the electrified third rail.
There was, however, a problem with 'cold starts' when the train left Paddington after standing at
the station, and failed to secure a valid GPS signal until it reached the west London suburbs.
Close suggested these and other technical issues could be resolved through augmentation with
alternative systems.
The Paddington trial did not, however,
attempt to overcome the most obvious drawback to widespread use of GNSS on the rail network — what
happens when a train is in a tunnel.
The conference was told that accounting for time
spent underground — possibly with a surrogate GPS signal source known as a pseudolite, or by
switching to an alternative position sensing technology — is a key question for the industry.
Simon Atkinson, a location and tracking specialist for R&D company Roke Manor Research, claimed
that predicting the performance of GNSS across the UK's vast rail network presents significant
challenges. Alongside poor reception areas such as tunnels and cuttings, there is also the problem
of multipath, the distorting effect of signals bouncing off buildings and other rail traffic.
In the second trial Atkinson, tested a standard GPS unit on a train running between Southampton and
Winchester, and then in a car on the equivalent stretch of the M3, which runs virtually parallel
with the rail line.
While the car-based system secured a consistently good signal, the rail journey saw wide
variations, with significant dips through cuttings and the complete loss of signal through
tunnels.
Cached
Re: London traffic signals
http://www.serco.com/about_serco/glance/history/index.asp
In both road and rail transport our reputation is strong
and our expertise diverse. We manage road traffic management and control systems – including
England’s national Traffic Control Centre, which we designed and built. And we operate complete
rail networks such as the award-winning Docklands Light Railway in London and Manchester’s
Metrolink tram system. In July 2003 we began operating the Merseyrail Electrics network and in
December 2004 operations began on the Northern Rail franchaise.
http://www.serco.com/about_serco/glance/operate/unitedkingdom.asp
Serco’s operational role (of the up-and-coming Skynet 5)
includes network maintenance, training, supply management, through-life maintenance of the
buildings and facilities, installation of communication systems in operational zones such as Bosnia
– and spacecraft operations. Our spacecraft control teams work round the clock, manoeuvring the
satellites to maintain their orbital position, orient them in the right direction and keep them in
optimal condition. There are planned operations – such as regular station-keeping manoeuvres to
return the spacecraft to their normal orbital position – and unplanned, in response to onboard
failures or factors such as solar activity.
http://www.serco.com/about_serco/markets/skynet5.asp
The Pentagon jet-fuel blaze was put out by water.
In airport rescue and fire fighting training situations, a fake jet chassis is used and instead of
using the very expensive foam, the trainees use regular water which may or may not be attached to a
foaming agent. The fire is propane which burns cleanly and has little environmental impact and the
instructors control the amount and intensity of the fire which complies with OSHA rules and lessens
accidents and the resultant workmans comp claims.
Serco is the only significant non-government provider of air traffic services
in the world. We operate on a global basis and handle about 6 million aircraft movements each year
at airports in Europe, the Middle East and North America ....
At the International Fire Training Training Centre located at Teeside Airport, we deliver training
in a wide range of fire-fighting and rescue skills - it is the leading facility of its kind in the
world. ..... In the US, we operate 54 air traffic control towers for the Federal Aviation
Administration. We also provide air traffic engineering, meteorological services, rescue and
fire-fighting services, electronic and electrical maintenance services and other airport support
services such as catering and cleaning.
http://www.serco.com/about_serco/markets/transport/Air.asp
01/04/2005
The development of a wireless internet network could
potentially allow passengers to access real-time Tube and London travel information on the move
through their mobile phone or lap-top. Passengers could access information on travel
disruption before they arrive at affected stations and could amend their journey as
appropriate.
http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=7067
By 2008, London mayor Ken Livingstone plans to have
transmitters in place in Tube stations that will allow mobile phone reception as well as possibly
wireless internet and digital radio signals. If feasible, the coverage may also be extended to
trains, as well. Liberals and conservatives alike stepped in to voice their opinions on the
technology rollout, with officials on both sides feeling compelled to pull The Fear card: “it could
enable terrorists to set off bombs remotely,” cautioned transport spokesperson Roger
Evans. All too true, but why stop there, really, when we could just ban cellphones
completely and truly sleep soundly at night?
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000077037254/
READ THE COMMENTS
(bad links)
A new type
of magnet has been tested in the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in the USA. It is powerful enough for use in magnetic
levitation applications, but is not electromagnetic ie does not require any
power. (July 17th 1999)
The construction of the Channel
Tunnel Rail Link in Britain will be aided by a Global Positioning System
by Trimble. The GPS uses satellites to establish one's exact position and is widely
used for navigation purposes. However, the system's precision is down to the centimetre.
(July 20th 1999)
British Connex
Rail, an offshoot of Vivendi of France, is to remove seats from one its most modern train types
to create more standing room for commuters to London. The privatised company runs trains into
London on some of the busiest commuter lines in southern England. Connex said removing seats was
the only way of achieving an immediate increase in capacity on the trains. Running 12-carriage
trains instead of the eight-car trains at present would require longer stations at some stations
and the boosting of power supplies to the track. The proposal requires the approval of the railway
safety authorities which is expected within the next month. (July 28th
1999)
Great Western Trains has been fined a record £1.5m for safety lapses
that led to the Southall train crash that killed seven people and injured a further 150 outside
London in September 1997. Two safety systems on the train were either not working or had been
switched off and the driver was not looking ahead just before the crash. A Swansea to Paddington
express passed a red light at 125mph and hit a freight train. See also BBC stories. (July 28th
1999)
GNER is the first and only UK
transport operator to offer a wireless data communication system (Wi-Fi)-an innovative service
set to revolutionise rail travel.
http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/wi-fi/
This link has a really cool diagram explaining how GPS works inside
tunnels.
http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/Wi-Fi/How+does+it+work.htm
GNER began trialling
on-board Wi-Fi in December 2003 on two trains running between London's Kings Cross and
Scotland along the UK's East Coast main line. In April 2004, it announced it would
expand the service to ten trains by the end of the year. Over time, GNER plans to install Wi-Fi on
all 302 cars destined to be part of its Mallard fleet.
dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2773
Feel free to use any or all of this info however you please.