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Interference to GPS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 1998
Abstract
I read Captain Gyldeń's account of failure of his GPS set (Vol. 50, 328, May 1997) with some interest. A few days earlier we had had a few thunderstorms while I had my personal hand-held GPS running, using its own built-in antenna and a 12 volt battery. It was lying on a bench inside a wooden hut where I keep some of my amateur radio equipment. After one particularly close flash and bang, which produced a one-inch spark from my transceiver antenna, the transceiver locked up and stopped responding to keyboard commands. Then I noticed the GPS set had also stopped working, showing only random symbols on its readout. I feared the worst but, after switching them both off, leaving them for a few minutes, and then back on again, they worked perfectly.
Microprocessors locking up in strong local electrostatic fields, perhaps? Maybe if I had simply left them alone they would have started working again after the charge had leaked away. Next time I nearly get hit by lightning I'll try it.
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- © 1998 The Royal Institute of Navigation