PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why was such a low power signal chosen for GPS?
Old 19th Apr 2012, 09:59
  #4 (permalink)  
Roger Greendeck
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Australia
Age: 53
Posts: 207
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
At the heart of the problem is that a GPS signal that does not use the coded method would need a lot of power to overcome the normal background interference that would occur over such a long distance. This would require significant transmitter power and hence electrical generating capacity on each satelite. It also minimises the interference with other electronic transmissions.

A more detailed discussion of signal to noise ratio can be found here http://202.114.120.10/gnss/docs/AN101.pdf

Jamming and spoofing is possible of course but the transmitter power required to prevent this is truely phenominal and the electricity generation on board the satelite would need to be very impressive.
Roger Greendeck is offline