[aprssig] Anyone in Las Vegas - LightSquared Test To Begin Monday

[aprssig at k7ftp.net]

If anyone on the list is in Las Vegas/Boulder City, might want to go out
between 23:00 and 05:00 and see what it does.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/may/14/testing-new-wireless-network-cou
ld-cause-gps-outag/

"A warning for night drivers: If your GPS navigator gives out on you this
week, don't despair. What you're experiencing is only a test of the emerging
broadband system.

Starting Monday, broadband developr LightSquared will start testing its
planned 4G speed wireless network in the Las Vegas area. The test will run
after midnight for several hours for 10 days, and if it works, Las Vegas
could become one of the first U.S. cities to get on a super-high speed
Internet grid that's independent of any particular service provider.

But if it fails, government agencies warn that it could compromise or even
black out the GPS systems in the area, rendering temporarily useless
everything from your car's navigator to the systems that allow airplanes to
come in for a safe landing."

"Late last week, the Federal Aviation Administration alerted pilots that
"the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable" within a nearly 300-mile
radius of Boulder City, where the test transmitter will be located, from 11
p.m. to 5 a.m. local time daily from Monday to May 27."