image: Various on-line sellers
What’s New: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it is taking action to enforce the law against marketing, selling, and using wireless jammers, including those that target GPS/GNSS. While reports do not mention anything about spoofing, it is against the law also.
Why It’s Important: The FCC is the federal agency that has the authority to enforce the law on this, and establish and enforce supporting regulations.
What Else to Know:
- While news reports do not mention anything about the FCC addressing spoofing, that is against the law also.
- Unfortunately, over the last 20 years the FCC’s enforcement bureau has been greatly reduced in size while the incidents of accidental (also not allowed) and intentional interference with GPS has greatly increased.
- While it is illegal to market, sell, and use jamming devices, they are not illegal to own.
- The U.S. does not have a systematic way to detect interference with GPS/GNSS signals. The 2022 interference event at Denver lasted 33 hours before it was geo-located and terminated. The event at Dallas the same year lasted for 24 hours and the source was never located.
- We looked for the original statement from the FCC spokesperson, but were unable to find it on the FCC site. It looks as though it was made directly to NBC in response to their inquiry.
- Even if Amazon and other US outlets stop selling jammers, there are plenty of other sources. See our post ‘I stopped counting jammer websites when I got to 100.’ – Charles Curry
- LINK TO FCC PAGE ON JAMMERS
Exclusive
The announcement comes after an NBC News investigation that found radio frequency jammers marketed on Amazon and other online stores.
The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it is investigating Amazon and other retailers for the alleged marketing and selling of unlawful electronic devices, including radio frequency jammers.
The FCC does not always disclose ongoing investigations. It did so in a statement to NBC News after the news organization reported that some retailers and drone technology companieswere marketing jammers online, despite FCC warnings that jammers are illegal.
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