"Steve Robeson K4YZ" wrote in message
...
Subject: Problem for boaters and APRS?
From: PAMNO (N2EY)
Date: 12/16/2004 4:26 AM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

In article ,
(Steve
Robeson K4YZ) writes:

Subject: Problem for boaters and APRS?
From: "KØHB"
Date: 12/15/2004 10:23 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id: t

A friend sent me the link below. At first I thought it had to be an
April
Fool
joke, but apparently The Shrub really IS that stupid!



http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nati...ellites.html?e
x=1104168601&ei=1&en=4e6b58c489759881

I'd ask you where you've been, Hans, but I know the question's
rhetorical.

Slick Willy specifically stated that he was authorizing the
deactivation
of accuracy inhibitors for non-military users based upon the pemise that
American military commanders could re-activate it, or the President
could
order
it's complete isolation from non-authorized users. That was in 1993 or
1994,
I
believe.

IIRC, the accuracy inhibition was turned off just before Gulf War 1
(1991)
and
President Clinton simply decided not to turn it back on.

Nope. It was still active. President Clinton made a point of
announcing
the intent to remove the inhibitors and making it more accurate for
civilian
applications.

Also IIRC, the effect of accuracy inhibition was to degrade the accuracy
of
"civilian" users to about plus-minus 30 feet.

As opposed to the almost 300 yard to 1/2 mile "accuracy" that it was
at
before, it was a MAJOR improvement to non-US Armed Forces users.

WHY, Hans, would the United States NOT act to either "desensitize" the
GPS
net, or completely remove it from use for the criteria set forth in the
article...?!?!

The article talks about shutting it off. Or parts of it. Seems to me that
capability should have been a part of it from day one.

It was.

Where were you?

I think Hans' point may be that we have become so dependent on GPS that
turning
it off would hurt us more than it would stop the terrorists. The 9/11
attacks
didn't depend on GPS in any way.

No, Jim...it would "inconvienience" us...It would not hurt us.

And the "hijack an aircraft and use it as a missle" thing is unlikely
to
happen again.

Just think how much more damage Saddam's SCUD's could have caused had
they
had GPS navigation rather than their antiquated Soviet inertial
navigation.

Or it may be that openly talking about what you're going to do removes a
level
of protection. Terrorists with any sense (yes, an oxymoron) know now that
they
shouldn't depend on GPS.

You mean they shouldn't depend on GPS AFTER the first volley of
attacks, don't you...?!?!

As of RIGHT NOW, anyone with the money and desire to do so can use GPS
against us. So, Jim, in YOUR estimation, how many lives are worth the
inconvienience of not having a moving map display in your Escalade...???

Is it your contention that, given a set of "extreme criteria" (attack on
the United States, overt acts of war, etc), that we should leave the net
"open" regardless...???

What was stated in the article is NOTHING NEW!

Sure it is.

No, it was not.

73

Steve, K4YZ


Steve,

Folks have become so dependent upon modern conveniences. Many times I've
handed money to some kid at a cash register and he/she punches in the exact
purchase price and *not* the amount of money I forked over. Now the machine
says zero change. I've seen them resort to calculators and one had to get a
manager (no calculator and she couldn't subtract $12.35 from $20.00).

Take these same folks (most likely the ones that will ultimately earn big
money - engineers don't), put 'em on a 50 foot boat out for a cruise - and
the GPS shuts down. Now what do they do?

Reach for a direct satellite cell phone. Ooops - maybe they turned them off
too?

Come to think of it, if they shut the communications satellites off, that
will severely limit communications overseas and make any terrorist cells
less able to act. No Internet from overseas and telephone calls will
probably be in the neighborhood of $15.00 per minute. Sounds good to you,
right? Or are you pro terrorist?

Better get a letter off to the White House now! We can *really* be safe if
we shut down the communications satellites! No overseas Internet for
terrorists to communicate over.

Ooops ... I forgot. Russia has made many more launches than we have. Some
10 times in a couple of years. Europe, Japan .... say, believe it or not,
we don't have the exclusive anymore. In fact, we might be in danger of
becoming a bit player. Maybe that is why Bush wants to push for Mars. Make
his place in history.

I see some real good research on diabetes. Why am I not surprised that it
is coming out of Great Britain, rather than the U.S.

I note that one medication I had was $120.00 for a 30 day supply. They
raised my co-pay to $48.00 (40%). They told me to get a generic. I did.
Now I only pay $8.00. It works just great! I was really surprised to find
that the cost of the generic was $98.00!!! The insurance company pays far
more now for me to use "generic" ($90.00) than the "brand" ($72.00) name.
LOL. Bush has sure covered the drug companies so well that they are raising
the generic prices up close to the brand name prices.

How's your health insurance? Nice and cheap? Low deductibles? Why am I
not surprised?

Our biggest danger is likely not external; I suspect that we may simply
self-destruct like the U.S.S.R. did.


Best regards from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA