أجهزة الملاحة عرضة للتشويش

Hello and welcome to BBC Xtra English!

Today we are talking about Satellite Navigation Systems, more commonly known as sat-navs.

Sat-navs are now used all over the world to help people reach their destination.

They use GPS or Global Positioning Systems to find where in the world their user is and how to help their user reach his or her destination.

Taxis, private cars and even ships have systems that use GPS.

But there is cause for concern around some people’s over-reliance on GPS and sat-nav.

A new report by the Royal Academy of Engineering says the systems can be quite easily interfered with or even fail.

Professor Martyn Thomas who wrote the report told the BBC’s Justin Webb “You can get interference – either accidental or deliberate interference - because it is a very weak radio signal”.

He says it’s like looking at an 100Watt bulb from 12,000 miles away. And that you can block a signal from high ground with quite a weak transmitter also called a jammer.

Scientists from the Lighthouse Authority did an experiment where they blocked out the navigation signals by putting a jamming transmitter out at sea.

It affected the sat-nav systems of boats nearby – and onboard equipment reported that boats were ten miles inland and moving faster than the speed of sound!

Professor Martyn wants rescue services to have back up plans in case GPS signals fail.

The Royal Society of Engineers also wants jammers to be made illegal because people could use them to block rescue vehicles

The fear is that the weaknesses in GPS can allow criminals or terrorists to cause great damage and harm to people who rely on GPS.

What do you think of this story? Write to us in English!
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Satellite Navigation Systems (sat-nav)
نظام الملاحة بالاقمار الصناعية
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
نظام تحديد الموقع
Over-reliance
الاعتماد المفرط
Interfered
تدخل/تداخل
Transmitter
جهاز ارسال
Jammer
جهاز تشويش
Navigation
الملاحة
Faster than the speed of sound
اسرع من سرعة الصوت
Weaknesses
نقاط ضعف