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Why does everyone switch their gps off?

Aliens? Invading aliens? What will Earth do? Well...we may have a few more resources than we first thought. Come join a friendly discussion about David Weber's newest Tor series - "Out of the Dark."
Re: Why does everyone switch their gps off?
Post by WhiskeyWonka   » Sat Oct 10, 2015 3:28 am

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Weird Harold wrote:
Finn wrote:...Does DW believe the myth that GPS devices transmit to satellites?


Irrelevant. The author doesn't necessarily believe the same thing as his characters, and the characters apparently do believe they can be tracked via their GPS units.

Of course, since we're talking about a fictional world, perhaps GPS units in DWs fictional world do interact with the satellites and/or are trackable. :o



We do not need to pretend here. You know that star service in some cars? Those all can report the location of the car in real time to the service if told to by the service.

You know your cellphone? Every call has a gps tag sent with it, even if the gps is off. The cell tower triangulates an approximate location for the phone in the cell (this can be viewed with older Androids and G**gle Maps. It would update location when you changed cells.) When making a 911 call (USA Emergency Services) your GPS location is given to the dispatcher.

There are many other methods of tracking devices with and with out GPS's in them. As technology advances so do the tracking features in it.
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Re: Why does everyone switch their gps off?
Post by Lord Skimper   » Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:17 pm

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Simple in the DW universe of Out of the Dark, GPS does transmit. So they get turned off.
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Re: Why does everyone switch their gps off?
Post by khameirsith   » Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:44 pm

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Lord Skimper wrote:Simple in the DW universe of Out of the Dark, GPS does transmit. So they get turned off.


Here's an even simpler answer from a military guy:

I don't know what a GPS unit can and cannot do, and if I"m trying to not get tracked, we'll begin turning off any and everything we can think of under the given circumstances and time frame while trying to maintain some kind of unit cohesion and operational readiness.

That being said, who cares of it does or doesn't transmit on some technical level. If we don't need it, cut it off. Not sure if it broadcasts? Cut it off.

As far as doing it without question, if the guy at the top says turn it off, every grunt below him goes "aye sir" and does it without question. It really doesn't matter the technical side or if he is right or wrong. Was there time to waste arguing? Was it even worth arguing?
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Re: Why does everyone switch their gps off?
Post by Lord Skimper   » Tue Dec 27, 2016 4:39 am

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Maybe they just track the EMF signal not the GPS comms.
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Re: Why does everyone switch their gps off?
Post by Tenshinai   » Tue Dec 27, 2016 5:17 pm

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Lord Skimper wrote:Maybe they just track the EMF signal not the GPS comms.


While extremely unlikely due to lack of signalstrength, it´s not completely out of the question. Just almost.

There ARE places that includes EMF sensors as part of intrusion detection(mostly to detect anyone carrying computer equipment of advanced photo/detection equipment), but AFAIK, it´s very rare.

Echo detection is still by far the most likely i think. Still weird though.
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