by Gadgetgeek » Thu 09 Jun, 2016 8:50 am
They are probably testing there as most of the airports won't be reliant on GPS for anything besides lost tourists. The size of the area probably has a lot to do with the laws of physics, line of sight and all that. Also reasons why its a listed NOTAM, since autopilot systems don't have to use GPS. I'd suspect that they would also be testing to see if what they are doing disrupts the international systems as well, or rather that might be the primary goal of the testing.
Hallu, if someone is lost and their life depends on their GPS then they should have stayed in bed that morning. And I say that as someone who relies on my GPS for street nav far too much.
Keep in mind that the EPIRB system will still work since the sats can get a general triangulation, and the search aircraft can get a closer fix.