[geeks] gps on plane

[wa2egp at att.net]

> Hmmm... that was my initial thought, but it makes you wonder if you shield the
> sensitive parts well enough, will they still be able to function properly? 
> Obviously
> I'm no EE, so my suggestions may be impractical, but it seems damn irresponsible 
> of
> the industry to allow aircraft to apparently be so vulnerable :-/

The (former) USSR fighters used to use vacuum tube radios since
a nice EMP from a nuclear blast would fry transistors. 
 
Not only the airline industry. 
Remember the stories of the old Audi where people would "confuse 
the accelerator with the brake" and numerous crashes were 
explained by "driver error". (The Audi 5000 "terminator"....)
They were also very susepible to RFI.  A few years before, there
was an article in QST magazine about completely shielding the
wiring in an Audi since the car would accelerate when the author of
the article would transmit on his ham radio.  Imagine if one of 
those were near a trucker with a CB linear, police car, a 
commercial airplane overhead (they don't run a few watts).
I used to have a great time setting off car alarms when I was
on 15 mtrs in the car. 

It's all about money.  TV manufacturers
would not spend an extra $0.25/set to put in interference filters.
Been there, done that, don't want the tee shirt. (Had a penpal
at the FCC office for over a year.)    Bob