HFDL Strange position report

[GB46]

It's like an April Fool's joke, except it didn't happen on April 1: This morning I decoded a position report from a Fedex flight, showing "LAT 180 0 0 N LON 180 0 0 E". The longitude would put the plane right on the date line, effectively neither east nor west, but where on earth is 180 North? Actually nowhere on earth as far as I know, since latitude measurements only reach +/- 90 degrees with respect to the equator -- or do I have to go back to school and repeat my geography class?

This morning was the second time I'd seen that, and each time it was a Fedex flight. All the other position reports make sense.

 

[spacellamaman]

so that's where my package is!

at least someone can track it.

 

[GB46]

so that's where my package is!

at least someone can track it.

It must have passed over the North Pole before achieving orbit, and your parcel was probably snatched by Santa Claus. He can't get out to shop for gifts nowadays, due to the pandemic.

 

[littona]

I would think it's not getting a GPS fix, so it's sending out a default position. Similar to the Garmin GPS units that default to Garmin HQ in Kansas until they get a fix.

 

[GB46]

I would think it's not getting a GPS fix, so it's sending out a default position. Similar to the Garmin GPS units that default to Garmin HQ in Kansas until they get a fix.

Possibly, but why would it default to an impossible latitude? A longitude of 180 East makes sense, but I'd expect a default latitude to be 0 North, or maybe 90 North. Of course, I have no experience with GPS units, having never used one.

 

[mmckenna]

Possibly, but why would it default to an impossible latitude? A longitude of 180 East makes sense, but I'd expect a default latitude to be 0 North, or maybe 90 North. Of course, I have no experience with GPS units, having never used one.

Likely so it shows up as an obvious error and not something that could be real (but unlikely).

 

[hill]

Most likely something wrong with the equipment on the aircraft. Some foreign C-130s show up on ADB-S at speeds much higher than the C-130 can fly at times, so would think the aircraft transmission data is wrong.

 

[GB46]

Most likely something wrong with the equipment on the aircraft. Some foreign C-130s show up on ADB-S at speeds much higher than the C-130 can fly at times, so would think the aircraft transmission data is wrong.

That was what I was thinking, too. It was Fedex in both instances, and on separate days, but unfortunately I forgot to keep track of the flight numbers and aircraft registration numbers each time, so I'm not sure if it was the same aircraft or not. I'll keep my HFDL log files on hand from now on.