Sat-nav can do more than navigate

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8690342.stm

Quote:

The latest generation of satellite navigation devices can do more than just navigate.

Interesting -

Well, they gotta do something to get you to buy a new one. Can't say I would buy any of the three for their offerings though.

better clocks and timebases--

Another non-nav use of GPS is in timekeeping and the related area of frequency standards.

Since GPS is at its core a very accurate flying clock, GPS makes it easy to keep accurate time, and also to use those signals to maintain very accurate frequency standards.

An early adopter of these technologies was the cell phone industry. Just about every cell tower has at least one GPS receiver which is used not only for timekeeping but to keep all the equipment in the cell tower operating at the proper frequency.

Using GPS signals to automagically adjust a lower precision quartz crystal clock can produce frequency standards that approach cesium (atomic clock) accuracy and stability.

And you can buy these things on eBay for less than $200.

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows