Got a smartphone or satnav (GPS) but still can’t get a fix on where you are? A new positioning system could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your bearings again.
Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to project a radio signal over a localised area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as out, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cellphone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
“I have blah-blah insurance so person come help!”
The US Navy had a radio navigation system called LORAN that got a fix on radio transmissions from land based stations. There was one about 40 miles from here (near Moses Lake, WA) with three very tall towers. Is this a modern implementation of that system? Sure sounds like it might be.
Captain to navigator at 0:dark:30 – “Who blew up the !^%$^&*&%! tower!?!”