Tom, this would be taking advantage of the irregularities of the GPS receive antenna to determine the orientation of the antenna.
For example, if the GPS antenna were a Yagi, and it was pointed with the major lobe in an Easterly direction, when you listen to a satellite in the East, you know it's location and you can observe a high signal strength. A satellite in the West might have a low signal strength, or be missing. Now this thought experiment is loaded with issues; for example, external attenuation, multi-path, multiple lobes, small gain differences, etc., but we're just having fun here. Mike - AA8K Tom Van Baak wrote:
Mike, The calculations tell you where on the globe you are. Correct, from this you can easily calculate angle and distance to either pole. But the receiver cannot "indicate" this angle. Meaning if you hold a GPS antenna in your hand you may know you have to aim 75 degrees and walk 5000 km to the North pole but you still have no idea how to turn around to take that first step. A static GPS receiver is a point device, not a pointing device. On the other hand a magnetic compass is a pointing device, not a point device. That's why some navigation units combine both. If you just want to travel then as Confucius say: journey of a thousand miles begins with single step. But if you want to reach a particular destination then journey of a thousand miles must begin with single step in correct direction. ;-) /tvb
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