Hi Dave:
You can get the Polaris Guide (civilian version of the DAGR). A fire
tower might have a good view of the GPS satellites. To use the single
receiver North Finding function you would start at the top of the tower
and instead of walking to the second point you could slide the GPS
receiver down a sloping line to someone on the ground at a point also
with a good view of the sky. This would give you an accurate bearing
(much better than 1 degree). The problem is the Polaris Guide is pricey,
but you might be able to find a used late model PLGR or DAGR.
Have Fun,
Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
David Smith wrote:
Thanks for all the interesting responses.
Some background - I'm needing an accuracy of 1 degree or better. The
experiments are using digital communication modes and sometimes
aircraft scatter so signals are regularly inaudible and often
non-existent, so peaking "by ear" is not usually an option.
I've paced out direction using a handheld GPS (GPSMap 60CSX) and this
gives reasonable results if there's a reasonable baseline. It's a bit
impractical when operating from a firetower though!
Using Sun/Moon/Stars is difficult when there's cloud. We've tried
using Sun RF Noise, but accuracy declines significantly when the sun
is high in the sky.
VOR is an interesting suggestion, but a very sharp (and large) antenna
would be needed and multi-pathing may cause problems.
So, my interest turns back to a GPS-based solution and the military
units suggested by Brooke look perfect ... except that they are most
likely a restricted export and unavailable to us Down Under.
Other links on Brooke's site have lead me to many papers researching
GPS-based attitude systems. I note that the Uni of Calgary have
developed a package called HEADRT+ that can take raw measurements from
several GPS mounted on a small baseline and produce attitude
information. This is the sort of thing I'm after, but I get the
impression that licensing costs are high.
As Atilla says, the software is probably not that fundamentally
complicated. However, the devil is possibly in the detail of aligning
sample timing, positioning ...
Any other suggestions?
Regards,
Dave
_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
--
Have Fun,
Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
