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The Global Positioning System : GPS paving the way.

My involvement in the radio hobby over the last three decades has brought me in touch with various aspects of the hobby and has put me in touch with numerous people within the hobby. Be it in my capacity as an author, a lecturer, or as Vice President of one of the country's largest amateur radio clubs (LIMARC), all too often I hear the same topic being discussed in various venues. Be it scanning, short-wave listening, or amateur radio, the shakers and movers of the hobby often ponder the question of how do we bring new kids in to the hobby?

In this day an age, with IPODS, IM's, text-messaging, X-boxes, XM, Sirrius, and all sorts of other gadgets....sometimes the mystique that attracted us to radio just isn't the same for the kids of today. Sure, some will be attracted to our hobby as they always have but it is a hard sell. However, one technology that keeps improving and always seems to get kids interested is the Global Positioning System or as it is most commonly known...GPS. In fact, most kids probably wouldn't even know what the Global Positioning System is but just say GPS and they will know that! At the recent Winter Short-wave Listener's Fest my good friend Skip Arey - N2EI gave a presentation on the GPS system that caused me to reflect on the issue and I hope to impart to you the enthusiasm that I gained at this seminar. I will briefly describe how the system works, the origins of the system, the various uses and modalities for the system, and most importantly how you can tie this in with the radio hobby.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a system of 24 satellites that was placed into orbit by the Department of Defense to form a satellite-based navigation network. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980's, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather condition, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day and the best part of it is that it's free!

The system provides specially coded satellite signals that are processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position, velocity and time. The receiver must receive the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2D position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. Locked on to four or more satellites the receiver can determine the user's 3D position (latitude, longitude and altitude) thus giving it the ability to calculate all sorts of data such as speed, bearing, trip

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