Importance

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Abstract

An area navigational system using geosynchronous satellites is disclosed. The navigational system comprises a master satellite and seven slave satellites uniformly disposed in geosynchronous orbit above the equator of the earth. The master satellite comprises a master tone oscillator producing a reference tone which is transmitted to the immediate neighboring slave satellites which in turn, serially relays the reference tone to the remaining slave satellites such that each slave satellite receives the reference tone. Each slave satellite comprises a slave tone oscillator which is synchronized by the reference tone to be in phase with the phase of the master tone oscillator. The output of the master tone oscillator and the slave tone oscillators are frequency modulated and transmitted to the earth. A receiver on a mobile craft receives three of such transmissions and demodulates the carrier frequencies to recover the three tones. The phases of the tones are compared with one another to obtain two hyperbolic lines of positions whose intersection defines the position of the mobile craft. The foregoing abstract is merely a resume of one general application, is not a complete discussion of all principles of operation or applications, and is not to be construed as a limitation on the scope of the claimed subject matter.

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First Claim