Vacuum tube Global Positioning Receiver
I belong to an email list for people interested in accurate timekeeping.
There has been a fascinating discussion whether a Global Positioning Receiver (GPS) could be built with Vacuum tubes. It was first broached as a joke on a different thread but as threads are wont to do, it has taken on a life of its own and people are seriously analyzing this non-trivial problem.
The upshot is that it looks feasible. Even maintaining an almanac can be done with 1940's synchronous resolver technology and some analog computing.
Fun stuff!
Posted by DaveH at June 22, 2013 6:50 PM