Great Moments in History: Manpack GPS

When I reflect on the ~$400 it cost me for my GPSr a couple years ago, I find it helpful to take a peek back in time (to 1980) to put it all in perspective.  Try one of these on for size, the Manpack Global Positioning System Receiver.  At $45,000 and 17 lbs apiece I think Geocaching would have struggled to take off were it introduced in 1980.  My $400 doesn’t seem so steep in perspective and the fact that it has to lock one satellite at a time is another matter entirely.

Sheesh, and I complain when I can only “see” 7 or 8 satellites.

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