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Navigational Transceiver

Numerous solutions have been offered to the problem of navigating Mars after the global positioning satellites surpassed their short operating lifespans. Without the benefit of a powerful planetary magnetosphere needed turn a compass needle, civilian caravanners have resorted to using sextants. The Tharsisian military, seeking to eliminate the use of error prone and inaccurate celestial navigation methods, implemented the radio navigation network.

A Navigational Transceiver is a Yagi type directional antenna connected to a belt mounted controller. The operator must take care to protect the sensitive vacuum tube electronics powering the controller. The directional antenna is used to locate radio navigation towers, judge the angle between any two such towers, and by plotting the angle on a map the operator may identify their position by resection (a method commonly, if erroneously known as triangulation).

Because the radio nav network would enable hostile agents to operate within the borders of Tharsis, use is limited by a secure frequency hopping sequence. Radio towers emit a 12 microsecond pulse, rapidly changing frequencies in tandem with a synchronized nav transceiver. An unauthorized user of an unsynchronized transceiver would detect only a brief radio pulse, indistinguishable from natural radio interference.

The depicted transceiver has been modified with a protective handgrip for use in extreme cold weather.

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