One-way range and azimuth system for stationkeeping

Claim 1

IN A SYSTEM FOR MEASURING THE RANGE BETWEEN MULTIPLE RELATIVELY MOVABLE TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER UNITS ALL HAVING ACCURATE TIME CLOCKS INCLUDING COUNTERS FOR DETERMINING A CYCLIC SEQUENCE OF COINCIDING STANDARDIZED TIMES SLOTS WHEREIN EACH UNIT TRANSMITS A POSITION-MARKING SIGNAL AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS OWN TIME SLOT AND THE OTHER UNITS RECEIVE THE SIGNAL AND DETERMINE TRANSIT TIME AS MEASURED BY THEIR OWN TIME CLOCKS, MEANS FOR OCCASIONALLY SYNCHORNIZING THE TIME CLOCKS IN EACH UNIT SELECTED AS A FOLLOWER UNIT WITH THE TIME CLOCK IN ONE UNIT SELECT AS THE MASTER UNIT, COMPRISING: (A) MEANS FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING INFORMATION BETWEEN A FOLLOWER UNIT AND THE MASTER UNIT TO DETERMINE THE TRUE RANGE THEREBETWEEN; (B) AUXILIARY COUNTING MEANS IN THAT FOLLOWER UNIT FOR COUNTING UP AN INTERVAL OF TIME EQUAL TO SAID TRUE RANGE AND HOLDING THE COUNT; (C) MEANS IN THAT FOLLOWER UNIT FOR CONTINUING THE COUNT OF SAID COUNTING MEANS AT THE INSTANT IN A SUBSEQUENT TIME SLOT IN WHICH A POSITION-MARKING SIGNAL IS RECEIVED FROM THE MASTER UNIT AND FOR ENDING THE COUNT WHEN THE TOTAL ACCUMULATED COUNT EQUALS THE LENGTH OF A STANDARDIZED TIME SLOT; AND (D) MEANS FOR CORRECTING THE TIME CLOCK IN THAT FOLLOWER UNIT IN A DIRECTION TO SYNCHRONIZE THE END OF A TIME SLOT AS DETERMINED BY THE LOCAL CLOCK COUNTER WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE LOCAL AUXILIARY COUNTING MEANS AT SAID TOTAL COUNT.