Texas Instruments TI4100 GPSr (from 1985)

[The Garner Family]

Engadget had a <a href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000430055334/">nice entry</a> that listed an August 1985 version of the (then) bulletin board.
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What I found interesting was their review of the newly released Texas Instruments TI4100 GPSr.
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"Damn, dude, GPS (that stands for global position system) receivers are shrinking like crazy. We thought things were getting out of hand when we saw those $140,000 four-channel receivers that only weigh 80 pounds and need two car batteries to run, but the Texas Instruments TI4100 gets away with reducing that size by halving the channels, yet it still plots longitudinal and latitudinal coordinatesÂ… simultaneously, no less. Welcome to the future, friends."
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Wouldn't you love lugging that thing around in the bush!?!

[Kerry]

Now in August 1985 considering there were only 6 Block 1 satellites in orbit the number of channels weren't a big deal. Trying to even see 3 sats at the same time was a feat.

Cheers, Kerry.

[caughtatwork]

I'm more worried about the little space ship you need to launch (see left of picture) in order to get a signal amongst the trees.