GPS and similar satellite navigation systems revolutionized how you keep track of where you are and what time it is. However, it isn’t without its problems. For one, it generally doesn’t work very well indoors or in certain geographic or weather scenarios. It can be spoofed. Presumably, a real or virtual attack could take the whole system down.

Addressing these problems is a new system called Broadcast Positioning System (BPS). It uses upgraded ATSC 3.0 digital TV transmitters to send exact time information from commercial broadcast stations. With one signal, you can tell what time it is within 100 ns 95% of the time. If you can hear four towers, you can not only tell the time, but also estimate your position within about 100 m.

The whole thing is new — we’ve read that there are only six transmitters currently sending such data. However, you can get a good overview from these slides from the National Association of Broadcasters. They point out that the system works well indoors and can work with GPS, help detect if GPS is wrong, and stand in for GPS if it were to go down suddenly.

If all digital TV stations adopt this, the presentation mentions that there would be 516 VHF stations operating with up to 10 kW over two widely separated bands. That adds to 1,526 UHF stations running between 100 kW to 1000 kW. So lots of power and very diverse in terms of frequencies. Coverage is spotty in some parts of the country, though. A large part of the western United States would lack visibility of the four stations required for a position fix. Of course, currently there are only five or six stations, so this is theoretical at this point.

The Real Story

If you read the slide deck, the real story is at the end in the backup slides. That shows the ATSC standard frame and how the preamble changes. The math is fairly standard stuff. You know where the stations are, you know what time they think they sent the signal, and you can estimate the range to each station. With three or four stations, you can get a good idea of where you must be based on the relative receive times.

The stations diversify their time sources, which helps guard against spoofing. For example, they may get time information from GPS, the network, a local atomic clock, and even neighboring stations, and use that to create an accurate local time that they send out with their signal.

Learn More

Most of the slides come from more detailed white papers you can find on the NAB website. A lot of the site is dedicated to explaining why you can’t live without GPS, but you can’t depend on it, either. The bottom right part of the page has the technical papers you’ll probably be more interested in.

GPS is an impressive system, but we know it needs some help. BPS reminded us a bit of LORAN.

hackaday.com/2025/04/11/gps-br…

Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they talk about the best stories and hacks of the week. This episode starts off with a discussion of the Vintage Computer Festival East and Philadelphia Maker Faire — two incredible events that just so happened to be scheduled for the same weekend. From there the discussion moves on to the latest developments in DIY soft robotics, the challenge of running Linux on 8-pin ICs, hardware mods to improve WiFi reception on cheap ESP32 development boards, and what’s keeping old smartphones from being reused as general purpose computers.

You’ll also hear about Command and Conquer: Red Alert running on the Pi Pico 2, highly suspect USB-C splitters, and producing professional looking PCBs at home with a fiber laser. Stick around to the end to hear about the current state of non-Google web browsers, and a unique new machine that can engrave circuit boards with remarkable accuracy.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/…

As always, the Hackaday Podcast is available as a DRM-free MP3 download.

Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast

Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:

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• Check out our Libsyn landing page

Episode 316 Show Notes:

News:

• Celebrating 30 Years Of Windows 95 At VCF
• In 2025, The Philly Maker Faire Finds Its Groove

What’s that Sound?

• Congratulations to [laserkiwi] for winning a Hackaday Podcast t-shirt!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• Salamander Robot Is Squishy
  
  • The Future of Robots is Soft (and Squishy!) – YouTube
  • These Electronics-free Robots Can Walk Right Off the 3D-Printer
  • FlowIO Platform

  
  

• 8 Pins For Linux
  
  • Building The Worst Linux PC Ever

  
  

• Simple Antenna Makes For Better ESP32-C3 WiFi
  
  • ESP32 Range Extender / Antenna Modification

  
  

• LayerLapse Simplifies 3D Printer Time-lapse Shots
• Turning Old Cellphones Into SBCs
  
  • IOIO – Wikipedia

  
  

• Ben Eater Vs. Microsoft BASIC
  
  • A Very Trippy Look At Microsoft’s Beginnings

  
  

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks:
  
  • A Tiny Tape Synth
  • If You’re 3D Scanning, You’ll Want A Way To Work With Point Clouds
  • Why USB-C Splitters Can Cause Magic Smoke Release

  
  

• Tom’s Picks:
  
  • Tracking The ISS Made Easy
  • Command And Conquer Ported To The Pi Pico 2
  • Fiber Laser Gives DIY PCBs A Professional Finish

  
  

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Which Browser Should I Use In 2025?
  
  • qutebrowser

  
  

• Supercon 2024: Quick High-Feature Boards With The Circuit Graver

hackaday.com/2025/04/11/hackad…

If you are a visual thinker, you might enjoy [AIHVHIA’s] recent video, which shows the effect of applying audio processing to text displayed on an oscilloscope. The video is below.

Of course, this presupposes you have some way to display text on an oscilloscope. Audio driving the X and Y channels of the scope does all the work. We aren’t sure exactly how he’s doing that, but we suspect it is something like Osci-Render.

Does this have any value other than art? It’s hard to say. Perhaps the effect of panning audio on text might give you some insight into your next audio project. Incidentally, panning certainly did what you would expect it to do, as did the pass filters. But some of the effects were a bit surprising. We still want to figure out just what’s happening with the wave folder.

If text isn’t enough for you, try video. Filtering that would probably be pretty entertaining, too. If you want to try your own experiments, we bet you could do it all — wave generation and filtering — in GNU Radio.

youtube.com/embed/47jlny15IEc?…

hackaday.com/2025/04/11/audio-…

Il dettaglio elenca "attività connesse alla vita sociale, ad esempio accompagnatori e di accompagnatrici (escort)", le agenzie "di incontro e matrimoniali" e poi la "fornitura o organizzazione di servizi sessuali", l'organizzazione di "eventi di prostituzione o gestione di locali di prostituzione", e l'organizzazione di "incontri e altre attività di speed networking".

agi.it/economia/news/2025-04-1…

Il presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump ha firmato un ordine esecutivo che elimina le restrizioni federali sulla quantità d’acqua utilizzabile dai soffioni delle docce. La misura cancella i limiti introdotti dalle amministrazioni Obama e Biden, che fissavano il massimo flusso a nove litri al minuto per favorire il risparmio idrico. Nel testo si legge che gli americani "pagano la propria acqua e devono essere liberi di scegliere come fare la doccia, senza intrusioni federali".

Ma non erano i woke quelli che, con tutti i problemi seri che ci sono, stavano a preoccuparsi di cose futili come l'identità di genere, il binarismo sessuale, ecc.?

E questo fa un ordine esecutivo per farsi la doccia con tanta acqua?

agi.it/estero/news/2025-04-10/…