Originally Posted by hamster3null
Or maybe there's no reflector at all, we just have a transmitter on the aircraft with its own clock that is used to timestamp the transmission, and we're making deductions based on the timestamp and the reception time. Then we also have to wonder how accurate the clock in the transmitter is.
If you haven't already seen it,
post 7124 gives an excellent explanation of how the satellite and aircraft keep in precise synchronisation without having the need for the aircraft to have a clock to the same standard as the satellite's.