Patent Document ID: 7965231
Application ID: 12184999

Base Claim:
1. A method of communicating between a plurality of navigation devices comprising: obtaining positional information for a first navigation device by assessing a plurality of global positioning satellite signals; generating a data signal for transmission to a plurality of other devices, the data signal including a latitude value obtained from the positional information for the first navigation device, a longitude value obtained from the positional information for the first navigation device, and an identification of the first navigation device; transmitting the data signal to a communication device through a signal cable, wherein the communication device is separate from the first navigation device; and transmitting the data signal, utilizing the communication device, to a plurality of other navigation devices such that each of the plurality of navigation devices can identify and display a geographic position of the first navigation device.

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Claim 6:
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data signal is a National Marine Electronics (NMEA) signal, the NMEA signal includes 82 characters, wherein: character 1 is a dollar sign, characters 2 through 6 is a transmission type, character 7 is a fix status, characters 8 through 9 is a latitude degree, character 10 is a period, characters 11 through 15 is latitude minutes, character 16 is a latitude direction, characters 17 through 19 is a longitude degree, character 20 is a period, characters 21 through 25 are longitude minutes, characters 26 is a latitude direction, characters 27 through 29 is an altitude value, characters 30 through 32 is a course bearing value, characters 33 through 34 is a speed value, characters 35 through 44 is a name identification, characters 45 through 50 is a SCODE value, characters 51 through 52 is a group identification, characters 53 through 54 is a status value, characters 55 through 56 is a ICON value, characters 57 through 62 is a date value, characters 63 through 68 is a time value, character 69 is an asterisk, and characters 69 through 82 are a checksum and sentence delimiter.