System and method for locating items and places

A method of using a locator, the method comprising:

• a. transmitting a first set of information from a first unit to a second unit by using a narrow band transmission protocol;
• b. receiving the first unit transmission at the second unit;
• c. transmitting a second set of information from the second unit to the first unit upon a first ID match;
• d. receiving the second unit transmission at the first unit;
• and
• e. presenting data at the first unit to a user upon a second ID match, the data comprising directional information to the second unit;
• wherein the data further includes a graphical arrow which indicates a calculated height difference between the first unit and the second unit, points toward the second unit regardless of the orientation of the first unit and is graphically filled proportionally to a received power as an indication of a distance between the first unit and the second unit, and further wherein the presenting includes the first unit beeping at a pitch that changes proportionally to a received power as an indication of a distance between the first unit and the second unit.

A method of overcoming multipath effects, the method comprising:

• a. computing at least one bearing to a first unit over multiple frequencies and transmitting antennas;
• b. processing statistics of bearing results;
• c. determining a cyclic average of the bearing results;
• d. calculating an overall variance;
• e. assessing quality of a computed bearing result based on the overall variance;
• and
• f. upon assessing, either displaying the computed bearing result on a second unit or disqualifying the computed bearing.

A method of using a locator, the method comprising:

• a. transmitting a first set of information including a first destination address and a first source address directly from a first unit to a second unit by using a narrow band transmission protocol;
• b. receiving the first unit transmission at the second unit;
• c. transmitting a second set of information including a second destination address and a second source address from the second unit to the first unit if there is a first source address match in response to receiving the first unit transmission;
• d. receiving the second unit transmission at the first unit;
• e. presenting data at the first unit to a user if there is a second source address match in response to receiving the second unit transmission, the data comprising directional information to the second unit, the directional information a graphical arrow which indicates a calculated height difference between the first unit and the second unit, points toward the second unit regardless of the orientation of the first unit and is graphically filled proportionally to a received power independent of the orientation of the first unit as an indication of a distance between the first unit and the second unit, wherein presenting the data comprises the first unit beeping at a beep rate that changes proportionally to a received power as an indication of a distance between the first unit and the second unit;
• and
• f. always refraining from presenting the data at the first unit to the user in response to receiving the second unit transmission if the second source address match does not occur.