Abstract: Time of transit of a propagated electric signal at lightspeed is used as a measure of distance from a transmitter (laser 32) to a receiver (photodetector 39) via a target (reflector 14). A continuous modulating signal of fixed frequency (10.700 MHz) is transmitted. The distance traversed is measured by a timer which compares the phase at transmission with that at reception. The invention involves a heterodyne down-conversion technique involving two crystal oscillators (30, 31), which are phase-locked to assure that one regulates the other to keep their frequencies in linear proportional relationship, both being at the transmitter location, which transfer the phase difference to a 10.45 kHz frequency, thereby facilitating high resolution and precision mesurement by extending the time measure representing distance.