Large scale distributed measurement systems are the object of several applications and research works. The goal of the present work is to develop, by employing GPS receivers, measurement techniques suited to the continuous monitoring of the electrical quantities in distribution networks, in terms of synchronized phasors. The proposed measurement procedures, differently from commercially available Phasor Measurements Units (PMUs), are based on general-purpose acquisition hardware and processing software, thus guaranteeing the possibility to be easily reconfigured and reprogrammed, according to the specific requirements of the different possible fields of application and to their future developments.