A method and apparatus for active location acquisition. An active location acquisition controller is included in a device. The active location acquisition controller can be a circuit or code running on a processor included in the device. A measurement collection request is communicated to the device. The device then determines if and how a location information is to be acquired. If the device determines that the location information is to be acquired, the device enables a location acquisition system to acquire the location information and the device then acquires the requested measurement and stores the requested measurement and the location information in the measurement log. If the device determines that the location information is not to be acquired, the device disables a location acquisition system and does not acquire the location information and the device then acquires the requested measurement and stores the requested measurement in the measurement log.