eLORAN

[fgentges at mindspring.com]

Joe,

The original LORAN system was deployed during WWII, used the 160 meter 
band and continued for some time afterwords but was shut down and the 
band was returned to the hams as it had been before the war.

A later version was deployed on 100 kHz and is still in use in some 
countries.  It is not a global system so they are more of a regional 
system.  At one point the system in the US was being expanded to provide 
stations in the mid-america so the system could be used for aircraft 
navigation.  Then the success of GPS caused the expansion to halt and 
later to shut down all the US transmitters. :-(

I am not certain if the British eLORAN is a variant of LORAN C but I 
suspect it is to take advantage of the installed base of receivers and 
transmitters.  The LORAN C system works very well and modern receivers 
use microprocessors etc. to produce a map display.

The early LORAN systems both on 160 meters and 100 kHz used an 
oscilloscope type display and required a series of special maps and user 
skill to navigate with them.  The microprocessors made a huge 
difference.  I got a receiver at a hamfest, put it in my car and it 
reported latitude and longitude but no maps. A problem was that road 
maps from the gas stations did not have latitude and longitude. 
Instead, you needed maps from the government which did not show roads 
very well.  Nonetheless, it was a fun system to run.

Frank K0BRA


On 10/31/2014 8:57 AM, joseph at kirtland.com wrote:
> Are there any LORAN restrictions still in effect on 160 meters?
>
> Joe, N6DGY
>
>
> Original email:
> -----------------
> From: fgentges at mindspring.com fgentges at mindspring.com
> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 08:41:33 -0400
> To: tacos at amrad.org
> Subject: Re: eLORAN
>
>
> When I worked for the US Navy, I was the navigation policy officer and I
> was a strong advocate of LORAN C as a backup for GPS.  We had an
> installed base of modern LORAN C receivers on our ships and the Coast
> Guard had the installed base of LORAN C transmitters.  All we had to do
> was the cost of maintenance and operation, both which were not that great.
>
> We would hear of shutting down LORAN C from time to time but the US Navy
> would not go along with that.
>
> Since that the Coast Guard decided to shut down the LORAN C transmitter
> sites.  That was a bad policy decision.
>
> Now the US Navy will have to use celestial navigation as back up.  They
> can probably do it but the loss of LORAN C makes it a speciality of a
> limited group of naval officers trained at the Naval Academy.
>
> Frank K0BRA
>
>
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