Posted on 04/30/2010 2:13:16 AM PDT by skeptoid
This 1,350-foot LORAN tower was the tallest structure in Alaska until Coast Guard civil engineers and Controlled Demolition Inc. brought it down at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Port Clarence, the Coast Guard says
(Excerpt) Read more at community.adn.com ...
Kind of odd how that fell. I’m thinking there were some guy wires that were “invisible”.
Timbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!
Loran is technologically no longer useful, and it sure sounds awful on a receiver.
Technology is an amazing thing. I remember when LORAN-C was not only used for navigation, but for time synchronization for communications systems.
(We’re only talking 25 years ago on the Digital European Backbone)
Now they use GPS for that. Wonder what happens if/when the GPS birds get flashed?
You don’t want to know. All the eggs are being put in one vulnerable basket.
I just read that one of two WAAS enabling GPS satellites went out of control,affecting the USA. Someone was posting something about using the LORAN system to augment, I think. Dang, off to find the article....
i remember boot camp horror stories for 1st set of orders...”you may get a Loran Station?”.....never happened got CGASMIA
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/bizav/1616-full.html#202426
It’s an AvwebBiz.com newsletter. The area to be affected in the next couple of weeks is in, drumroll please, ALASKA! Alaska, where they reeeally need WAAS GPS.
It isn’t the article about LORAN. I’ll have to keep digging.
The Coast Guard says LORAN-C isn't necessary for maritime navigation and the Department of Homeland Security says it's not needed as a backup for GPS, so by Feb. 8, you may not have it available to you, either. That has some pilots very concerned about the lack of a land-based redundancy for GPS. That doesn't seem to concern authorities who call it "an antiquated system no longer required by the armed forces, the transportation sector or the nation's security interests." The decision considers that LORAN-C is only used by "a small percentage of the population," and that those users "will have to shift to GPS or other systems." The bottom line is this: "LORAN-C is no longer prudent use of taxpayer funds and is not allowed under the 2010 DHS Appropriation Act," according to the Coast Guard.
Officially, "In accordance with the DHS Appropriations Act, the U.S. Coast Guard will terminate the transmission of all U.S. LORAN-C signals effective 2000Z 08 Feb 2010," writes the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard's Federal Register announcement clarifies that the Feb. 8 date is just the beginning of the shutdown and some signals may still be floating around after the date. According to the Federal Register notice, LORAN stations are expected to cease all LORAN-C transmissions by Oct. 1, 2010.
http://www.aviationtoday.com/av/categories/bga/Sole-Source-Dead-Long-Live-Loran_920.html
I'm opposed to cancelling cheap, effective, redundant systems that can be used to entirely replace the GPS systems in an emergency. GPS can be blocked or eliminated very easily in an attack whereas LORAN would be very difficult to interrupt. It's a bad deal to save a few bucks by shutting down a solid, dependable, cheap, and proven navigation system in favor of the pie-in-the-sky magic that is GPS.
I retired (1986) before the Army received its new ships. About a year after they arrived I paid a visit to get my nickel tour. The young WO1 watch officer checked my ID and skipper’s license. I was impressed with the staterooms - no crowded crew’s quarters with hard racks. On the bridge I asked to see the chart room. Not only was there no LORAN receiver, there was no RDF, no sexton, no sight reduction tables or chronometer. He had to think about it, finally remembering what I was talking about from his Navigation History class! Celestial Navigation isn’t even taught anymore!
He pointed out the GPS receiver. I asked how he’s navigate if it broke down. No answer.
Guyed towers are supposed to stack down onto themselves when they fail. This is what they are designed to do. It's a really bad day if you happen to be in the shack at the base when it happens, though......
Got it on a special, new, in 1994, for $900 installed. The avionics guy who installed it told me Loran C was gonna be phased out in 2000. That's 16 years of use for $900! I really wish they would keep it funded. It was far more accurate than the NDB approaches you're supposed to use. Unlike my ADF which would spin wildly every time I keyed my microphone, or a lighning strike was in the area, that Loran was perfect!
One thing that will happen is there will be A LOT of lost pilots flying around.....
And unlike Ron Brown’s mysteriously repositioned beacon, you can’t move the source and cause blacklisted political types to fly into obscured terrain whan they think they are on course and at a safe published altitude.
RIP Ron Brown, Crew, and SOB.
Don’t worry. They won’t be flying around very long. ;^(
Nobody has asked me to do that since around 2001. Something tells me they are a bit rusty at it.
Why? Is Obamalamadingdong coming after pilots, too?
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