Goodbye, Loran

[tx1961whaler]

Washington -- Good night, Loran.

In a series of small ceremonies, the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday afternoon will shut down Loran-C, a navigation and timing system that has guided mariners and aviators since World War II.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/08/loran.navigation.shutdown/index.html?hpt=T2

 

[rbh]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

It sounds like we Canadians as well as the Mexican goverment will be keeping ours turned on, not quite the same cell coverage on our shores.

 

[i386]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

Wow, I didn't know the system was still in use. I assumed it was replaced by GPS.

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

wow.....I have actually used loran to navigate on the ocean before. Kinda weird to see it just go away like that.

 

[JRJ]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

I had a Loran before GPS. Got me back in several times.

 

[i386]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

My Grandad used Loran on his commercial fishing boat. IIRC it was just a box with a simple LED display for "coordinates". Many of the charts in the wheelhouse had Loran lines on them.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Goodbye, Loran

I remember Loran A back when I was a kid messing around on sailboats. You had to manually tune it with the Oscilloscope from at least 3 different combinations of signals to get a fix. Took me about 15 minutes altogether if I remember correctly.

Loran C was a big improvement but no where near as accurate as GPS. I love my chartplotting GPS.

Does anyone know if Decca is still in use?