[time-nuts] LORAN C simulator operational

Peter Vince pvince at theiet.org
Tue Dec 8 22:47:46 UTC 2009


Hello Paul,

     I have just been to the British National Physical Laboratory's
bi-annual "Time and Frequency" meeting in London, and gained the
strong impression that LORAN was far from dead.  Apparently there was
a meeting in Prague recently, with Britain, France, and Norway all
behind eLoran, and Norway apparently has a mutual operability
agreement with Russia for their equivalent ("Chayka"?).  Certainly the
British transmitter has at least another 8 years to go on their
initial ten-year contract.  Despite recent pessimism on here from some
US members recently, I gained the strong impression today that the
annual $36 million operating cost was frankly such a drop in the ocean
(pardon the pun) that they would likely finance eLoran somehow, if not
by the current means.  And I seem to remember we went around this
scare story last year, and I was confused by the apparent will to
close down Loran-C, but introduce eLoran - as if they were two
different systems, whereas the latter is just an upgrade on the
former.  Could this be politicians and accountants double-talk?

     It was further suggested today that despite the popularity of
GPS-World, www.pnt.org (a US government web site) was likely a more
reliable source of information.  So, don't throw out all your Austron
2100's yet - all is not yet lost!

     Regards,

          Peter Vince  (London, England)

(Can I just clarify: the opinions above are mine, obtained from the
floor of the meeting today, and don't represent the official view of
NPL!)



More information about the time-nuts mailing list