[amsat-bb] Re: Good Night, Loran

[Art McBride]

Loran C was only accurate near the US Coast Guard stations that provided the
corrections to each chain. The Correction stations were located where the
lines of position crossed at near right angles. If you were near the end of
the chain the errors could be in excess of 1/2 NM 
The use of differential Loran was popular before differential GPS which
dialed out selective availability just as Loran corrections did for Loran
errors. Loran was always an area navigation system. Good as it was in the
center of its coverage it still only provided coastal navigation. GPS as it
states is a global system you can use it anywhere in the World with good
accuracy. Both of these systems were very good replacements for
non-directional beacons in the 200KHz to 400KHz range that required Radio
Direction Finding technology. 
In the 50's and 60's Fishing Vessels sailing out of Southern California
could find the fishing grounds off of Guadalupe Island by using aircraft
charts and Loran A signals 1H4 from San Pedro and 3H3 out of Galveston Texas
on a Sky wave. Position was relative but got the fleet to the same place. 
Art,
KC6UQH
 

-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
Behalf Of Howie DeFelice
Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 3:03 PM
To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] Good Night, Loran


Minor clarification, Loran-A was used from WW-2 until it was turned off in
the 1980's I believe. The current system, Loran-C was in commercial use
starting in the late 70's. When Loran-C was used for returning to a
previously stored waypoint, it's accuracy was almost as good as current GPS
and better than the early "dithered" commercial GPS service.

Howie
AB2S
 		 	   		  
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