[time-nuts] LORAN-C demise

[Robert Darlington]

Hi guys,

Are there any manufacturers that currently produce LORAN receivers?  I
talked to a pilot friend who is very active in my area and he said he is
only aware of one person he knows that has a LORAN receiver in his aircraft
and the guy doesn't use it.  None of my other pilot buddies seem to know of
anybody even having a LORAN receiver in GA.  None of the planes I flew ever
had a LORAN receiver in them.  Between VOR beacons, GPS, street maps and a
compass, I don't see any need for a backup specifically in the scope of
general aviation.  If your visibility degrades to a point where you can't
see the ground, while simultaneously your standard cockpit instruments go
out, you have bigger problems than somebody jamming GPS.

My other buddy who runs a commercial fishing operation does rely on GPS to
an extent.  He basically said it would be an annoyance if it went out but
wouldn't be a show stopper.  He did say it would be pretty hard to find his
fishing spots without it though but navigating in coastal waters that he
knows would not be an issue.

>From what I'm reading, Uncle Sam has no need for LORAN for navigation which
is why it's going away.  From talking to my Navy buddy who was one of their
keepers of the time, they don't use LORAN for timing applications as he was
one of the guys that went around synchronizing the Cesium beams.  Is it
really that big of a deal if this system goes away?  I just don't see any
significant reason to keep it around as a backup for a very small minority
of people out there that would wish to continue to use it, especially for
our hobby.

That being said, is there such a thing as an NTP Disciplined Oscillator?
Although, GPS is probably more reliable than my Internet connection!

Thanks,
Bob

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:40 PM, Mark Spencer <mspencer12345 at yahoo.ca>wrote:

> Any thoughts on how complex a receiver would need to be to produce a 1 pps
> signal that was locked to the carrier frequency it was receiving ? Lot's
> of comercial transmitting equipment is designed to use an external frequency
> standard and if a transmitter at a high altitude site was locked to a cesium
> source it could serve a typical metroplitan area.   Locking an existing
> transmiiter to a cesium standard would not require any special signals or
> wave forms to be transmitted.  To be usefull the receiver would need to
> produce a standard 1 pps output.
>
> Stanley Reynolds wrote:
> > How about the Volunteer Association of GPS Backup for Timing, VAGBT ?
> > Propose of the group is to provide backup distribution of timing
> information for GPS users, via armature radio and cesium clocks. To develop
> many local transmit stations as possible and low cost receivers with both
> extended holdover and comparison to GPS to measure backup accuracy. Many low
> power transmitters would be required as the cost of continuous operation
> would be lower for each station, and the identification of less accurate
> stations possible if several in each location was avabile.
> > Stanley
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