[time-nuts] European LORAN-C

Marco IK1ODO ik1odo at spin-it.com
Wed Jul 27 19:58:22 UTC 2011


At 17:37 26/07/2011, you wrote:
>In message <20110726173114.63txv1m944ss00ss at webmail.fc.up.pt>, 
>asmagal at fc.up.pt
>  writes:
>
> >Would someone tell me, please, if the Master, at Sellia Marina,
> >or the Slave X, at Lampedusa, of the 79900 Mediterranean Chain
> >are still in operation.
>
>As far as I know, they are not, and have not been since the USCG
>left them approx 20 years ago.

I confirm by direct experience. I went to Sellia Marina on Dec. 30th, 
1997. The station was almost abandoned, and had been handled to the 
Italian Coast Guard since several months.
One of the two 300 kW transmitters had been cannibalized, and the 
other one was out of service with a defective cooling system. The 
antenna mast was in good shape, and the equipment, including the 
atomic clocks, was switched off. I was impressed by the station 
control computer (a PDP-8). The station timer was also out of order 
and needed extensive service.
At the time, the Turkish station was out of service, the mast was 
down because of a tornado. A replacement mast, arrived from Japan, 
was never erected. The two transmitters in Lampedusa Island were off 
service, one cannibalized, in the other a rat exploded into the HV 
power supply.
The Spanish station in Estartit was closed, and the Italian Coast 
Guard had not been able to inspect it.
The Sellia Marina mast has been dismantled since then. I still have 
the schematic diagrams of the transmitters, I had to restore them in 
operation, but the project was cancelled. The extimated cost of the 
transmitting tubes (mainly old glass triodes by ITT), to be purchased 
to restore the transmitters and have a reserve for the network, was 
then approx 1 million Euro.

So, R.I.P. chain 7990 :-(

73 - Marco IK1ODO





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