[time-nuts] European LORAN-C

[asmagal at fc.up.pt]

What a pitty!

I am currently receiving the Xray/Soustons of the 6731 LESSAY chain
in very good conditions (day and night). The Loran-C phase record
against one of my TBolts never exceeds 50 nS and I wish I could have
a predominant over-land path to investigate some possible (?!) seismic
perturbations. Estartit would be a must!

Best regards from Portugal
Antonio
CT1TE: 41 21 10.344N; 08 23 01.394W

Quoting Marco IK1ODO <ik1odo at spin-it.com>:

> 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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