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Random Quote: You can sleep on your boat, but you can't fish in your living room.
My boat is equipped with Loran and gps. I use the Loran when fishing offshore. I've been told that Loran will be turned off...Is this true? and if so, when???? Thanks, Homey.
I doubt that it will be turned off anytime soon. It is still used in most of the rest of the sea-coast world and it is their ships visiting our ports, not ours visiting theirs, that will keep the system available for a good while to come .... if my guess is correct.
The long term need to retain Loran continues to be evaluated and in the mean-time it continues to operate.
There appears to separate camps with Loran with some wanting to hold on to Loran regardless. Howvever this is generally not reflected from the (once many) manufacturers of Loran equipment.
Some of the reasons to retain Loran are rather obscure. Ones like retaining it as a backup for GPS, but Loran is to use GPS timing and as far as GPS disruptions (either intentional or not) GPS outages are a rare event and in the event of an outright attack GPS is much easier to defend than a Loran system as far as hardware is concerned.
Loran-C signals (for the limited world coverage, mainly North America and Europe) supposedly can only be denied with the use of explosives if anybody really wanted to disrupt the system that bad and really Loran towers are very susceptable. Maybe this is one reason why the US handed back the Loran sites to the host nations, complete with transmitters, antenna all in working order. Those countries then turned around and fired them up again as the North European Loran System (NELS). The EU also tried to get the USA to put GPS under civilian or NATO control, which was never ever ever ever going to happen anyway
Really the issue with Loran is the Politics and there will probably be no end to politics especially when organisations want funding to keep systems transmitting that really nobody listens to (much anymore).
Somebody has to make a decision sooner than latter as right now this on again, off again, on again (for now) status of Loran doesn't appear to be going anywhere, for now anyway.
Thank you for the responses. I like my loran/plotter, its eay to use and positioned directly infront of the helm. I hope the Loran stays up, It gives me more navigation options.
The gps is a Raytheon V850, fishfinder/plotter.(1990) It has many features and is abit more complicated to operate. I hope to figure it out this winter...Homey
LORAN will be in service for at least the next ten years. It is used by virtually every commercial aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires a secondary navigation system to GPS for instrument aided landings. It is a safety of flight issue, need the redundancy of both systems in case one fails. For commercial aircraft the FAA requires 99.99+ percent reliabilty. Until the FAA determines that GPS is reliable enough to not need a secondary system, LORAN will remain in service.
As a recreational boater I would not go out of my way to have both. As noted in an earlier post the reliability of GPS is very good, But, since my boat came with a LORAN and I ad.ed a GPS chartplotter I am happy to have the redundancy. If the LORAN fails I will probably not replace it as the GPS is reliable enough for my needs.
Loran will be with us as long as the grumpy old men are out there. Hell, they will continue to direct each other in tds till hell freezes over, and then some - even if there isn't a workin transmitter left this side of eternity.
it's like a first born language. As long as there is one other "local" out there who speaks it, old men will continue to talk to each other with it.
Let me make this more direct. The future of LORAN has absolutely nothing to do with it's maritime application. If it were only for the maritime application LORAN woud be dead. The total justification for continuing LORAN is for the commercial aviation applicaton GPS is quite adequate by itself for maritime use. The LORAN system is being upgraded to continue its use for at least 10 years.
Unfortunately, your statement that commercial aviation is the only reason for LORAN's continuation is not true. In fact, many GPS systems are certified for sole-navigation and commercial aviation has never used LORAN. Most instrument approaches and en-route naviation is conducted using old-fashioned VHF omnidirectional beacons, except for overwater navigation which used to be inertial but which now is mostly GPS. I've been employed in the commercial airline business for more than 20 years and we've never used LORAN.
quote:Originally posted by reellife:
Let me make this more direct. The future of LORAN has absolutely nothing to do with it's maritime application. If it were only for the maritime application LORAN woud be dead. The total justification for continuing LORAN is for the commercial aviation applicaton GPS is quite adequate by itself for maritime use. The LORAN system is being upgraded to continue its use for at least 10 years.
I remember buying my first GPS as a backup to LORAN which would be taken down for maintenance on Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons, etc. with alarming frequency. The cost to operate LORAN is insignificant (>$20M/year) in the grand scheme of things and it does provide a useful backup navigation system.
I still have LORAN on my boat, but never use it....WAAS GPS is the real deal.
Regarding grumpy old men...if you're lucky, you'll get to live this long...if you're really lucky, you'll have half as much fun
on a sidenote: My GPS is ten yrs. old. I found that using my loran when plugging in numbers of a location I was never to is more accurate than plugging in long./lat. into the GPS. Once at a location, saving location in memory, my GPS is then very accurate in returning to that spot.
What is the future of Loran??? 
