MadMariner feature: Whither Loran?

Well written Tim !

Two representatives from the USCG was quite clear when they spoke at our yacht club three weeks ago about DSC & Rescue 21 … older EPIRB frequencies are no longer support, and Loran support will be next to go, buy a GPS receiver. When I asked about eLoran … they said “not happening”, had it in a memo from the previous week.

Over in Panbo many comments were posted when I wrote the above news delivered to our Yacht Club (Masthead Cove Yacht Club, Long Island, New York). I think I recall Ben mentioning that much of the money for the upgrades has already been spent, and many posters saying the USCG believes someone else should pick this up, given other user communities benefit tremendously more than boating from the timing source and backup features of eLoran.

Personally … I believe there are other backups for timing signals that can be used on a temporary basis and therefore airlines may be the biggest benficieary of eLoran (as the FCC moves to start using GPS to define lanes in the sky rather than radio transmitters) , and that should be where the responsibility goes … but see no reason why not keep the Loran system with the experts that have maintained it all these decades.

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