Presentation on eLORAN at NYSE

[jimh]

At the New York Stock Exchange there was a recent presentation about eLORAN that was part of the conference "Secure Timing: The Financial Industry's Critical Network Element." A recording of the presentation is available at

http://livestream.com/ICENYSE/JuniperWebcast

I recommend skipping the 75-minutes of introductory remarks from various political appointees holding Secretary-level position in a number of government departments, and scrolling ahead to the real information presented by Mr. Charles Shue of UrsaNav. Mr. Shue's background and achievements are available from

http://www.ursanav.com/about-us/leaders ... schue-iii/

Mr. Shue speaks at about 01:13:30 in the recording. His remarks are very interesting. He refers to a live demonstration of an eLORAN receiver getting eLORAN signals from the former USCG LORAN Support Unit WILDWOOD in southern New Jersey--apparently one of the former LORAN sites that has not yet been destroyed by explosives by the Obama administration--transmitting at a power of 360-kW effective radiated power.

Mr. Shue proposes using four former LORAN sites at WILDWOOD (NJ), DANA (IN), BOISE CITY (OK), and FALLON (NV), which would transmit at a power of 1-MegaWatt ERP (about + 4.4 dB compared to the demonstration site power of 360-kW) and would cover the continental 48-states.

Mr. Shue points out that the cost to manufacture and launch ONE GPS Phase-III satellite would fund the eLORAN system and its operation for TWENTY years.

In the recording, the slides that accompany Mr. Shue's presentation are not seen, but they are available online from:

http://www.ursanav.com/wp-content/uploa ... PR2016.pdf

I recommend watching the presentation in one browser window while in a second window you scroll through the power point slides. The slides provide much more technical information and are an excellent supplement to Mr. Shue's remarks. Rather than trying to convey in shortened form the presentation, I recommend watching it and seeing it yourself. This is the beauty of our modern information age. We do not need to have information interpreted for us; we can get it first-hand, as if we had attended the presentation ourselves.

[jimh]

At the present time, there is only one USA eLORAN station in operation, at WILDWOOD. Even if the four stations suggested were operational, eLORAN could typically only provide timing information, not position. For position, three signals need to be received at one location, so at least ten stations would be needed to cover the 48-states.

As mentioned in the presentation, the present cost of an eLORAN receiver is high compared to GPS receivers. The UrsaNav model 152A receiver with an antenna sells for about $4,500 today.

[porthole]

In the long run, it would have been less expensive to just maintain the LORAN system that was in place.

[jimh]

It would have been much better in the SHORT RUN to not start blowing up LORAN facilities with explosives.

The existing LORAN-C was already in the process of being updated to eLORAN when the Obama administration began. The conversion was said to be about 80-percent done. At that point some luddite in the Obama administration decided to begin to destroy perfectly good existing LORAN facilities with explosive charges in a crusade to save the $13-million annual operating cost. But that damage cannot be undone. It was such a stupid act that to this day I wonder if there were some underlying political revenge or similar motivation behind it, or if it was truly just ignorance and stupidity that led to this waste.

It is only recently that government came to realize that eLORAN as an alternative to GPS for precision timing could be a very useful asset. While eLORAN may never become a replacement for the ultra-low-cost GPS receivers available now in your wristwatch, eLORAN could be extraordinarily useful for navigation on larger ships, where the size and cost of an eLORAN receiver would not be a burden.

[porthole]

I really hated having to trash my Furuno LC-90 MK-II's, probably one of best consumer LORAN C navigators made.

Well - I'll skip how I really feel about the LORAN-C demise, for it is very parallel to your views, and I'll just get get censored :-)
The dive and fish boats here in the NY Bight area were very vocal during the comment period back in the day.

Great Britain has been using eLORAN as a back up for over a year now. Do they know something we don't?