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US Coast Guard Intends To Kill LORAN-C

Posted by kdawson on from the we-will-always-have-signals-from-the-sky dept.

adaviel writes "LORAN (Long Range Aids to Navigation) is an electronic navigation system using low-frequency radio, used by many boaters (including me) before GPS. It has an approximately 200m accuracy and is a functional replacement in case GPS fails or the US implements selective availability in time of war. The US Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security, intends to turn it off starting February 8." This is in spite of $160M spent on modernizing LORAN stations over the past 10 years.

18 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. I am the Loran by hguorbray · · Score: 4, Funny

    and I speak for the Cs -I mean Seas

    -I'm just sayin'

    1. Re:I am the Loran by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      +1 doctor seuss?

    2. Re:I am the Loran by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Good point. With LORAN being shut down and the US government desperate for quick cash, there may finally be some surplus cesium-beam standards for sale on eBay that aren't completely dead.

    3. Re:I am the Loran by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Funny

      and I speak for the Cs -I mean Seas

      -I'm just sayin'

      Are you going to pick yourself up by your pants and fly through a gap in the clouds?

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
  2. Loran-C? by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 3, Funny

    What's Loran-C some strange C dialect? Did Loran-C++ eat its lunch or something.

  3. Cost/benefit by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Funny

    LORAN (Long Range Aids to Navigation) is an electronic navigation system using low-frequency radio, used by many boaters (including me) before GPS. It has an approximately 200m accuracy and is a functional replacement in case GPS fails or the US implements selective availability in time of war.

    Wait -- they're talking about decommissioning a redundant technology and relying on one that the military spends millions on and is mission-critical to its functioning (and thus in no danger of suddenly going offline)? Why is this sudden outbreak of common sense being maligned? I wish our government did this more often!

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  4. LISTEN, TERRORIST-COMMIE LOVERS !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    This is WAR and if we the good guys have to turn off some shit so you the bad guys can't use it to fuck with us good guys then that's just too fucking bad !! That's what I say. And FOX NEWS is behind me !! Anyone not is a fucking treasonous traitor !! Are you a fucking treasonous traitor ??

    1. Re:LISTEN, TERRORIST-COMMIE LOVERS !! by MrNaz · · Score: 5, Funny

      As trollish as your post is, I would wager that it is more than a little likely that LORAN is being turned off precisely because it is a beacon based system that selective availability cannot be implemented over. There is no way that LORAN could be used to provide positioning data to select parties.

      Personally, I don't think this is a safe thing to do. Maritime equipment is notorious for being long lived. I would highly doubt that there are no boats that are still dependent on legacy systems. Well, I guess this is one way to ensure that they upgrade.

      Feb 8:
      First Officer: Captain! We've lost navigational systems!
      Captain: Damn! That can mean only one thing. Arm photon torpedoes!
      First Officer: Err.... we're a 32 year old fishing trawler and we don't have any...
      Captain: Quiet! There's no time! Transfer engineering to the bridge and make sure we've got warp if we need it.

      --
      I hate printers.
  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Complimentary Systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a complimentary system sounds like: "My, what a nice position. That lat/long looks so good on you."

    Of course, such a system would only be useful as a complement.

  7. Kill LORAN? by steveha · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Coast Guard is going to "kill" LORAN? This choice of words worries me. What if LORAN decides to strike first, out of self-defense?

    "LORAN", "SKYNET", both are short words with an 'N' in them. COINCIDENCE? I think not!

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  8. Re:The name Bowditch comes to mind by dziban303 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who would operate a 600ft ship in coastal waters ?

    Sailors, I guess.

  9. Both Glonass and GPS are space based and share... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Glonass cannot truly be considered a viable backup for GPS since both are space based and subject to space based attacks from aliens, or from changing laws of physics, or from massive asteroid attacks.

  10. Re:hmm by Penguinshit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your post is a trawl.

    --

    I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...

  11. Re:hmm by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your friend wasn't the navigator on the USS San Francisco by any chance, was he? ;)

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  12. Re:Both Glonass and GPS are space based and share. by FlyByPC · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah, yes -- but Loran-C stations are no doubt being phased out due to their comparative vulnerability to raptor attacks. Just ask Randall Munroe!

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  13. Re:200 Meters sounds pretty good compared to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    1 nanometer?

    Holy crumbling pears Batman, that's accurate!

  14. Re:Sunk cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I suspect that the sumitter (or probably kdawson) didn't want to torpedo his own post by including such a lame pun.

    -mobby_6kl