Loran to go private?
Loran is the land based positioning system that many claim can provide an alternative to GPS. Being a terrestrial system it is less likely to suffer from jamming or other interference and so could provide a reliable back-up for the satellite based GPS.
With this in mind there have been moves to re-establish a modern version of Loran called eLoran which would back up the high dependency which is now placed on GPS.
In the US, which pioneered the Loran system funds have been allocated to update and upgrade the Loran system as a back-up. In Europe the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) in the UK has modernised the Anthorn station in the UKK but it is thought that both the French and the Norwegian Loran transmitting stations will close down. This will put the whole European Loran project in jeopardy but now there is discussion about the system being transferred to a private operator.
In a statement the GLA said “We are diligently investigating the potential transition of UK and European eLoran services to a fully commercial operation. A viable solution is sought which can provide eLoran as a sustainable and cost-effective backup system for GPS, enabling the combination of GPS and eLoran to provide resilient Positioning, Navigation and Time (PNT) for mariners and users in other sectors.”
It appears that the transition to making Loran a commercial operation will involve the Earth Star consortium which has proposed a method of maintaining the synchronisation of the UK eLoran transmissions from Anthorn to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), synchronisation that would otherwise be lost in the absence of timing control from France after the end of 2015. “Earth Star may be willing as a first step towards commercialisation to implement this solution to lock Anthorn transmissions to UTC, at no cost to the GLA, as a basis of a future commercial resilient timing service for the UK and Ireland.”
The two French transmitter and the four Norwegian ones are scheduled to be closed down and dismantled in the near future which would make the modern Loran inoperatable. The GLA say they will continue to engage with Earth Star to seek ways in which other Loran transmitters in Europe can be maintained on air and synchronised, in order also to maintain a resilient position and navigation capability for the UK and Ireland, with the potential for future operation as a commercial service.
Earth Star is a consortium of UK and US industries that have connections with the Loran system.
By Dag Pike
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