[Boatanchors] LightSquared

[Drew P.]

Bry Carling wrote:

"what was the radio location signal we use to hear on 160 meters?
I can't remember if I use to hear that in england or here in the united states.  it sounded like 'beedly-beep, beedly-beep' all of the time and it caused quite a lot of QRM for radio amateurs."

Not sure what it might have been in England, but here in the U.S. we had the Ratta-tatta-tatta-tatta of good old LORAN-A. In a way, I miss those signals, they had an almost mesmerizing sound in an obtuse sort of way.  Their presence greatly reduced the scope of 160 meter operation in my area, where we could run only 50 watts in the segment 1800 to 1825 and 25 watts in the segment 1825 to 1850. This cause most operators to shun 160 and I used to operate there with an ARC-5 type set on AM, and could work the eastern seaboard with a modest antenna and little QRM to contend with.  Oh, the good old days.

Drew