[Boatanchors] LightSquared - Loran

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi,

I acquired my RAK-7 specifically to play with LORAN at 100 kc. I had a
bad attitude toward regens (three very poor samples was enough for me)
and I would have not taken the RAK home if I had known it was a regen.
It was dark when I picked it up. When I got time to play with it the
next day that big, honkin' knob labeled "Regeneration" was pretty
obvious. So..."what the heck" I gave the RAK a dance. Now I have the RAK
and an SW-3 and I have another HF regen under construction using the RAL
as a guide (slow progress). I'm not interested in a one lunger.

I ended up using it for listening to maritime and shore station traffic
much more than the LORAN. I have recently dusted it off and started
using it again. After all these years it is still running on all the
original parts!! I used interpolation to dial up WWVB and it's right
where the dial says it should be <G>. I hear some of the transmitters
doing experimental work near 600 meters and down around 170 kc, too. I
thought I heard an NDB or two but I don't know what I should be
listening for with those. When 600 meters gets here the RAK and the R-23
will have a new lease on life.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On Thu, 2012-10-11 at 23:57 -0700, Drew P. wrote:
> Richard Knoppow wrote:
> 
> "I used to hear Loran-A all the time, it had what music
> people call a phasing or flanging effect so that the pitch
> of the pulses ran up and down cyclically.  It was a great
> signal for testing noise limiters. I could just barely hear
> a Loran-C station on my BC-779 but I did not attempt to make
> any sort of LW antenna. I have no idea where that station
> was but the Loran-A station must have been in San Pedro
> because it was consistently very strong both day and night."
> 
> In my location, 2 stations could be received on one channel; these of course had different pulse repetition rates. One transmitter's pulses "catching up to and passing by" the other transmitter's pulses gave that distinctive rise-and-fall sound or flanging.  On another channel, I could only hear one transmitter; there the signal sounded "flat".
> 
> Drew