[Lowfer] WMS beacon still off

[Jim]

> I saw someone say on here once that the NDBs were going to be allowed to
> fade away...not bring back into service if one fails.  Anyone know if that
> is truly the position?

I exchanged a couple of e-mails with a guy who was involved in training 
helicopter pilots for the military until recently. He said they still train 
on NDB navigation and that their basic position was that GPS is nice but you 
don't want to bet your life on it. They also go to the trouble to set up LF 
NDBs "in theater" during major operations--something it doesn't seem like 
they'd go to the trouble to do just from "momentum".

I'd also have to think that with all the discussion about a "war in space" and 
stuff like that, that there would be some desire to keep "Plan B" (which 
doesn't depend on satelites) in place at least at some level.

With tight budgets, I could see them being viewed as "expendable" for now. But 
hopefully they'll be around for a while. So far as I've seen, there's no 
formal policy to retire them or phase them out.

73,
Jim W4JBM