Shutting off LORAN was a
ghastly mistake. Sailors, especially on the Great Lakes, were
furious. Afterwards, many stations were scrapped, then there
were orders to not wreck any more stations. There is a
backward compatible version called LORAN E supposedly
undergoing tests. LORAN works fine in urban canyons and other
places GPS can't reach. I believe it will work indoors in some
circumstances. I worked on TACAN transmitters, the GRN-9
during my time in the Air Force, as well as the MRN-7 and 8
ILS system. Tuning the SAL-89 klystron required patience and
reaching behind with 12 KV nearby to make the tuning
adjustments was a bit unnerving, even though it was well
isolated and shielded from contact. I won't forget climbing
the tower in the middle of the night to change the tachometer
generator on the antenna either. I made the last voice
transmission on the NDB at the outer marker of Griffiss AFB
before turning it off. I was officially trained in ground
radio but short staffing allowed me to transition to navaids.
After a couple months, my craft code was changed to match my
work. Maybe not kosher, but in 1972 if they needed to
overlook details, they did.
B. Gentry, KA2IVY
Our Shut Down blunder was Loran C.
K4CHE
On 12/4/2025 5:40 PM, Charlie L. wrote:
The rate of NDB shutdowns may be slowing or stopping. It is still the least expensive navigation aid out there, and pilots still like a needle that swings around and says to fly 'thataway', as opposed to discerning what his screens tell him.. Small municipal and county airfields can afford an NDB with minimal expense and maintenance, compared to an ILS. The FAA is also backing off on turning off VOR and TACAN equipment, a mountain top VOR near me slated for shutdown has been resurrected and money spent on improvements. Apparently the military is also finding out TACAN can not be fooled like GPS. The only difference in a standard VOR/TACAN station, VORTAC, and a VOR/DME only (Distance Measuring Equipment) is the rotating antenna is turned off and power reduced to 1KW out. When the solid state second generation VORTAC came online in the mid 80's, the TACAN ran at 5KW out, the same as the old tube set that used a SAL89 Klystron with 12KV on the cathode, but the fancy solid state system started blowing amplifiers, of which three were 10 at 500 watts each, fed by a 1 to 10 splitter at 100 watts in, and then into a 10:1 combiner for 5KW out, but they started to burn up and it was too expensive to fix, so reduce power to 1KW. GPS still cannot be used for a precision approach landing due to ground reflections, which are multiplied on an approach over water, so V/UHF ILS gear is still the norm, the latest model being installed right now the ILS 420. It has only two adjustments, the rest are software. A few years ago, an ILS could have 100 pots to turn to align it and its monitors.
Probably the biggest failure in the tank radios depicted in Fury, was in the crystals. The crystal used in those radios was notorious for going bad, many not even making it across the pond to the ETO, just going bad in transit. I had a complete unused set for that radio in the felt lined box, and checked all 100 of them, only two worked. I swapped them all to the new AF4K crystal guy for a good 160 meter crystal.
Charlie in NC
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