[time-nuts] European LORAN-C

paul swed paulswedb at gmail.com
Wed Jul 27 21:21:31 UTC 2011


Sorry to hear pictures would be something to see.
So slowly but surely loran C in Europe is going away.

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Marco IK1ODO <ik1odo at spin-it.com> wrote:

> At 17:37 26/07/2011, you wrote:
>
>> In message <20110726173114.**63txv1m944ss00ss at webmail.fc.**up.pt<20110726173114.63txv1m944ss00ss at webmail.fc.up.pt>>,
>> asmagal at fc.up.pt
>>  writes:
>>
>> >Would someone tell me, please, if the Master, at Sellia Marina,
>> >or the Slave X, at Lampedusa, of the 79900 Mediterranean Chain
>> >are still in operation.
>>
>> As far as I know, they are not, and have not been since the USCG
>> left them approx 20 years ago.
>>
>
> I confirm by direct experience. I went to Sellia Marina on Dec. 30th, 1997.
> The station was almost abandoned, and had been handled to the Italian Coast
> Guard since several months.
> One of the two 300 kW transmitters had been cannibalized, and the other one
> was out of service with a defective cooling system. The antenna mast was in
> good shape, and the equipment, including the atomic clocks, was switched
> off. I was impressed by the station control computer (a PDP-8). The station
> timer was also out of order and needed extensive service.
> At the time, the Turkish station was out of service, the mast was down
> because of a tornado. A replacement mast, arrived from Japan, was never
> erected. The two transmitters in Lampedusa Island were off service, one
> cannibalized, in the other a rat exploded into the HV power supply.
> The Spanish station in Estartit was closed, and the Italian Coast Guard had
> not been able to inspect it.
> The Sellia Marina mast has been dismantled since then. I still have the
> schematic diagrams of the transmitters, I had to restore them in operation,
> but the project was cancelled. The extimated cost of the transmitting tubes
> (mainly old glass triodes by ITT), to be purchased to restore the
> transmitters and have a reserve for the network, was then approx 1 million
> Euro.
>
> So, R.I.P. chain 7990 :-(
>
> 73 - Marco IK1ODO
>
>
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