New navigation aid?

[Captain Kong]

New Navigation System Amid Fears Of GPS Outage

Britain becomes the first country to set up a system which will be used to help ships navigate in the event of a GPS outage.



09:51, UK,
Friday 31 October 2014





Dover
One of the stations is at Dover, covering one of the busiest shipping lanes

An array of ground-based radio stations designed to help ships stay on track in the event of a GPS outage have been activated in Britain.


The seven stations overlook the sea from Aberdeen in the north to Dover on the south coast, and can beam low-frequency pulses at vessels to help them avoid collisions.

Vessels usually rely on the GPS satellite system to determine their locations, but temporary outages can be caused by solar storms and people using jamming devices.

The system is a variation of the Long Range Navigation technology used by trans-Atlantic convoys during the Second World War.


ESA Launches Galileo GPS Satellites
A rocket carrying a GPS satellite blasts off (File pic)

Several other countries are considering whether to set up their own versions of the system, including South Korea, which was jammed by its northern neighbour in 2012.

The signal from one of the ground radio stations is one million times stronger than a signal from a satellite.

The system is likely to be extended to the west coast and Ireland within six years.

The system is owned and operated by the General Lighthouse Authorities, which said in a statement: "Signals are vulnerable to interference and both deliberate and accidental jamming, which is causing increasing concern because of the wide availability of GPS jammers online."

Jammers can be purchased for as little as £30.

It added: "With this network we'll be able to guarantee the seamless operating of shipping even if GPS goes down."

[Ivan Cloherty]

Looks like we're going backwards towards the days of Loran, D/F, Decca navigator and the magnetic compass. Get your seaboots ready lads, looks like our time is coming again

[Chris Isaac]

In an emergency.....
Try

LOOKING OUT OF THE BLOODY WINDOWS !

The only thing a navigator needs to remember then is that the nearest point of land is generally beneath you.

[Don Rafferty]

. Get your seaboots ready lads, looks like our time is coming again

Right, I've polished up my pencils, sharpened my sextant 'n sent the leadline off to be calibrated..................

[Nigel Smith]

My sextant and Norries Table are dusted off, all I need is a compass, a chronometer, and a pencil and I'm ready to go. When we had Decca and Loran they were only (supposed to be) secondary aids to navigation (very useful at times), though I will admit that the radar set cannot be discounted and for as long as I was at sea there was always radar. The early Decca's were huge and required quite a bit of 'warm up' time, but once operational were very reliable. The only downside was when those down below changed gennys without notice, the brief period of 'no power' sent the screen into a bit of a frenzy (always seemed to happen in a busy shipping lane ) and you were left with lots of pretty patterns on the screen.

I will ensure my bags are packed and ready for when the satnav system goes down

[Braid Anderson]

#5...Yes, but weren't those dials lovely colours?

[Ivan Cloherty]

#5...Yes, but weren't those dials lovely colours?

red, green and purple if I remember correctly. A great boon when rock dodging in the fog and no radar and only a magnetic compass, thought it was a great luxury.

[Captain Kong]

They were the old Spiders jerking around.
I was on ships with no Nav Aids, just a magnetic compass, a chronometer and sextant. all same as Captain Cook, we still got there and back. London Greek FORTS,
The only Radar we had on the old BEECHFIELD one of `Savages`,[ I still think that is a wonderful name for a ship owner,]
I was the boy and had to stand on the focsle head with a bucket of pebbles in THICK fog. Throw the pebble, splash, OK .
Clunk, shout , Ship ahead.
Cheers
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

You'll remember the 'Levenpool' then Brian, all she had was a magnetic compass, chronometer and sextant, no radar, no gyro, an echo sounder that was past its sell by date, a D/f from Noah and a steam whistle blown every two minutes from Brest to Dover, no need to slow down on her

[Captain Kong]

I was with the Levenpool in Rotterdam Christmas 1956 when I was on the Dunedin Star, , they had just found the remains of a body in the fresh water tank in the after peak, six months after a Glasgow dry dock, they were all ill and wanted to pay off.
All the London Greeks I was on only had those, mag compass sextant and chron. NO radars. etc,
It is amazing today with all those collisions and groundings. Makes you wonder what kind of Navigators they are producing today.
Brian,, just off to have his Wheaties.