Alaska LORAN C System Termination

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Coast Guard LORAN Station Tok turns off their signal Feb. 8, 2010.
The LORAN system was terminated after it was not funded in the FY2010 budget.
Video by Petty Officer 1st David Mosley.
Additional information about the termination of the LORAN system can be found at coastguardnews....

[@Mainsail76]

I hope everyone doesn't one day regret that all of the "old" technology was thrown out with the garbage.

[@itmeng]

Hope we are reconsidering loran c. Last I checked don't the Chinese now have anti satellite weapons now? Loran worked great even in the deepest recesses and canyons where gps signals couldn't.

[@mynie]

Seems pretty shortsighted, eh?

[@tc1uscg]

Paul, just like in communciations. Morse Code/CW was slow, but reliable. Storms, static bursts, EMP/EMI, didn't interfer with the signal enough to stop the ability of some operator to copy the message. In 1994 when the Coast Guard stopped "listening" for SOS's, it was said that CW's time had come and gone, just like people said the same thing about LORAN stations and the service it provided. I'm sure in our life time, we see this was a mistake.

[@sonus289]

really think we need to bring back loran

[@jarettrobak]

someday they'll regret this

[@shawnstam]

very true

[@thatfeeble-mindedboy]

And I haven’t seen any evidence of measures taken to preserve these facilities in such a condition that would make future reactivation easier,faster, more reliable, and orders of magnitude less expensive. I wouldn’t want to have my name be what pops up in a search of who signed the last orders regarding one of these stations, where any steps taken for long-term preservation would be referenced, and researchers found no such references. I picture this little 72 year old man in his coveralls puttering around in his workshop, having retired from the service 12 years prior, and basically not given it a single thought since, when his wife pops her head through the door and says “There’s some people at the door from Homeland Security and the Department of Defense that just want to talk to you for a minute ...”...