The Goose Gazette The newsletter of the Wild Goose Association, the international loran radionavigation forum. Volume 90-2 - News of the Spring, 1990 WGA Charter President's Message - Jim Culbertson User Contact; Loran Technological Developments "The Wild GooseAssociation is a For some time now I have been on the who have previously indicated they professional organization of individuals ;oapbox preaching that WGA must seek would help will soon be set to work. I and organizations having an interest in ~utand maintainclose contactwith the am sure everyone will turn-to and help loran radionavigation and who wish to :rowing Loran-C user community us make the 1990 Journal successful. foster and preserve the art of loran. It is worldwide. The WGA has takenseveral named after the majestic bird that nitiatives to this end and I believe it is I am becoming concerned that we need to navigates thousands of miles with timely to review what has become of this redirect some effort back toward our unerring accuracy. Its membership sffort and what more should be done. technical roots in loran. With technical represents many interests including those literature focusing on GPS Navstar, the of planners, promoters, designers We initiated the "Manufacturers'Cardn relatively mature loran system tends to and users of loran equipment program whereby purchasers of new take a back seat. Because there are very throughout the world." loran equipment mailed in a special post few government loran contracts being let, 3rd for information on WGA. The most new loran technological response has been encouraging. The developments are being made in the program has resulted in many new private sector and, for competitive WGA Technical members and has provided the reasons, are closely guarded. We can Association with a linkto the user easily be lulled into believing that Symposium on track: community. We established three special nothing significant in loran is taking October 23-25,1990, User Committees to focus on surface place. The opposite is really true and transportation, marine navigation and the WGA must become more active in in Long Beach, CA aviation interests, to identify specific encouraging members to bring these needs of these groups. The Editor of the developments to the forefront. I appeal Goose Gmetre has done a commendable to WGA members involved in Jim Alexander, 1990 convention job in publishing excellent articles and developing loran technology to submit chairman, reports the preparations for information of interest to the loran user papers for the Symposium, prepare sho the October 23-25 WGA Technical community. And looking ahead, an entire rt articles for periodicals and technical Symposium are proceeding apace. The half- day session will be devoted to users publications, publish in the WGA Call for Papers is on the street; call John during the forthcoming convention in Journal and help surface technical issues Beukers if you have not received yours. Long Beach, CA, October 23-25 1990. that can be shared and built upon. Let'sget those abstracts in! You have until July 1to submit the abstract,and The one remaining effort that I believe is In spite of some recent editorials to the until September 1to get busy and write needed to complete our commitmentto contrary, Loran-C is far from a dead or the actual paper! the membership is the publication of the antiquated system. Its user population is Journal. In between his many other expanding faster than any other JoAnne Culbertson has takenon the task efforts, our Secretary John Beukers has radionavigation system in the world. of a spouses' program. There are loads beenslowly pecking away at getting this Coverage is expanding and recently both of activities in Long Beach near the hotel, valuable document published. He Venezuela and the United Kingdom and JoAnne is planning additional informs us that he has the administrative made significant decisions in favor of structured events for Tuesday October structure of WGA up and runningon a Loran-C. We, the members, need to push 23. If you have specific interests or "386machine" and now will be focusing ongoing technological issues out in front suggestions, please call JoAnne or Jim,at more of his attention to the Journal. He where they can be examined and 714-531-7974. needs lots of help, however, and the many improved upon through the iterative individuals (members and non-members) process that continues to be successful. 2 The Goose Gazette Spring, 1990 The Goose Gazette is an official Oops! We Goofed. UPS Terrestrial publication of The Wild Goose Association (WGA). Period of A Correction: UPS and its subsidiary I1 Morrow, Inc. publication is quarterly, with cutoff dates are testing an integrated data In the Winter, 1990 issue, we referred to of 1 March for the Winter issue, 1 June transmission and Loran-C tracking for the Spring issue, 1 September for the the World Aeronautical Radio system for ground vehicles. Using the Conference (WARC-92) by misteak. The Summer issue and 1 December for the system, UPS dispatchers can optimize real name is World Administrative Fall issue. routes and save time and fuel. Knowing Radio Conference (still WARC-92) . more precise arrival times at the loading WGA members are encouraged to w.1 dock increases efficiency by permitting submit material for publication. better planning of the loading and Materials should be sent directly to the unloading process. Editor. All other correspondence for the WGA should be addressed to the Association address below. An Editorial Your editor takes advantage of the Gazette "soapbox"to make a few remarks: Editor: Robert W. Lilley 6393 Radford Road Athens, Ohio 45701 Recently, many of us seem to be "shifting gears," working more on the applications or (614) 592-1282 institutional aspects of Loran-Crather than on basic technicaldevelopments. Our upcoming WGA Technical Symposium emphasizes this shift in its very title. Publication Office There is absolutely nothing wrong with highlighting Loran-C uses and the need for Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center user education; the WGA, by its charter, seeks to represent all facets of the loran art Athens, Ohio 45701 and science. What does create some concernis the temptation to go too far, reducing (614) 593-1514 the visibility of ongoing and potential scientificand technical advances. Fax: (614) 593-1604 fieaviation community has produced RTCA Minimum Operational Performance Circulation: 619 USICanada Specifications (MOPS) and a Technical Standard Order (TSO) defining requirements br airborne Loran-Creceivers. Many manufacturers are in the certification and 65 Foreign ~roductioncycles for new-generation receivers to meet these standards. Both of these actors might be misread to indicate that research and technicaladvances in the Board of Directors .eceiver design area are stifled or dead. J. F. Culbertson President D. C. Scull Vice President The bloom is not off the technical rose yet! Advances in receiver sensitivity and J. M. Beukers Secretary xocessing power can and should render today's standards obsolete, and challenge C. S. Andren Treasurer )resent-day habits relating to approved Loran-Cuses in the air and elsewhere. Xrect-ranging, multi-chain and differential loran, loran as a sensor for J. 0. Alexander W. N. Dean K. Enerstad lependent-surveillance systems, and loran's latent communications capability should L. F. Fehlner J. D. Illgen 111 remain on the technical agenda! So should transmitter and monitoring systems and jrocedures optimization. So should propagation study and measurement and the V. L. Johnson R. W. Lilley leal of a receiver which can provide necessary alerts without ground monitors or H. E. Mam E. L. McGann hort-period database updates. So should constructive, well-considered but M. J. Moroney W. L. Polhemus lard-hitting policy initiatives insisting that the cost-effective benefits of loran be J. P. Van Etten R. Wiener ecognized and realized. Ye must work to keep the bloom on the rose, but the opportunities are here andnow. rhe WGA Technical Symposium is the ideal forum for rifle-shot insertion of new THE WILD GOOSE ASSOCIATION evelopments and ideas into the very audience which can further develop or apply P. 0.Box 556 hem. This is a challenge to the loran community to fill up those technology sessions Bedford, Massachusetts 01730 ~ithquality papers and then follow up with full implementation of the good ideas and (516) 862-7500 olicies. Don't be shy ... this system of ours is in many ways the very best there is, and re can make it even better! Spring, 1990 The Goose Gazette 3 Member Profile Loran Calibrates Loran-C Postage Daniel C. Cross Wind Profiler Stamp? Daniel Carroll Cross is President of by James F. Morrissey The Secretary has followed up on the Morgan Associates, Inc., a family-owned suggestion for a U.S. postage stamp to real estate development corporation in (Thefollowing is excerpted porn a commemorate the completion of the the state of Maryland. Morgan presentation sent in by Jim Morrissey of U.S. continental coverage of Loran-C. A Associates is creating Abell's Landing, a the Geophysics Labomtor): Hansconz conversation with the American development in St. Mary's County, Air Force Bnse in Massachrisetts. Ed.] Philatelic Society was not too Maryland. Mr. Cross supervises all encouraging. The U.S . Postal Service aspects of site planning and engineering. The introduction of wind profiling radars currently receives twenty thousand over the past several years has provided requests per year and are currently Formerly, Dan was Special Projects a new technique for a wide variety of working on the 1992 program. There is a Advisor to Cong. Denny Smith applications requiring wind citizen stamp advisory committee (R-Oregon). He was assigned primarily measurements. One of these associated with the U.S. postal service to procurement and operational test and applications is at missile ranges to that meets four times a year to consider evaluation issues at DoD and FAA, provide data for missile launches.