Juris Graney
Staff writer
They're switching it off.
The Long Range Navigation system (LORAN-C) operated by the Canadian Coast Guard in St. Anthony will cease transmission on Tuesday when the control and monitoring station is closed.
While it's been known since January that the station would be closing and six federal jobs would be leaving St. Anthony, no date had been set for the termination.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirmed late last week that a private staff-only ceremony would be held tomorrow but could not reveal any further details at the time of going to press.
LORAN-C is a part of the 'Aids to Navigation' program and one of Canada's long-range navigation systems that consisted of land-based transmitters organized into chains, which sends signals that can be converted into latitude and longitude data providing navigational data at better than 0.25 nautical mile accuracy.
Developed by the United States, Atlantic-based stations were set up in 1942 during WWII.
After the war the US Coast Guard retained the system for merchant and military use, Russia introduced their own similar system providing a chain of stations allowing radio technology coverage of North America, Alaska and Russia.
The introduction of space-based Global Positioning System has rendered the system obsolete.
The US Coast Guard terminated broadcast of its domestic signal on February 8 including the six Alaska-based stations after their government rolled back funding under the 2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.
The Marine Communications and Traffic Centre operated by Coast Guard in St. Anthony will remain.
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